100+ Tools & Tutorials to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing isn’t an easy communication method to master. You have to worry about spam, strategic timing, and finding the perfect pitch to resonate with readers. Fortunately, there’s a plethora of advice and tools specifically designed for email marketers, and we’ve compiled some of the best here. From design to deliverability, these resources have got you covered.

Email Marketing Packages

These packages offer an all-in-one solution for email marketing needs.

1. Mail Chimp: Send simple, professional HTML emails will full tracking and other great tools using Mail Chimp.
2. AWeber: Launch a permission-based marketing email campaign using AWeber, the community where email automation began.
3. iContact: Create and manage email letters, blogs, feeds, autoresponders and more with iContact.
4. GetResponse: Manage your email campaigns, and get access to tons of features including a QR code generator and a landing page creator.
5. Constant Contact: A popular email marketing platform for small businesses with educational resources including live and on-demand webinars, as well as live classes.
6. Emma: A modern email marketing system with beautifully designed templates, and great reporting tools with actionable data.
7. Mad Mimi: An affordable email marketing solution with 100% customizable email designs (no templates).
8. SendInBlue: An email marketing tool with affordable pricing tiers.
9. SimplyCast: A simple, easy to use email marketing tool built for newbies.
10. ActiveCampaign: An email marketing automation tool with split-testing functionality.

Testing

Identify problems and stay on top of the way your design renders with these tools.

11. Inbox Inspector: Use this tool from Mail Chimp to seek out problems in any email you’ve sent.
12. Email on Acid: Get a snapshot of what your email looks like in a number of different email clients.
13. MarketingSherpa Free Reports: These free helpful reports include titles like Case Study Collection: Email Deliverability, Quick Guide: Email Marketing, and Benchmark Report: 2013 Email Marketing.
14. Is Not Spam: With this service, you can test your email against different displays and spam filters.
15. EmailStatCenter: Check out the metrics at EmailStatCenter to get the lowdown on frequency, conversions, and more.
16. eDesign Optimizer: Test our your email in different programs and validate your HTML with eDesign Optimizer.
17. Post Campaign Checklist: Reflect on your email campaign and learn for next time using this checklist.
18. 10 Quick Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing: Find out why email marketing these days isn’t hitting home and what you can do to improve it.
19. Email Marketing: What to Test and How to Test: This tutorial walks you through testing for optimization.
20. Habeas: Habeas uses a rendering tool to make sure your email design holds up against services and readers.
21. Litmus: With Litmus, you can take a look at how your email will look in a number of different mail services.
22. Nine email preview tools and why you need one: Test your design with services and readers using these tools.

Analytics & Evaluation

With these resources, you’ll learn how to perfect your methods for measuring email marketing success.

23. Email Open Rates Guide: Learn how to evaluate your email open rates with this guide.
24. Integrating Email Marketing and Web Analytics: Take a look at what can be achieved when you combine website metrics with email campaigns.
25. Misinterpreting Email Marketing Statistics: Don’t let your statistics fool you-get set straight with this article.
26. Email Marketing: What to Measure: This tutorial runs down some of the numbers you should be looking into.
27. Email Chickens and Eggs: Heed this warning to be careful about comparing subscribers and non-subscribers.
28. Looking Beyond Open Rates: Look past just open rates to measure your success, and find out what else you should be concerned with in this article.
29. Grow Your Own Case Study: This tutorial runs down methods for creating your own benchmarks, testing, and more.
30. The Basics of Email Metrics: Are Your Campaigns Working?: Here’s how to tell if your emails are actually having the impact you hoped for.
31. Email Marketing Formulas: Take a look at the indicators for email success and learn how to calculate them with this guide.
32. Email Marketing Metrics That Matter: Make sure you’re covering these key metrics.

Deliverability & Reputation

Use these services to stay on top of the various reasons why your emails aren’t going through.

33. Email Deliverability Tool: Predict and correct problems with design, filtering, and blocking with this service.
34. Blacklisted IP: Stay on top of your IP addresses and find out when your IP lands on a blacklist or blocklist.
35. MX Toolbox Blacklist Check: Use this check to test your mail server IP address against 147 email blacklists.
36. Your E-Mail Is Blacklisted. Now What?: This tutorial runs down the steps you should take to get off of blacklists.
37. Between “Bounced” and “Delivered”: Learn why you should expand the definition of your delivery rates in this article.
38. How to Deliver Mail to AOL: Take these steps to make sure your email to AOL customers goes through.
39. RepCheck: This email blacklist monitoring service stays on top of the reputation of your email server and site domain.
40. Blacklist.ie: This search offers an easy way to check if your IP address is on any Irish blacklists.
41. Designing B2B Email for Deliverability: Get tips on coding, design, and testing in this article.
42. Delivery IP Monitor: Find out if your email is getting delivered, and keep an eye on blacklists with Delivery IP Monitor.

Design

Check out these tools and best practices to optimize the design of your email campaigns.

43. Image Links Versus Text Links: Consider whether you should use text, image, or HTML links.
44. Rules for Best Practice Email Design: Layout: Learn about best practices in email design in this blog post.
45. Email Design Insights From David Grenier: Get tips, mistakes, and easy ways to amp up your design in this interview.
46. 5 Design Ideas to Simplify Your Layouts: “For layouts, the idea of ‘less is more’ is about achieving better design through simplicity.”
47. 5 Golden Rules For Mobile Email Design: Learn how to design for mobile devices with this article.
48. Seven Steps to a Better Template: Use these tips to redesign your template and avoid getting blocked, blacklisted, and bounced.
49. Designing Text Emails: Follow these basic rules to make sure your text emails display properly.
50. Who Cares About Plain Text?: Read this article to find out why it’s important not to skimp on a plain text version of your email.
51. URL Design: Take a look at the details of your URLs to get better email responses.
52. Don’t Design – or Redesign – Your Email Without Reading This: This guide offers a quick and effective checklist for email campaign design.

Spam

Avoid being branded as a spammer and learn how to work with spam filters with these resources.

53. How Not to Be An Accidental Spammer: Read this guide to learn what steps you should take to avoid becoming an accidental spammer.
54. How Spam Filters Work (and how to avoid them): Learn how to get around spam filters with this guide.
55. Avoid the Spam Filter: Follow these tips to make sure your legitimate email isn’t stopped by a spam filter.
56. Consumer Attitudes to Spam: Read this report to find out what people think of spam and understand how it affects their perception of your messages.
57. Prevent False Spam Complaints: Follow these tips for avoiding false spam complaints.
58. Email Spam Test: This anti-spam utility alerts you to spam red flags before you send your message.

Mailing Lists

Get advice for building and perfecting your communication base here.

59. Mailing Lists: Why Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better: Read this blog post to consider the benefits of pruning your email list.
60. How To Build An Email List Fast: The Essential Guide: Check out this guide to building your list quickly.
61. Dos and Don’ts of Opt-in List Building: Read this article to learn about 5 things you should do and 5 things you should avoid.
62. Double Opt-in vs. Single Opt-in Stats: Consider the advantages and disadvantages of offering double opt-in on your lists.
63. 9 Things to Go in a List Welcome Message: Take a look at this article to understand what needs to be in your list welcome message.
64. Customer Email List Segmentation: In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to send campaigns to targeted subgroups of your email list.
65. Building a Quality Email List: Follow these steps to build your own high-quality email list.
66. 25 Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List: This guide from Hubspot is sure to have a strategy you can use.

Subject Line

Learn how to create a subject line readers will pay attention to, and thoughfully consider the impact this important piece of communication has on your campaign.

67. Subject Lines: What’s The Story?: In this article, you’ll get an introduction to subject lines and understand the reactions they create.
68. Subject Line Comparison: This study compares over 40 million email subject lines and ranks 20 of the best and 20 of the worst.
69. Is There a Best Email Subject Line or Send Time?: This article recommends lots of testing to get subjects and timing right.
70. How Do You Build Urgency?: In this article, you’ll learn how to build urgency through your email’s subject line.
71. 8 Simple Rules for Writing Stellar Email Subject Lines: For advice on the best fifty characters for your campaign, check out this resource.
72. Best Practices in Writing Email Subject Lines: Learn about three words to avoid in your subject line, and more great tips in this advice article.
73. Improve Your Open Rates with These 12 Subject Line Tweaks: Get a checklist and tips for writing a good subject line in this report.
74. How Spammy Subject Lines Hurt Delivery: This article considers the consequences of a spammy subject line.
75. Email Subject Lines That Work: This article runs down a number of factors and considers whether they scream spam or not.
76. Targeted Email Marketing: Put a Colon in Your Subject: Use this strategy to put the most important keywords in the front of your subject line.
77. 7 Tips for Writing Better Email Subject Lines: Improve your subject lines with this helpful resource.

Timing & Frequency

Find the sweet spot for timing your emails with the advice and tools here.

78. Frequency Caps Are Critical: Avoid customer email fatigue by limiting the amount of emails they receive from different sectors of your organization.
79. Nearly 1/3 of Opens Occur in First Hour: Learn all about best practices in timing with this guide.
80. How Much Email is Too Much?: Go beyond simple timing and consider the frequency of your emails with this resource.
81. ListMailPRO: Managed timed emails and responses with this list management tool.
82. Wondering Which Day to Send Your Emails On?: This article discusses a few thoughts on the subject of timing.
83. The Quick and the Dead: Learn why it’s important to avoid delaying emails after a subscriber’s initial signup.
84. What is the best frequency for email marketing?: Read this article to get guidance on building a good frequency strategy.
85. Insights on the Worst-Day-to-Send: Find out what one email marketer learned by sending out an email on New Year’s Day.
86. Perfect Timing: The Very Best Time to Send Email Newsletters: This article highlights the factors you should look for in timing your messages.

Conversion

Get advice for increasing the effectiveness of your email campaign here.

87. You’re Doing It Wrong: 5 Email Marketing Conversion Killers: Find out what mistakes you’re making in your email marketing.
88. 6 Ways To Improve Your E-mail Open Rates: Make your email campaign more effective by using these tips and tricks for getting people to open your email.
89. Want Better Email Conversion Rates? Try These 7 Tips: Check out this infographic to up your email conversion rates.
90. Use Email to Close the Conversion Loop: Learn how to use email as a way to seal the deal with potential customers.
91. Five Ways to Use Email to Close the Sale [PDF]: Use this article for a step-by-step guide to closing the sale with email marketing.
92. 13 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate Right Now: Follow these 3 tips to get better conversion rates from your email campaigns.
93. Net-a-Porter Ups Conversion Rate After Cutting Email Activity: Read this article to understand why sometimes less is more when it comes to getting conversions.
94. A/B Split Testing: In this article, you’ll learn how to use A/B split testing to increase conversion rates.

Tips & Advice

Get marketing advice and learn what not to do with the advice from these resources.

95. 15 Tenets of Proper Email Marketing Etiquette: Avoid making an email marketing faux pas with this advice.
96. 50 Email Marketing Tips: These tips apply to a wide variety of email marketers.
97. Stupid HTML Email Mistakes: In this post, you’ll learn about important things to avoid when designing HTML emails.
98. 5 Things to Do Before You Launch Your Next Email Campaign: Avoid brand speak and get down to person-to-person communication with this advice.
99. The Eight Deadly Sins of Email Marketing: Take a look at email mistakes and learn what not to do.
100. 6 Email Personalization Techniques That Go Beyond a Name: Use these techniques to use personalization effectively.
101. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Trick of the Day: Find out how you can get around the 255-character limit with this trick.
102. 9 Great Ways to Use Email Automation to Increase Ecommerce Revenue: Make your efforts both easier and more effective.

Information Sources

Refer to these resources to find even more ongoing advice for optimizing email campaigns.

103. The Email Experience Council: Subscriber to this site have immediate access to the latest thinking, best practices and strategies in email and digital marketing.
104. 13 Terrific Email Marketing Blogs for Email Newbies and Ninjas: Hand-picked and trusted sources for email marketing.
105. Email Marketing Warrior Forum: This discussion group talks about what works and what doesn’t in email marketing.
106. Email Marketer’s Club: Share ideas and experiences with other email marketers in this group.

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