--- title: Best Practices date: 2026-08-11T12:04:00-04:00 author: Tierra Collins canonical_url: "https://brand.umd.edu/applying-the-brand/email/best-practices" section: Pages --- # Best Practices *Email Marketing* **Best Practices** In addition to the [essential email guidelines](https://brand.umd.edu/applying-the-brand/email), use these tips, tricks and insights to create strong email communications. # Subject Lines The subject line is the first thing your audience sees. Having the wrong one could lead to your email being overlooked in your recipients’ inbox. Follow these guidelines to create compelling subject lines that will help cut through the noise and lead to higher open rates. **Avoid using all caps or capitalizing every word in your subject line**. Overusing all caps and unnecessary punctuation can trigger spam filters and can seem aggressive. Instead, capitalize only the first letter and proper nouns. Good: This is a good subject line Bad: This Is A Bad Subject Line --- **Keep subject lines short and simple**. We recommend using six to 10 words to minimize the risk of your subject line being cut off. Use as few characters as necessary to give a snapshot of what your email is about. Campaign Monitor has compiled a list of “[The 15 Most Powerful Words in Subject Lines](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/power-words-in-email-subject-lines/).” Example: Calling all Terps: Let's connect! --- **Use preheaders to add valuable context to your subject lines**. Subject lines can only be so long, and in some situations, you need more details to entice your audience to open your email. That’s where a preheader comes in. A preheader is the summary text that follows a subject line when the email is viewed in an inbox. Make your subject line and preheader work together to effectively communicate the most compelling benefit of your email. This will help your email stand out and boost open rates. Similar to subject lines, they should be short and to the point. Example: Subject line: \[First Name Recipient\], you're invited! Preheader: Join us on July 26 for Terps on the Hill --- **Personalize** Depending on your email platform and what data is being captured, personalization tokens such as “First Name, Last Name” may be available and should be taken full advantage of to grab recipients' attention. According to [Campaign Monitor](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/the-really-good-guide-to-email-design-bonus-checklist/), emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Example: \[First Name Recipient\], your exclusive invite is waiting --- **Consider using emojis to add fun and creativity**. Your recipients are exposed to many emails per day, so adding an emoji can help make yours stand out. Use emojis to supplement rather than replace words to ensure your main message gets across. It is also important to test them because not every email client supports emojis, and your recipients might get a special character or a different version. Finally, avoid overusing them, which can look like spam. [Learn how to properly use emojis in subject lines](https://www.litmus.com/blog/emojis-in-subject-lines/). Example: This week ➡ Terps make great discoveries around the world 🌎 Pique your audience's attention by: - **Creating a sense of urgency.** Encourage immediate action to reduce the chances of your email being skipped over. Example: ⏲ Last chance: Terps Under 30 is next week! OR - **Creating a sense of mystery.** Entice recipients to open your message to find out more details about an upcoming event or promotion. Example: You won’t believe what’s happening next week on campus! OR - **Asking a question.** Make your subject line conversational to establish a relationship with your audience. Ask a question in your subject line and involve your subscribers in the conversation. Example: Will you help drive UMD Fearlessly Forward on March 8? [Learn how to write short and compelling subject lines](https://www.salesforce.com/products/marketing-cloud/best-practices/email-subject-line-best-practices/) # Content Now that you’ve drawn readers’ interest with a compelling subject line, encourage them to continue reading by creating content that is interesting, concise and easy to digest. Your email should have: - **A logical flow**. Placing the most important information at the top makes your content easier to navigate and skim. - **A clear and short message**. Structure your email as a “teaser” to drive subscribers to follow the email’s call to action, such as visiting your website for more information or signing up for an upcoming event. [Learn more about creating easy-to-scan content](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/email-marketing-in-the-era-of-8-second-attention-spans/). - **A consistent format**. Consistency in content layouts helps educate subscribers on what they should expect when they open your email. For example, having hyperlinks in UMD red, bolded and underlined indicates that everything in that format is clickable. - **A target audience**. Sending the right message to the right people is key in email marketing. So, it’s important to create individualized content based on audience segmentation, which leads to higher click-through rates, better email deliverability and lower unsubscribe rates. Some common ways to segment data are: - Interests: What interests have your subscribers indicated in their profiles? - Behavior: What are your subscribers clicking on or signing up for? - Geographic location - Academic year - Gender - Age # Metrics After sending your email, review your data to help you understand what worked and optimize future email marketing campaigns. Analyze the following key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your email marketing campaigns: **Open Rate** The percentage of emails that were opened by recipients. Use this KPI to measure users’ interest in your emails. \[Emails Opened / Emails Delivered\] x 100 If your open rate is low, try: - Regularly cleaning your subscriber lists - Conducting subject-line A/B testing - Resend unopened emails - Having a regular email cadence (ex.: Newsletter is sent the first Wednesday of every month) *Please note that Apple’s email privacy protections have made it more difficult to accurately measure and track open rates.* --- **Click-Through Rate** The percentage of people who open your email and click on one or more links. Use this KPI to measure how engaging your content is and how clearly your message was conveyed. \[Unique Clicks / Emails Delivered\] x 100 --- **Clicks by Link/URL** The number of unique clicks on a link within an email. This helps identify what content is grabbing your subscriber’s attention and the quality of the flow of your email. If people are clicking only on the first link and not on your main CTA button, then you might have to readjust the flow. --- **Unsubscribe Rate** The percentage of unsubscribes per delivery. This KPI can also be used to gauge the relevance of your content and recipient interest. \[# of Unsubscribes / # of Emails Delivered\] x 100 High unsubscribe rates mean subscribers are opting out because the content is not relevant to them. When necessary, make changes to your marketing strategy such as: - Further segmenting your data - Changing the cadence of your emails - Changing your messaging - Changing your communication channel --- **Bounces** The percentage of emails that were undeliverable. Use this KPI to evaluate the health of your email list. \[Total Bounced Emails/Total Attempted Emails\] x 100 A hard bounce is when an email is no longer active or is in some way invalid. Examples: if someone has changed their email address or if the email address that was uploaded had a typo. A soft bounce is when someone’s inbox may be full, or something else is preventing the email address from going through. To keep this metric low, regularly update your contact list and upload emails accurately. [Email benchmarks by industry](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/)