Even for those of us who live and breathe email marketing every day, it's easy to lose sight of proven ways to elevate results. As a reminder, I've organized the top 3 items I think about every time I get an email request. Although the tips may seem basic, they provide a handy checklist when timelines are tight and your to-do list is never ending.

Email Audience Segmentation

Each time I receive a new email request, the first thing I ask is "who is this going to?" Often I hear, "just send it to everyone." As the email gatekeeper, I know that's not the best use of our list. If you send emails daily or weekly, here are two questions to ask to help keep your contact strategy in check.

• What audience segment would want to consume this information or who would be most likely to convert? Target only those people.
• What other emails are being sent? Determine if there are audience overlaps with other emails deploying in the same timeframe. Look at the few days surrounding the send. Then, prioritize emails and use your lists as exclusions for more important emails.

Dynamic Email Content and Personalization

Personalization goes beyond adding your customer's first name in the subject line (although this is still a good idea to test out). I'm going to make a guess that your email copy and imagery can seem a bit generic at times. One idea is to dynamically change content based on data. For example, change the imagery based on something you know about your customer - such as gender, their interests, or where they live (don't forget seasons can vary widely based on location). Another idea is to differ the content or offer based on your customer's past purchase behavior.

You'll also need to have a good sense of the data that is available to you. Sometimes this requires forethought to request data that might not be readily available - either from your data analysts or from your customers. For example, if there is an online lead form or email capture function on your website, use that to ask other questions about them.

Quick tip: Understand the data you have within your ESP (email service provider) and use that as often as possible.

A/B Email Testing

My mantra for email marketing is that I want to learn something from every single email I send out. This means test, test, test! As a rule, I ask ahead of time if we can test and ensure statistical significance. Something as easy as a subject line/preheader test (you are using preheaders, right?), content, imagery, time of day - the list goes on - to understand the impact to conversions and engagement. These results will provide value to future emails. If you are about to deploy and realize you haven't thought about testing, add a simple subject line or time of day test.

The most important piece of testing is making sure you have a way to track your tests and results. I have worked at a few companies where testing is done, but no one can tell me what happened and how to make our future campaigns better. A spreadsheet works just fine - make this part of the discipline of your email reporting. Another idea is to talk to your analysts to see if there are tools or conversion tracking abilities that you can tap into.

More Email Marketing Tips and Tactics

These are all simple and high level tips, but are you thinking of these every time you send an email? Make them a part of your checklist and you'll start to see improvements in your metrics and future email communications.

Interested in learning more email marketing tips and tactics? Download 4 Email Practices of Marketing Masters for valuable email marketing statistics - and how to apply them to your marketing strategies.

About the Author

Cheryl Perisic is a Senior Manager of email and mobile communications for Life Time Fitness, The Healthy Way of Life Company. With over 10 years of experience in digital and loyalty marketing, Cheryl has worked in both the agency and client worlds including Regis Salons, Starwood Hotels and The Lacek Group, an Ogilvy loyalty agency.