Do's and don'ts for email campaigns - Online Help | Zoho Campaigns

Do's and don'ts for email campaigns

In short: Email campaigns perform best when recipients know you, want your emails, and can easily leave. Use your own authenticated domain, email only people who opted in, write a clear and honest subject line, and test before you send. Avoid purchased lists, spammy or misleading content, and sending too often.
Email marketing is second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic. Email marketing success depends on positive engagement like opens and clicks. We have given a few simple yet effective do's and don'ts to ensure delivery, improve delivery rates, and show how they will benefit you in the long run. We recommend that you go through these tips before you send out an email campaign.

Email campaigns checklist – An infographic.

The tips below are grouped by topic, with the do's on the left and the don'ts on the right. A checklist at the end lets you tick off the essentials before every send.

Sender identity and trust

✓  Do
✗  Don't
✓ Use your own domain. Create an identity for your business by using your own domain. It helps subscribers trust you.
✗ Don't confuse subscribers. Sending irrelevant newsletters or changing the sender address frequently may confuse and irritate subscribers.
✓ Build rapport. Establish a good rapport with your recipients and try to get into their contact list.
 
✓ Use a recognizable sender name. Sender name is also an important identification factor. Ensure that the alias is either the sender's name or your organization's name to look more genuine and make it easy for subscribers to recognize you in the event of further communication. Learn more about sender recognition.
 
✓ Have a business webpage. Have a webpage related to your business/domain with all important information so that the user can look there to get necessary details.
 
✓ Show your firm's name and logo. Mention your firm's name and insert your logo to add more originality and trust to your emails.
 
 

Authentication and compliance

✓  Do
✗  Don't
✓ Authenticate your domain. Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Gmail and Yahoo (since February 2024) and Outlook.com (since May 5, 2025) require all three from senders of 5,000 or more emails a day. Even if you send less, setting them up now builds trust.
✗ Don't send from a public domain. Emails sent from a public/non-business domain (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) through an email platform are generally treated as spam, so send from your own domain. You can't authenticate a domain you don't own, so these emails fail DMARC alignment and are likely to be rejected or sent to spam. Learn more about public domain sender addresses.
✓ Highlight the unsubscribe link. Highlight the unsubscribe link to the user as per the CAN-SPAM act, which also requires your valid physical postal address in every commercial email and that you honor opt-outs within 10 business days. Gmail and Yahoo also require one-click unsubscribe, as defined in RFC 8058, from senders of 5,000 or more emails a day.
 
 
✓  Do
✗  Don't
✓ Use double opt-in. Have double opt-ins to add a subscriber into your list. It is a great way to maintain a clean list. See double opt-in vs. single opt-in.
✗ Don't buy contacts. Subscribers are to be earned, not purchased. Illegitimate or uninterested contacts are never good in the long run. See why you should never purchase mailing lists.
✓ Keep your lists updated. Keep your mailing lists updated to ensure they consist only of genuinely interested subscribers. See mailing list pruning.
✗ Don't keep stale or invalid contacts. Stale or invalid contacts, which may include inactive subscribers and obsolete email addresses, are harmful for the reputation and effectiveness of your campaign.
✓ Re-engage with care. Re-engage with your subscribers, but at reasonable time intervals to avoid a spam label. See how to craft a win-back campaign.
✗ Don't flood inboxes. Avoid flooding subscribers' inboxes with too many emails. You can limit how often each contact is emailed with frequency capping.
 

Subject line and content

✓  Do
✗  Don't
✓ Write a crisp subject line. Frame an email subject line that is enticing, crisp, and to the point (preferably 4-6 words). Mobile screens show only about 33-43 characters, so put the key words first. Check out a few tips to get a safer email subject line.
✗ Don't fake email chains. Creating a fake chain of emails by adding 'Re' or 'Fwd' tags and altering the content of the email accordingly may seem attractive initially, but it is not a great idea in the long run, as such methods tarnish the image of your organization.
✓ Personalize. Personalize your email campaign to suit your subscribers. This does have an impact on opens and clicks.
✗ Don't shout in the subject line. Rule out CAPITALs, links, and irrelevant punctuation from your subject line, or you will be caught by spam filters.
✓ Add clear call-to-action buttons. Add one or more clear call-to-action buttons in the email content to increase the click rates.
✗ Don't use spammy content. Spammy content like money, dating sites, porn, or anything irrelevant to your business will take you straight to the spam list and trash your reputation. See why emails land in the spam folder.
✓ Make it mobile responsive. Ensure that the email campaign is mobile responsive too, as many users may try to open it on their mobile phones.
✗ Don't make false claims. False and misleading claims in email campaigns do more damage than benefit, so be cautious.
✓ Balance images and text. Include images in your email, but make sure you add textual content as well, in case the image fails to display. A proper image-text ratio gives higher reach to your campaign.
✗ Don't ask for sensitive information. Do not expect or ask users to give away sensitive information like bank details, mobile number, or password credentials in your content or on the immediate landing page, as this can lower the trust your subscribers hold in your organization.
✓ Check your URLs. Check that you have included valid URLs in your campaign. It is wiser to avoid shortened URLs.
✗ Don't use heavy images. Larger images mean a proportionate delay in rendering and ultimately fail to create an impact on subscribers. See how to prevent Gmail from clipping your emails.
 

Testing and monitoring

✓  Do
✓ Monitor your campaigns. Keep an eye on your email campaign to check open rates, click rates, bounces, opens by location, and so forth. See metrics to track.
✓ A/B test. A/B test different versions of your email campaign before you send it to all the recipients.
✓ Send test emails. Make it a habit to see the outcome of your email by sending test emails within your organization.
 

Before you send: checklist

Make use of this checklist to ensure you have got everything set up properly before sending a campaign:
☐  I'm sending from my own domain, authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
☐  My sender name is my name or my organization's name.
☐  Everyone on my list opted in, and stale or invalid contacts are removed.
☐  My subject line is crisp and honest, with no all-caps, links, or extra punctuation.
☐  The email is mobile responsive, images have text alongside them, and image sizes are reasonable.
☐  All links are valid and none are shortened URLs.
☐  There is at least one clear call-to-action button.
☐  The unsubscribe link is easy to find, and my physical postal address is included.
☐  The content has no spammy or misleading claims and doesn't ask for sensitive information.
☐  I've sent a test email within my organization.
☐  I'm not sending more often than my subscribers expect.