The Great Email Marketing Handbook — 101+ Resources, Tips, Strategies & Tools

If you’ve been following Minterest for some time, you might have noticed that I haven’t published any blog posts related to “Email Marketing” till date. The primary reason is that I do not have a newsletter… yet. In fact, I do not like email marketing, as I consider 90% of the email marketers are spamming (including the so-called marketing gurus).

But it’s also true that email marketing is more important now than ever. It’s like we live in a new era of Email Marketing 2.0. That exactly is the reason why your favorite blogs and websites are too keen to collect your email so that they can add you to their email list. Email is the best way to communicate directly with the customers because 91% of Internet users check their email at least once a day.

Email marketing moves the conversation about your business to a more personal environment – the in-box. — Copyblogger

Let’s say you’re a blogger and is starting a new business. So in that case you can send an email to all your readers and say about your new venture and can even offer something valuable that regular customers won’t get.

Over 101 Email Marketing Resources, Tips, Strategies & Tools

No, I do not have a newsletter but I used to collect email marketing resources in my Evernote in order to use it someday. So here I’ve curated all the resources that I’ve collected over the past many months and have organized them into: Guides, Tips, Strategies, Blogs, and Tools.

Email Marketing Guides

If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide then I think the following articles is a great place to start with. Once you’re done with them, then you can head over to the other sections of this handbook for deeper insights about each topic.

1. What is Email Marketing and How Does it Work? | Sendinblue
2. Email Marketing: The Definitive Guide | Backlinko
3. Email Marketing 101: The Simple, Definitive Guide For 2021 | Smart Blogger
4. The Ultimate Guide To Successful Email Marketing | Vero
5. Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples] | Optin Monster
6. A Beginner’s Guide To Successful Email Marketing | KISSmetrics
7. Everything You Need To Gather 100,000 Emails In One Week | 4-Hour Workweek
8. The Keys To Email Marketing That Works [Ebook] | Copyblogger
9. Getting Started — Email Marketing — Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Matthew Woodward
10. The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing | HubSpot

Email Marketing Tips

If you’ve a newsletter but it’s not getting the desired results then you can optimize your email marketing campaigns by following different tricks and techniques. It’s always a great idea to learn from the experts.

11. How To Build An Email List Of 10k Subscribers And Make Sales With It | Petovera
12. 9 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is So Important | Site-Seeker
13. 57 Email Marketing Tips That Will Get More Sales | SalesBread
14. Email List-Building: How To Grow A Massive Email List | Buffer
15. 8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies, Backed by Science | Buffer
16. 20 Ways To Double Your Email Open Rate | GetResponse
17. 7 Key Tips To Optimize Your Email Growth | AppSumo
18. Email Marketing Strategy: A Data-Driven Guide to Email in 2021 | SuperOffice
19. 17 Effective Email Marketing Strategies to Generate More Sales | OmniKick
20. 17 Insanely Actionable List Building Strategies | Backlinko
21. Why Simplicity Wins in Email Marketing | Email On Acid
22. 25 Quick & Easy Hacks to Get More Email Subscribers | Blog Tyrant
23. Email Marketing Cheat Sheet [Infographic] | Marketo
24. Best Day To Send Email [Infographic] | GetResponse
25. 15 Truly Awesome Email Marketing Growth Hacks | Vero
26. Email Marketing Strategy and Tips for Successful Campaigns | Mailchimp
27. The Complete Guide To Transactional Email | Vero
28. The Email Marketer’s Checklist: 9 Questions To Ask Before You Hit Send | Vero
29. 9 World-class Bloggers Share Their #1 Email List Building Tip | ProBlogger
30. 33 Mind Shattering Email Marketing Statistics | ExpressPigeon
31. 10 Ways to Increase Newsletter Subscriptions (with examples) | Optimizely
32. Newsletter Curation: Try Sending Curated Newsletters | NewsletterBreeze

Email Marketing Strategies

If you’re looking for link building ideas and strategies, then look no further as the following resources have listed almost all the link building tactics that exist today.

Copywriting & Design

Here are few tips that you should keep in your mind while creating and sending newsletters.

33. 37 Tips For Writing Emails That Get Opened, Read And Clicked | Copyblogger
34. An Email Marketer’s Guide To Attention, Interest, Desire And Action | Vero

Landing Pages

A Landing Page is a web page designed for lead generation. If you have created a landing page to build an email list then you’ve to make sure that it’s optimized. The following resources should help you to create a better landing page.

35. What Is A Landing Page? | Unbounce
36. The Definitive Guide to Landing Page Optimization | Quick Sprout
37. The Most Entertaining Guide To Landing Page Optimization | Moz
38. How To Create A Squeeze Page That Converts At 21.7% [Case Study] | Backlinko
39. Landing Pages by Apple: How Apple Writes Their Copy | LeadPages

A/B Testing

Yes, email marketing also needs A/B testing.

40. A Beginner’s Guide To A/B Testing: Email Campaigns That Convert | KISSmetrics
41. A/B Split Testing Your Email Marketing Campaigns | Wishpond
42.  The Guide To Effectively A/B Test Your Email Creative | The Next Web

Conversion

We regularly have to monitor and optimize our email marketing campaigns to capture maximum leads. Conversion Optimization is the process of optimizing the landing pages or our email newsletters to increase the number of leads (or email subscribers).

43. The Beginner’s Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization | Qualaroo
44. Past The Pop-Up: 10 Email Marketing Tactics To Get More Subscribers | Zapier
45. 8 Ways To Convert Free Trial Users Into Customers Through Email | Unbounce

Case Studies

I’m featuring here, some awesome case studies and experiments done by various startups from their email marketing campaigns. Yes, it would definitely save a lot of our time.

46. 6 Lessons You Can Learn From Amazon’s Killer Email Marketing | Vero
47. 30,000 Newsletter Subscribers In 12 Months | Gregory Ciotti
48. Grow Your Email List To 1,634 Subscribers In 5 Months | Robbie Richards
49. The 17,000-Word Beast Ramit Sethi Created To Launch His Course | Copygrad
50. How We’ve Reached More Than 1 Million People By Guest Blogging | Groove
51. How Wallaby Got A 326% Increase In Signups | Medium
52. How Vero Got a 450% Increase in Conversions | Sixteen Ventures
53. How We Doubled Email Signups In 30 Days | Buffer
54. 18 Examples of Brilliant Email Marketing Campaigns [Template] | HubSpot

Useful Email Marketing Articles

Here are few random email marketing articles that I find interesting. Oh yeah, it works and is already proven.

55. How I Built My First Business Through Email Marketing | Quick Sprout
56. 8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies, Backed By Science | Buffer
57. How We Grew Our Blog To 5,000+ Subscribers In Five Weeks | Groove
58. 3 Lessons Learned From Testing Hundreds Of Onboarding Emails | Groove
59. How To Get Your First 100 Email Subscribers | OkDork
60. 25 Emails You Should Send To Your Users | Medium
61. How We Doubled Our Email Subscribers to 50,000 in 6 Months | Groove

Email Marketing 2.0 [Infographic]

I first came across this term on Vero blog and they have this interesting infographic that shows what is email marketing to modern marketers.

And they even have an email marketing 2.0 mantra for us.

“Don’t market to the the lowest common denominator. Use data and personalization to reach the right people at the right time.”

Email Marketing Blogs

If you’re a marketer then it’s very important to follow few blogs to stay up-to-date. I’ve picked few blogs that produces high quality email marketing content. I’ve filtered the list to make sure that they all post more email marketing content than other stuff.

62. Vero
63. GetResponse
64. AWeber
65. Mailigen
66. Mad Mimi
67. Campaign Monitor
68. Litmus
69. Copy Hackers
70. ConversionXL

Email Marketing Software

If you’re serious about email marketing then you should get a hosted email marketing software. They’re not cheap so I would recommend a Freemium service as it’s enough for beginners.

71. ConvertKit (Freemium) – ConvertKit helps you find your audience, turn them into true fans, and earn a living as a creator.
72. MailChimp (Freemium) – Send 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers for free.
73. Mad Mimi (Freemium) – Send 12,500 emails per month to 2,500 subscribers for free.
74. VerticalResponse (Freemium) – Send 4,000 emails per month to 1,000 subscribers for free.
75. Sendinblue (Freemium) – Email, SMS, Facebook, Chat, CRM, and more, all-in-one platform to help you grow your business through building stronger customer relationships.
76. AWeber (Premium) – Pricing starts at $19 per month for 500 subscribers.
77. Benchmarkemail (Premium) – Email marketing tools to engage subscribers, nurture leads, send beautiful, responsive emails and track results.
78. GetResponse (Premium) – Pricing starts at $15 per month for 1,000 subscribers.
79. iContact (Premium) – Pricing starts at $14 per month for 500 subscribers.
80. Constant Contact (Premium) – Pricing starts at $15 per month for 500 subscribers.
81. Campaigner (Premium) – Pricing starts at $10 per month for 1,000 subscribers.
82. Sendy (One Time Fee) – Send self-hosted email newsletters via Amazon SES ($1 per 10,000 emails).
83. MailMachinePro (One Time Fee) – It’s a self-hosted email marketing software and it costs $59 for 1 license.
84. BombBomb (Premium) – Offers video email marketing. Pricing starts at $25 per month for 500 subscribers.
85. BuzzBuilder (Premium) – Enterprise lead generation and tracking software. Pricing starts at $250 per month.
86. Mailgun (Freemium) – Transactional email API service for developers. Send 10,000 emails per month for free.
87. ToutApp (Premium) – Helps salespeople increase productivity with the power of tracking, templates and analytics. Pricing starts at $30 per month.

WordPress Newsletter Plugins

If you don’t want to buy an email marketing software, then you can try the following free newsletter plugins (if your website is powered by WordPress).

88. Newsletter (Downloads: 1,101,941)
89. MailPoet Newsletters (Downloads: 2,085,229)
90. ALO EasyMail Newsletter (Downloads: 266,703)
91. SendPress Newsletters (Downloads: 116,845)

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Email Marketing Tools

If you’re looking for specific tools then I suggest you to check out my My Favorite Internet Resources. You might also like: SEO Tools, Link Building Tools, and Content Curation Tools.

Lead Capture

92. PopUp Domination (One Time Fee) – Convert visitors into subscribers. Also try, Ninja Popups (Premium).
93. Optin Feature Box (Premium) – Create an attention grabbing optin feature box for your WordPress site in seconds.
94. Pippity (Premium) – Pippity makes it easy for publishers to create popups that convert.
95. OptinMonster (Premium) – Convert visitors into subscribers with advanced features.
96. Thrive Leads (Premium) – Your all-in-one WordPress lead generation solution for adding opt-in forms, 2-step opt-ins, exit-intent opt-ins — with a split testing engine.
97. Opt-In Content Locker for WordPress (Premium) – Opt-In Content Locker is a plugin that allows to lock important content on your WordPress website and display it for subscribed users only.
98. Bounce Exchange (Premium) – Convert your bounce traffic into leads.
99. Plugmatter Feature Box (Premium) – Get more subscribers to your email list.
100. SumoMe List Builder (Free) – Convert one-time visitors into lifelong readers and newsletter subscribers.
101. SumoMe Scroll Box (Free) – Enables you to ask for emails at a whichever percentage someone scrolls down your page.
102. SumoMe Leads (Free) – Give out bonuses to visitors to convert visitors into leads.
103. OptinLinks (One Time Fee) – Create high-converting two-step optin pages.
104. Optin Architect (Premium) – Create gorgeous lead capture forms in minutes.
105. OptinSkin (One Time Fee) – Add opt-in forms and social share boxes to your blog in seconds.
106. HelloBar (Free) – Allows you to show the right message at the right time to your website visitors.
107. ManyContacts (Free) – An attention­-grabbing contact form in the form of a bar that sits at the top of your website.
108. Perfect Audience (CPM) – Retarget lost visitors everywhere from one simple dashboard.
109. Vero (Premium) – Send emails based on what your customers do.
110. Litmus (Premium) – Litmus empowers you to build, test and analyze emails for more conversions.
111. Exit Monitor – Turn your abandoning visitors into customers.

Landing Pages

112. LeadPages (Premium) – Easiest way to build conversion optimized & mobile responsive landing pages.
113. Unbounce (Premium) – Build, publish & A/B test landing pages.
114. OptimizePress (Premium) – Create high converting landing pages, sales pages and membership portals.
115. Instapage (Freemium) – Build and A/B test landing pages in minutes.
116. PageWiz (Premium) – Create, optimize, and publish your landing pages.
117. ClickFunnels (Premium) – ClickFunnels gives you the tools you need to market, sell and deliver your products online.
118. Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) (Premium) – Create & test different versions of your website to continuously discover the best performing versions.

Create

119. Goodbits (Free) – Create instant email newsletters in minutes.
120. Campaign Monitor (Premium) – Create, send, and optimize your email marketing campaigns.
121. Really Good Emails (Free) – See the best email designs in the universe.
122. MailVU (Premium) – Unleash the power of video with the simplicity of email.
123. Canva (Freemium) – Makes design simple for everyone.
124. KingSumo Headlines (Premium) – Automatic headline optimization for your WordPress blog.
125. Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule (Free) – The Headline Analyzer that will score your overall headline quality and rate its ability to result in social shares, increased traffic, and SEO value.

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Miscellaneous

126. FeedBurner (Free) – Manage your RSS feeds and email subscribers for free. Alternatives: FeedCat [Free], Nourish [Free], FeedBlitz [Premium].
127. Boomerang (Free) – Schedule an email to be sent later in Gmail.
128. Google Analytics URL Builder (Free) – Add Custom Campaign parameters to your URLs.
129. Rafflecopter (Free) – Is the easiest way to run a Giveaway.
130. KingSumo Giveaways (Premium) – Grow your email list through Viral Giveaways.
131. Drip (Premium) – Email marketing automation for visitors, trials and customers.
132. Litmus (Premium) – Test and track your emails.
133. Email On Acid (Premium) – For advanced email analytics.
134. MailCharts (Premium) – Track and understand how your competitors use email marketing.
135. PowerInbox (Premium) – Monetize your email program.
136. BriteVerify (Premium) – BriteVerify can reduce your bounce rate by 98% and help your messages get delivered.
137. Sniply Link Shortener (Premium) –  Sniply is a simple tool that shortens links and allows you to overlay your own custom message onto any piece of content, creating an opportunity for you to include a call-to-action with every link you share.
138. Sender Score – Your Sender Score is like a credit score to gauge your credit worthiness but for email.
139. FollowUpThen (Freemium) – FollowUpThen is an email follow up service combined with task management.
140. Unroll.Me – Instantly see a list of all your subscription emails and unsubscribe easily from whatever you don’t want.
141. EntEmail Research Tool (Free) – Enter a person’s name and company and BuzzStream will automatically generate Google searches to help you find their email address.

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Conclusion

Like I’ve mentioned, I am yet to start my newsletters and so it’s more likely that I might have missed your favorite email marketing resource or tool. So please let me know as a comment below and I’ll be glad to list it here.

Happy Marketing! 🙂

First Published: August 6, 2014; Last Updated: Saturday, February 13, 2021.