Email presents a marketing benefit unavailable on any social media channel: Your brand can show up directly in your audience’s inboxes whenever you want.

But to gain email’s true advantage, you don’t just hit the send button. You must do the things that attract audiences to open, read, click, and act.

To help, the experts presenting at Content Marketing World share 19 do’s and don’tsdonts to improve your email marketing:

1. Do see its true value

It’s tempting to see email as a traffic-driving channel intended to send folks to our site, social, or elsewhere to get value. I highly recommend inserting more into the email for actual value so that there’s self-contained value in any email they open, which creates an added incentive to open it. — Melanie Deziel, co-founder, CreatorKitchen.com

2. Do the upfront work first (and don’t presume)

Front-load the value, remembering (with few exceptions) that what you are presenting, offering, hosting, or writing about is not what’s valuable to the owner of that inbox. Nobody cares that XYZ company has an upcoming webinar. Be creative. Be clever. Be intriguing. Test and tune for your audience.

Don’t presume to know about my interest in your brand, products, services, or even your content. By now, we should all know that content “consumption” does not equal a lead. Just because I clicked, registered, or downloaded something doesn’t mean I’m engaging with you. A subject line that suggests otherwise is not likely to get your email opened or read unless it’s to find the unsubscribe link. — Carmen Hill, principal strategist and writer, Chill Content LLC

3. Do familiarize yourself with the recipients

If you have their email already, wouldn’t you know them? Know your audience very, very, very well and personalize that content for them. For example, I hate to admit I have a hard time following sports. As much as I love to pretend that I am into them, my impatience exceeds my desire to watch hours of play to see the end result. There is a lot to unpack there on my personality and how I might or might not absorb content. You should already know that about me before you send me that email. — Michael Bonfils global managing director, Digital International Group

4. Do what you’ve been told

This one is simple. You’ve heard this before. Provide VALUE to a niche audience. Your emails should provide real value in the form of useful information, solutions to their problems, or exclusive deals. — Dale Bertrand, president, Fire&Spark

5. Do your thing

I hate to be the “depends” person, but what works for your brand in email marketing 100% depends on your unique audience and brand voice. While some people like a mysterious subject line or one that makes them feel like they’re doing something wrong, others are offended and delete or report them as spam.

People are increasingly protective of their time, and your subject line must pique their interest and deliver on the promise of what the subject line says you will deliver. — Erika Heald, founder and chief content officer, Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

6. Do test and see

Test, test, test. Test out different subject lines that are compelling to your users. Also, create emails and content that add value to your users; otherwise, they will not click on it, and it will get lost in the noise. — Zack Kadish, senior SEO strategy director, Conductor

7. Do it for ‘this’

Testing. What works for some in some industries will not work for others. You have to find the right length, frequency, content mix, and calls to action that work for this product in this market for this segment of your audience. — Jim Sterne, president, Target Marketing of Santa Barbara

8. Do add motion

If you really want people to start opening your emails, make sure to include a video. I know — I am a video producer, so it’s easy for me to say. In this case, there’s all sorts of data that shows adding video increases both open and click-through rates. Simply adding the word “video” to your subject can help increase your open rate. — Tony Gnau, chief storytelling officer, T60 Productions and T60 Health

9. Do ‘friendly’

Interject a sense of urgency, time constraints, etc. From a consumer psychological perspective, people react more to the fear of losing than the joy of gaining.

Updating the from field address to a person’s name gives a higher chance of clicking. “Sue from XYZ brand” will do better than just the brand name unless the brand relationship is strong (but most don’t have that type of power).

Use emojis. It won’t get your email sent to the spam box. Stand out by playing with text. Be less formal and ask a simple question or make a quick statement. Many still try to stuff so much in the headline, but it won’t help increase open rates. — Troy Sandidge, founder, Strategy Hackers

10. Do forgo the sales focus

Build trust by making your emails interesting and useful. Most email marketing aims to get a sale or move the reader along the sales funnel. That rarely works. In fact, nurture can often be a “four-letter word.” Instead, take a content marketing approach with your emails. Be useful, earn trust, and business benefits will surface over the long term. — Dennis Shiao, founder, Attention Retention LLC

11. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security

Avoid generic, clickbait subject lines that can lead to high open rates but low engagement. Seeing a high open rate can feel like a win, but when your audience isn’t engaging or clicking through to respond, or reaching out beyond the initial open, have you really won?

Instead, aim for clarity and relevance. Craft subject lines that accurately reflect the content of your emails, enticing recipients with genuine value and setting clear expectations. This approach enhances engagement and builds trust and long-term relationships with your subscribers. — Ashley Baker, founder and chief marketing officer, Coastline Marketing LLC

12. Don’t tempt unsubscribes

Take care not to overdo it. One of the biggest mistakes I think companies make with email is sending it TOO often. There’s nothing more annoying than receiving an email from a brand every day, for example. That will make me (and probably many other folks) unsubscribe immediately. — Michelle Garrett, consultant and writer, Garrett Public Relations

13. Don’t forget what’s most important

Getting emails open and read is not easy. Sender reputation is key. The from line is often more important than the subject line, and a powerful preheader that amplifies or completes the subject line message is essential.

Now, let’s talk about subject lines. I’ve had really good results with these three approaches:

• Take a serious, authoritative tone: Write a short, instructive line that does not appear promotional — one that seems important and unignorable.
• Use eye-magnet words: They are scientifically proven to attract the human eye like a magnet. Words like “new,” “now,” “introducing,” “announcing,” “finally,” and “soon” can all be good performers. The word “free,” despite some people still fearing it triggers spam filters, is a top-performing subject line word. So, too, is “you” because everyone is more interested in themselves than anything else.
• Flag urgency: People hate to miss out. They also wait until deadlines are really close. Use words and phrases such as “last chance,” “this week,” “tomorrow,” “don’t miss,” and “deadline approaching.” — Nancy Harhut, chief creative officer, HBT Marketing

14. Don’t worry about the inbox crowd

Competition will play a minimal role if you have a strong follower base and a good approach to your emails, combined with relevant content. You must continue investing in building your own audience. You can only do this by creating unique content. — Pauline Lannoo, head of digital strategy, The Fat Lady

15. Don’t send, send, send

Email less frequently. Reducing your frequency while maintaining high quality may get you more opens and click-throughs. — Bernie Borges, vice president, global content marketing, iQor

16. Don’t dominate the inbox

Make sure you’re not emailing too much! One of the biggest pitfalls is oversharing. Save that for Threads. — Beth Elderkin, content marketing manager, Informa Connect

17. Don’t do long-form

Once again, headlines (or subject lines) matter, as does the content in the email. It should be simple (use bullets or short sentences with clear CTAs) and informational. — Jenn VandeZande, editor-in-chief, SAP CX + Industries

18. Don’t rely on subject lines alone

Consistently create authentic and valuable content that helps your audience. The best subject line or most interesting story might get a recipient to open or read the email. But if you don’t provide them with something that will help them do their job better or make their lives easier, they won’t keep opening your emails, no matter how clever your subject lines are. — Brian Piper, director of content strategy and assessment, University of Rochester

19. Don’t spend time on email

Unpopular opinion: We care too much about email when only a third of your target audience actually opens them. Now, you can try to craft compelling copy, but that doesn’t change the fact that our inboxes are cluttered. Instead of spending hours writing copy and building your email programs, invest the time to better understand your customers. Understand the touch points in the sales cycle to inform your engagement and content strategy. — Royna Sharifi, senior marketing campaign manager, Amazon Web Services

Don’t forget to tie it all together

After taking in all that do-and-don’t advice, don’t forget this: Connect the dots to create a successful email marketing program that works in tandem with your brand’s overall content and marketing strategy. Then, you’ll have a wide-open case to continue your email investment.