A study by Campaign Monitor found that:
- Email frequency affects customer unsubscribe and open rates
- Initial email campaigns enjoy the highest open rates
- Subsequent campaigns have higher unsubscribe rates
- Six campaigns later, nearly 50 percent of subscribers open at least one mail and 13 percent click
So, after a while, it all boils down to comparing subsequent email costs with the value of the incremental unique clicks your messages receive. And ideally, marketers should send emails once a week if they want to increase the number of unique clicks without anybody unsubscribing. That’s because 61 percent of buyers enjoy getting promotional emails on a weekly basis. Do not be like other marketers who send emails two or three times in a week.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Most subscribers view emails on their cellphones, which means you have two seconds or less to grab the viewers’ attention immediately. Your subscribers also lose interest if you include too many messages in one mail, use a lot of words in one message, or your email lacks a clear action point. Rather, keep your message short and crisp. Your goal should be to get your message across in the least number of words.
Recognize Your Audience
Figure out what kind of messages your target audience appreciates. Align your message with your readers using the tips below:
Segmentation: After the first few campaigns, begin a survey to separate your audience into groups based on the information they wish to receive, like promotional offers, new products, and more. Use tools like QuestionPro and SurveyMonkey to create great surveys. When you send targeted emails, you not only build trust but get more clicks and conversions.
Develop Buyers Personas: Maximize conversion for your email marketing campaigns using comprehensive buyer personas. You can use buyer persona templates for this purpose.
Personalization: According to a Litmus Software report, email personalization is one of the hottest new trends in email marketing. So customize your emails using customer personas, intelligent timing, and behavior triggered messages.
Tip – 64% Americans own a smartphone; look to blend together different channels for more traction on email marketing. Consider integrating your email marketing efforts with SMS. People are available 24X7 on mobile and this is a great way to gain more subscribers. SMS is a great channel to get more leads, so start sending SMS to potential customers, with tiny URLs leading to regular email subscription forms or landing pages. In this way, you will be able to gain lots of new subscribers by way of SMS marketing
Avoid Sending Emails to the Spam Folder
Email spam filters are becoming more advanced. According to Return Path, five percent of emails get stuck in spam folders, while 16 percent get blocked by email providers. So, you need to tweak your emails to avoid pitfalls. Follow the tips given below:
- Never stuff words like “hurry”, “offer”, “buy”, “free”, and “promo” in your emails
- Reduce the size of bulky emails
- Avoid being labeled as a spammer by testing your email list using a list cleaning service such as NeverBounce
- Never buy email lists
- Try using an email verifying tool like ViolaNorbert
- Balance the text to image ratio
- Avoid adding attachments
- Include only reliable links
- Try using an email validation tool like DeBounce
- Avoid using exclamation marks and all caps in the subject line
Improve the Subject Lines of Your Email
A study by Experian found that personalized email subject lines increased open rates by 37 percent. Also, according to HubSpot, subject lines that had less than 30 characters enjoyed the highest email open rates. Keep in mind that your messages will not reach your audience if the subject line fails to capture their attention. To ensure your emails perform better, use a subject line analysis tool like Subject Line to figure out what works best for you.
Measure Your Email Marketing Results
Always measure the performance of your email marketing campaign. Keep an eye on stats like:
- Total clicks for your email campaign
- Number of unique opens
- Unsubscribe rates
- Conversion percentage
- Number of clicks from unique email formats and content styles
- Every campaign will bring you one step closer to understands which aspects of your email marketing you should improve.
Make Sure Your Emails are Mobile-Friendly
Your emails should load perfectly on different screen sizes. Otherwise, you will never find the success you wish to achieve. You can use a simulator like Previewmyemail or EmailOnAcid to see how your messages appear on various screens. This will help you avoid any mistakes. Also, try to balance the visuals to text ratio for your emails. Keep in mind that 88 percent of smartphone users use their devices to check emails, and that number is only going to increase with time.
Avoid Sending Boring Emails
A dry wall of text is never a good idea! Add personality to your emails or your subscribers will not stay around for long. There’s nothing worse than a bland email. Not only does it make your brand look bad, but it also causes your customers to lose interest in your products or services. So, try to liven up the proceedings by adding some interesting media and content. Adopt some great ideas for improved email copywriting so your campaign finds the success it requires.
Final Thoughts
Like SMS lead generation, a successful email marketing campaign can go a long way in helping your business experience growth. Follow the steps shared in this guide to speed the process of improving email marketing ROIs and conversion rates.
