Email marketing is an effective way of communicating with customers. Just like other marketing tactics, it requires a well-thought strategy to capture the attention of your readers and convert them to paying customers. Even in the face of social media, email marketing has still proven highly effective.
In fact, welcome emails alone generate 320% more revenue on a per-email basis than others on average. That’s powerful potential. Furthermore, 77% of consumers prefer to get permission-based marketing messages via email over other forms of promotional advertisement.
When done right, it’s cost-effective and influential to your subscribers. It entices them to take action, and spreads the word about your services and products. Your email marketing strategy should be as fine-tuned as possible. To increase your open rate and conversions, here are a few tips you should follow:
Write an Effective CTA
Your call to action (CTA) is critical: this is what truly determines whether your hard work was successful. This is the link that channels your customers from the email to the actual product or service. The perfect CTA might take some trial and error, but it’s definitely worth the effort.
The CTA should be short and sweet, and not exceed six words. A short CTA will allow your customers to quickly scan it and make a snap decision on whether to click. Pay special attention to your language and content, as it should motivate your visitors to click on the link. You wouldn’t use the same language to sell graphic tees as you would to sell medical equipment.
According to Internet marketing agency Power Digital Marketing, every aspect of the CTA button counts: from the language to the colors you use. “You want your audience to immediately know what the button is before they’ve even read its text,” they wrote in one blog post. “But be careful not to be too distracting. You want to pique someone’s interest, not startle them.”
When you look at some of the best CTA examples, you’ll find a common theme among them. As previously mentioned, the majority are quick to read and require little scanning effort on the part of the reader.
It usually reminds the reader that there’s no risk involved (such a trial) and gives them confidence to purchase. It also encourages them to respond right away, as most marketers understand that the chances of subscribers returning later are much lower than convincing them to take immediate action.
Split Test
Split testing is one of the best ways to learn more about what email marketing messages are working and what aren’t. Through split testing, you can send different variations of the same message to different people in the subscriber list, or test different elements of your email over a period of time. You can then use the results of the test to make educated decisions moving forward. You’d be surprised at the small changes that make a big difference.
The minimum subscriber count for split testing should be around 100. The more people, the better. Here are different elements of your email worth split testing:
- Subject line
- Call to action
- Body text
- Email design (typography, colors, layout)
- Personalization
- Send time
Check out these split testing ideas and results to learn more about how split testing works. Additionally, it might be beneficial for you to work with a knowledgeable marketing agency who can hone in on what’s most likely to garner better results for your campaign.
Keep It Short
The subject line is a solid example of how keeping it short works in your favor: 64% of subscribers will open promotional emails because of the subject line, and subjects with fewer than 10 characters had a whopping open rate of 58%. Many business owners don’t realize how powerful subject lines really are, and will instead attempt to pack it with as much information as possible.
The subject line should be attractive, inspiring, creative and eye-catching. One of the best ways to get the reader to open the email is with a short, personalized subject. If you collect data on your subscribers and your email lists are properly segmented, this is much easier.
The subject line isn’t the only that should be kept short, though. The body of your email should also be to the point. The body should explain the what and why: what the email is about, and why the reader should care enough to click the CTA.
Keep Your Subscriber List Organized
You should be constantly cleaning up your subscriber list for the most optimal results. By cleaning your email list regularly, you can decrease your bounce rate, increase your open rate, and even save money on your email marketing platform.
There are plenty of reasons why your current data might be inaccurate: emails are misspelled, some emails are duplicated, and others no longer exist. Small improvements go a long way in the overall scheme of things.
Segmentation is also important. Why? Because not all of your subscribers are the same. Your business could easily appeal to a variety of audiences, and your email should attract them based on their specific needs.
For example, let’s say own an eco-cleaning supply company. On the one hand, you might appeal to a large number of office managers who employ green cleaning practices in their office. On the other, you appeal to the average, eco-conscious homeowner. Rather than send the same email to both audience types, you should be able to segment your list to improve your open rate and email reputation.
Many email marketing providers charge for unsubscribes until you delete them – so that is a major incentive to stay on top of your email marketing.
Dana Davis
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Thanks for the information. I have a question and hope its okay that i ask it here.. When doing a split test are you sending two different emails to the same user and seeing which one performs better or are you dividing your list in half and sending an email to group (A) and the remaining emails to group (B)and testing performance.
Mike would love you to read ..Is San Diego A Good City To Start A Business
Hi Mike,
The author will probably respond, but just in case I thought I’d let you know that you divide the list to run tests and not always in half. Some might send two versions to 10% of their list, for example, and then send the winning version to the rest.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Measuring Social Media Success Tips: 4 Step Guide
Thanks for such a nice article and your knowledge with us
Best Practices forE-Mail Marketing:
1. Test email content.
2. Track clicks and Open rates.
3.Avoid Spammy Content.
4.Build a clean list.
5.Avoid excess code.
Email Marketing is very important for business promotion. And thanks a lot for posting email marketing related article.
Great and informative post about email marketing.
In a nutshell, keep your emails short, list should be organized and do split testing!
Thanks a lot.
Hi..
The key points you discussed here is very helpful for improving Email Marketing campaigns.
Thanks for this information.
Great Article, I like the way you focused on telling people that they need to clean up their lists I think that is really important same with split testing, it is amazing that you can get better results just from split testing. That was also a great resource that you gave for the call to actions.
thanks,
Justin
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Hi,
nice info particularly email marketing line 230% subscribers buy products.
i agree with this and i am also following (KISS) keep it simple and sweet technique…
thank you
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Hi Dana,
The idea of split testing is absolutely new for me. This is the first time I heard about it and it piqued my interest after reading your article. I’ll definitely check it out sometime. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for haring some really sound advice Dana!
And while I can certainly appreciate and confirm, the
extremely powerful and spot on information you shared.
Without a doubt, routinely A/B split testing many of your
marketing variables, but especially your subject line, can truly
be a game changer.
Plus, as you pointed out, learning how to write and incentive
inducing CTA’s, is definitely worth putting in the effort as well.
Thanks for sharing, another excellent blog and extremely
informative post!
Hey DANA DAVIS,
As i run an Digital Marketing Institute. In this course Email Marketing is also an part of digital marketing. As i wanted to learn more about email marketing after a long research i found your blog it is very informative. I hope you keep on updating such an relevant information.
Hi Dana Davis,
Maybe I think you are an expert in this subject. Anyway thanks for this great article. I read it without missing any words. Now I know how to build email list. Keep writing….
Thank you
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Hi Dana,
These are really valid points to improve email marketing campaigns. I must follow this guide, thanks for this wonderful share.
This is an impressive Article. I think I can use the tips in implementing EMail Marketing to my start up.
Dear Dana,
This your post is really helpful, it helps me a lot in my recent campaign.
If you’re mind, I think the title is also very important to attract the attention of customers.
I was wondering how to promote my business. Then I got idea about email marketing. I decide to promote my business using this strategy. Call to action and split test is very important for me. I have to assign somebody to do the job for me.
Thanks buddy for the post.
Thank you so much Dana for such an informative post. To add to the list of ways to improve your email marketing campaigns, I would recommend Plain text emails over HTML emails. Reasons being that plain text emails convert better
Such an influential article. I was read this article, When you look at some of the best CTA examples, you’ll find a common theme among them
Hi Dana,
Such an influential article. I was reading and reading and it just ended.
Actually I run a company which has a great number of customers. I want them to be the returning customers. So this scheme of Email Marketing is gonna help me to make my customers stay updated with the news about my company.
Thanks allot.