If you are sending email marketing campaigns regularly and your click-through rate falls below industry average, you are not engaging your customers. In fact, you may be annoying them and damaging your brand. You have to do better. The good news is that there are steps you can take to improve your email marketing.
Think about the difference between the emails that you look for in your inbox versus the one’s you delete. What are the common traits? What relationship do you have with those senders whose email you seek out? Take a look at these seven proven strategies to help you improve customer engagement with your emails.
Send fewer, better segmented emails
There are two key components to this tip: (1) evaluating the number of emails you send to each contact and (2) determining which contacts get sent which emails. Your contacts will let you know if you are sending email too frequently. They will either ignore your email or unsubscribe altogether.
Your contacts will let you know if you are sending email too frequently.
Both of these actions are painful and expensive. Most email marketing services (like MailChimp and Constant Contact) share industry average click-throughs or alert you if your unsubscribe rate is way above average. Use these metrics as benchmarks along with the past performance of your own email campaigns to decide if you should send fewer emails.
Pay close attention to your open rate. What kind of emails generate the highest open rate? What links are your contacts clicking on? The information or wording used in those links provide hints on the type of content your contacts are looking for.
To determine which contacts get which emails, you will need to segment your contact list. Choose segments that are related to the content you are sending. If you are sending an email about a specific product, create a segment of leads that previously expressed interest in that product (for instance, by viewing it on your website). You can segment by demographic characteristics, by purchasing behavior (such prospect, customer or advocate) and other attributes of your contacts. As you learn more information about prospective customers, link your customer management system (CRM) to your email service provider (if they are not the same software). If you do not have a CRM, add fields to your contact list so that you can create new segments of customers with common characteristics.
Send targeted, relevant messages
Once you have defined segments that work for your business, avoid sending mass emails to your entire contact list. You will improve open rates and click-throughs if leads and customers feel like you are speaking to them directly. It’s not only important to address contacts by name, but also to develop a habit of sending relevant information so that your email isn’t “filed” in the trash bin or spam folder.
When an email click-through rate (CTR) performs below average, look for opportunities to refine segmentation and send more targeted messaging to a specific audience.
Create inviting subject lines
Subject lines drive email open rates and open rates are a key metric in the email marketing funnel. However, a subject line serves another equally important purpose. A subject line tells the reader what is to come. It is an anticipation builder. If an email contact opens an email expecting to find content relevant to the subject line and the content does not meet expectations, it is likely that the reader will abandon the email without a click. Using an inviting and relevant subject line helps to optimize CTRs.
Ask for the click
Facebook has added an optional call-to-action (CTA) button to the profile for business and community page owners. The CTA button encourages visitors to engage by doing a specific action. Similarly, it is useful and effective for email marketers to use a CTA to ask for the click. Emails with CTAs are more likely to get a click than those without. Use “Register now”, “Download”, “Sign Up”, “Play now” or other CTAs to increase engagement with your emails.
Create a sense of urgency
Contacts are far more likely to open an email sooner if there is a reason to not delay. While it’s important to not overuse this tactic, emails with a deadline experience higher response rates as they are less likely to be relegated to the “I’ll respond later” pile. (How many of those emails do you really get back to?)
You create this sense of urgency in the subject line. Retailers are especially savvy with this approach. They use “Last Day” or “Ends tomorrow” frequently in promotional sales emails. When contacts have a short window in which to respond, they are more likely to open and engage sooner.
Use compelling images
Emails that are too dense (or too long) simply will not be read. Consider the scan-ability of email and break up text with compelling images. Be careful not to use images that are too large, as they can slow load times. Use relevant alt text with your images so that when an image does not load, the reader gets a sense of the subject matter.
Include multiple links for a singe call-to-action
Your CTA is the action you want a reader to take. Use links for buttons, texts and images to drive readers to a single CTA. Keep your marketing emails brief and focused. Multiple messages or calls-to-action can be overwhelming for a reader and lead to indecision and ultimately no engagement. Whenever possible, limit your email to one focused point.