If you’ve heard that email marketing is dead or dying, don’t believe it. The truth is that email marketing can either be a waste of time or an incredibly effective strategy to boost conversions and increase brand loyalty.
Worldwide, we send and receive more than 347 billion emails daily. And that number continues to increase every year. Over 90% of people that use the web have an email account, and a majority check it multiple times per day.
And email marketing is incredibly effective. McKinsey & Company reports that email marketing can produce 40 times better results than social media. While many people prefer to conduct business via email, that doesn’t mean every consumer will open your message and click on your link.
You need a well-planned strategy to increase your conversions and maximize your efforts.
10 Email Marketing Tips to Drive Conversions
Want to increase your email marketing conversions? Here are 10 tips that can help you get better results from your email digital marketing campaigns.
1. Create an Email Marketing Strategy
You aren’t going to have much success with any inbound marketing strategy unless you first have a plan. When it comes to email, as with anything else, you should start by defining your audience. Who do you want to reach with your messages? Prospects? Existing customer? Both?
Once you’ve defined your audience, you’ll need to build your list. You can do this on social media, with opt-in forms on your website, and by using your existing customer list.
Finally, it’s time to develop a content strategy for your list to drive conversions. Will you have an email newsletter? Different email series for different audiences? Create your plan and attach some goals.
2. Write a Killer Subject Line
If you want to get email marketing right, you need to start with your subject line. What you put in that 60-character space could be the difference between someone opening your message, deleting it, and even reporting it as spam.
A consumer will open your email if they believe there is a benefit in doing so, or you can convince them they’ll miss out on something important. Here are a few examples of effective subject lines:
- “Don’t settle for last year’s styles”
- “New must-haves for your home”
- “Steal these time-saving ideas”
- “You’re about to miss this discount”
3. Use the Double Open Strategy
The first step to getting more conversions is getting more people to open your emails. You can do this by using the “double opens strategy.” In simple terms, you’ll resend the same email message to people who didn’t open it the first time, but with a different subject line.
Sometimes people are just busy and will pass by your initial message. But, you can increase your chances of the email getting opened in the second pass if you make the following changes:
- Use a different subject line and preheader
- Change your send time
- Wait 3-5 days before resending your message
4. Pay Attention to Your Preheader
Of course, your subject line is vital. But don’t forget about your preheader. This is the preview text that a recipient can view before deciding whether or not to open your email. Using this space effectively, you can increase your open rate and engagement numbers significantly.
Most email clients give the reader anywhere from 35 to 140 characters of preview text. Knowing this, you can carefully craft a message that will maximize the chances of a click.
5. Make CTA Buttons Contextual
You probably put a lot of time and effort into creating a catchy subject line and preheader and then writing engaging email copy. But don’t forget about the importance of your CTAs. If readers don’t take action after reading your email, what was the point?
Instead of using a generic CTA like “buy now” or “click here,” try something more creative and descriptive. For example, a CTA with a sense of urgency, such as “Shop 24-Hour Sale” is likely to get more clicks.
6. Write for the Web
Too many digital marketers overcomplicate email messages. Writing copy for emails is similar to writing for the web. It should be conversational, engaging, and organized. Simply put, your email message should:
- Have short paragraphs (plenty of white space)
- Follow a logical structure
- Use images whenever appropriate
- Employ bullets and subheadings to make emails scannable
Structure aside, write with your audience in mind. What are their pain points and how can you help?
7. Don’t Be Spammy
There’s a common misconception that email marketing is salesy and gimmicky. If you’re going to be effective, it shouldn’t be.
Avoid using multiple exclamation points and all caps in your subject line or in the body of the email. Not only is this a turnoff for readers, but spam filters will pick this up and flag your message. Enough of these flags, and your account is likely to get blacklisted.
8. Be Personal
Read any advice about inbound marketing and it will include tips about personalization. If you are blasting the same email messages to your list at the same time, don’t expect to optimize your results.
Sure, people like to see their names in an email subject line. But, you can do more.
Segment your email marketing to align with the buyer’s journey. Are they in the awareness stage? This would call for a different campaign than people in the decision stage.
9. Keep It Short
No one wants to read long emails. If consumers get the impression that your messages are too “wordy,” they’ll stop opening them.
Beyond this, shorter emails have a greater chance of landing in your recipient’s “Primary” email folder instead of some other filter. Not sure about this? Test it out.
10. Leverage A/B Testing
Instead of hitting “send” and hoping for the best, you can boost your conversions by figuring out what works and then building on those strategies. Use the analytics provided by your email service provider to collect data on the performance of different variations of your message and opt-in forms to identify your best-performing combination.
Email marketing is an important part of your digital marketing strategy. If you haven’t maximized your efforts in this area yet, it’s an excellent way to increase engagement and boost your repeat sales numbers. Contact us and we can help you analyze your email marketing strategy.
Written By: David Carpenter
