It should come as no surprise that email marketing remains one of the most affordable and effective ways to connect and interact with your customers and prospects. But how can you make sure these recipients are going to open your email and click through to your landing page?
You can start by giving the following 10 tricks a spin.
1. Write Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
Getting more people to actually open your email begins with writing an amazing subject line that is going to pique the recipient’s curiosity. As Megan Marrs writes for WordStream, “Your subject line is your first (and maybe your last) impression on users.” Marrs adds, “In many ways, your email subject line is more important than your email body. After all, a great newsletter is worthless if it never sees the light of day.”
The most effective subject lines, Marrs suggests, often include one of these nine styles:
- Clear and concise
- Humorous
- Controversial
- Single word
- Numbers and lists
- Personalized
- Questions
- “Missing out”
- Mysterious
Subject lines that reference current events are also extremely successful. For example, WoofTrax, an app that tracks your walks and donates to local shelters, sent an email with the subject line, “Make a difference while playing Pokémon Go!”
2. Be Consistent With Your Brand
How many times do you open an email if you don’t recognize the name? Probably not too often. Because we’re all suspicious of emails from unknown parties, make it easier for your recipients to realize who has sent the email by being consistent. This could be anything from the language you use to inclusion of your brand’s logo to making sure the color scheme matches your other brand platforms, such as your website.
3. Resend Unopened Emails
Even if you have used the most effective tricks in email marketing, there will be times when your message is simply overlooked. Because of that, it could be worth the time to resend those unopened emails.
In fact, iContact Strategic Advisor Peter Ansbacher was able to increase emails for a client, the Esalen Institute, by 50% simply by sending the same email to the recipients who never opened the first message.
4. Make Emails Easy to Scan
“Everybody scans,” says blogger Jeff Goins. This means you should create content that is scannable for your audience. That can easily be achieved by:
- Keeping it short.
- Using subheads.
- Using numbered or bulleted lists.
- Writing like how you talk.
- Using bold formatting.
- Including links.
5. Share Exciting News
Keeping your audience informed about the latest promotions or updates is one of the best ways to boost your email open rates and clicks. For example, if you’re a restaurant owner, you could send your email subscribers your new seasonal menu and hours, along with a 10% off coupon, to get them excited.
6. Kick Out the Spam
A lot of emails are flagged every day as spam. And by a lot, we’re talking around 100 billion. To prevent this from happening to your emails, check for keywords that are commonly associated with spam, such as “free money” or “no credit check.”
7. Segment Your Lists
Because your subscribers fall into various categories, you should segment your lists so you can appeal to their interests and needs. In fact, targeted, lead nurturing emails tend to generate a higher click-through rate compared to general email sends.
You can segment your lists by:
- Demographics like gender, geography, and occupation.
- Shopping behavior like the products and services they purchased last.
- Relationship history so as to onboard new users and reward loyal customers.
- Email behavior data like opens and clicks.
8. Include Button CTAs
As humans, we’re hardwired to click on buttons. That’s why Jeremy Smith writes on Crazy Egg that “CTA buttons are some of the most important little things in all of eCommerce.”
Smith suggests your CTA buttons include characteristics like compelling copy, contrasting colors and logical placement so your readers will click away.
9. Offer Just One CTA
Speaking of calls to action, limit your CTAs to just one. Whirlpool discovered that emails that contained a single, focused CTA increased clicks by 42%.
10. The P.S. Section Is Prime Real Estate
Copywriters have used a trick in the past called the serial position effect. This tendency simply means that people recall the first and last lines of text the best. Back in 2009, Hotmail used this to gain 3,000 accounts in just one day.
As you write your next email, don’t neglect a postscript after your conclusion. Including a link to your landing page, for example, can be more useful for generating more clicks than throwing that same link in the middle of your email’s body.
What tricks have you used in the past to increase email open rates and clicks?
– Maria
Read Maria’s original post on “Top 10 Hacks to Boost Email Open Rates and Clicks.”
