With 91% of consumers checking their email daily, email campaigns continue to be an affordable and effective way to engage your customers and prospects. When done optimally, email marketing can extend your reach, deliver your message and drive more conversions. But with so many emails streaming into inboxes daily, how do you break through the clutter? Let’s look at some email marketing tips to to start improving your stats.
Boost Open Rates
Email open rate is the percentage of people who opened a specific email. Although click-through rates vary per industry, it can indicate how well your subject lines and emails are performing.
Techniques for improving open rates include:
- resending emailers to those who didn’t open them
- testing different send times
- and avoiding spam filters.
#1 Resend unopened emails:
There are several reasons why recipients may not have opened your emailer. It might have gotten caught in their spam filter, your subject line wasn’t compelling enough or they may just have missed it.
Try rewriting your subject line and resending your emails to anyone who didn’t open them the first time. When rewriting your subject lines, use personalization to increase open rates. A study by Campaign Monitor found that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. While this won’t improve your open rate for a particular email, it can help your campaign get seen by more recipients.
#2 Test your delivery times:
Your recipients lead busy lives and the best time to send emails will vary from list to list. Test sending emailers out at different times of the day and on different days of the week.
Some companies may find that sending their emailers out first thing Monday morning works best. For other companies, Thursdays around 3 pm may work better. Start by sending emailers out at different times. See which days and times generate the highest open rates for your lists.
#3 Stay clear of spam triggers:
FREE! NEW! SPECIAL! BUY NOW! We are all familiar with spammy email subject lines. Often, these emails end up buried in our junk folders. Over 100 billion emails are marked as spam every day, so it’s important to make sure your email isn’t one of them.
One way your computer marks spam is by looking for keywords typically associated with spammy unsolicited emails. When writing subject lines, be sure to avoid using these words.
Another flag for spam is emailers that contain a high image ratio. Never use one large image as your entire emailer. Emails should always contain a higher ratio of text to images. By keeping a lower image ratio, you can prevent your email from being flagged as spam.
Step up your click-through rates
Email click-through rate is the percentage of people who clicked on your email’s call-to-action (CTA). Click-through rates can show how well your audience is engaging with your content.
Some steps for improving click-through rates include:
- focusing on a clear message,
- creating mobile-friendly emails
- and writing engaging content.
#1 Highlight ONE clear message:
The most effective emailers are those that focus on a single purpose. No one wants to read lengthy emails. Clearly state your message and include a noticeable CTA that motivates readers to take action.
According to Campaign Monitor, including a call to action button instead of a text link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. While packing several CTA buttons into one emailer may seem like a good idea, it’s actually much more distracting to the viewer and generally leads to them clicking on nothing.
#2 Be mobile-friendly:
Everyone constantly has their phone on them. It’s no surprise, then, that 65% of emails are first opened on mobile devices. This means it’s imperative that your emails load quickly and are easy to see on mobile. If your email isn’t optimized for mobile devices, readers will delete or ignore your email.
#3 Catch their interest:
Now that your recipient has opened your email, you want to pique their interest and get them to take the next step. To guide them through your conversion path, offer additional information they would find valuable or provide them with a compelling offer. When creating email marketing campaigns, keep your buyer personas in mind. What are their wants, needs and pain points?
For more B2B email marketing tips, check out How to Use Email Marketing to Get Leads.
In B2B tech marketing, tactics should be thought of as part of a larger whole, rather than separate pieces. By strategically integrating new and traditional marketing tactics, your marketing program become more effective and cost efficient. To learn more about how you can increase your lead generation and overall marketing, download our free eBook: Modern Integrated Digital Marketing—A Better Path for B2B Technology Marketers.