How to get more people to open and read your emails.
10 email marketing tips that can radically transform your email success in 2021.
Let's get one thing clear; email marketing is important. Super important. It is still one of the most affordable and powerful marketing channels in our marketing toolkit. But like every marketing channel, there is an art to it.
There are specific tips, tricks and techniques that can make your email marketing more effective in 2021. And I thought I'd share 10 of my favourite email strategies.
When thinking about an email marketing strategy, I like to break it down into two phases:
10 tips to improve your email marketing campaign success
Inbox Attraction: How to stand out in the inbox and get your audience to open your email.
Email Engagement: How to make your content so good, your audience has to read it and click through to your website.
If you focus on optimising for the inbox and then email engagement, it helps to simplify the email campaign process and keep you on track.
THE ART OF INBOX ATTRACTION
Just because some has signed up to receive your email doesn't mean they're going to see your emails. The average inbox is like a jungle, and to stand out can feel like a fight for survival.
According to Statistica, the average person gets about 120 emails a day, but only 18% of emails received are opened. This means you've got to have your shit together and really stand out if you want your email to be opened.
If you follow these email marketing tactics, you'll definitely improve your chances:
Tip 1: Make your sender name and from address feel human
People are naturally drawn to emails sent from someone they know, and they're more likely to open an email from a human than an organisation. So make sure your sender name and from email address feels personal, is recognisable and memorable. You can do this even if you're emailing on behalf of a business. It can be as simple as changing admin@company.com to lee@company.com.
Tip 2: Care about your subject line (a lot). Make it personal.
Studies show up to 50% of subscribers decide to open a message based on the subject line. So your subject line matters and any effort you put into getting your subject line is well worth it.
When it comes to creating a good subject line my tips are:
Keep it as short as possible
Make it feel like it's a question or cool piece of info you're sharing with a friend
Include the recipient's name frequently (not all the time). Emails with subject lines that include the recipient's name are 26% more likely to be opened.
Include emojis now and then (not all the time)
Tip 3: Use your preheader and treat it as an extension of your subject line
There are three things your audience sees in their inbox: the sender name, subject line and preheader. So please write a preheader for your email, especially if you have a short subject line. Emails with preheaders are 7% more likely to get opened.
The preheader is your chance to entice your subscriber and tease to the content of your email, so they simply have to open.
Tip 4: Find the right frequency
Marketers who send just one newsletter a week get the highest average open and click-through rates. But those who send two to three have higher conversion rates.
The sweet spot is around one to three emails a week, subject to your content! If you decide to send more than one email a week, make sure you can deliver high-quality content every time. But, whatever you do, please DO NOT compromise quality for quantity.
Tip 5: Get your timing right
There's a lot of research around the best time of day to send an email, but nearly all agree that 10 am (just as people get into their day) or 1 pm (just after lunch) is the best time to send an email.
Tip 6: Pick your day to send
Like the time of day, many experts talk about the best day of the week to send an email and it seems pretty unanimous that Tuesdays and Thursday are the best days in terms of open rates and click-through rates.
THE ART OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT
Once you've successfully got your subscriber to open your email, you're halfway there. Now you need to rock their world with your email content.
Tip 7: Make a good first impression
If you manage to get someone to open your email, you only have a few seconds to make a good impression before they move on.
The best way to make the right first impression is to make your email easy to scan and hook them in with one to three pieces of strong visual content.
Tip 8: Segment your email list and customise your content
If you want to transform your engagement rates and click-through rates, you need to start segmenting your email list. Once you've segmented your list you can tailor the content of your email to suit your different subscribers and their interest - sending them information that is personal and relevant to them.
Doing good segmenting also allows you to personalise your content - emails with an element of personalisation enjoy 18% higher email click-through rates.
Email marketing platforms such as MailChimp or Active Campaign are affordable (often free if you're starting with a small list), easy to use, and give you the power to segment, customise and personalise your emails.
Tip 9: Make it easy to unsubscribe
This may sound counterintuitive because we all want to grow our email lists, but trust me, this one is important.
There are many reasons someone may want to unsubscribe (which we'll dive into another day), and if that day comes. LET THEM GO WITH GRACE.
If you make it impossible for someone to unsubscribe from your email list gracefully, you will only end up creating negative feeling from your audience and damage your brand equity. You'll also get yourself reported as spam and kill your open rates.
Don't force anyone to stay on your list by making it hard to unsubscribe. If they want to go, let them go.
“If you love something, set it free; if it comes backs it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was.”
You'd much rather have a small list of highly engaged fans than a big list of people who don't want to be there.
Tip 10: Leverage transactional emails
This is a hot tip for you - make use of your transactional emails.
Transactional emails are boring admin style emails such as password reset, order confirmation, subscription confirmation or shipping confirmation emails. Because they're transactional, people pay attention to them and they can get 8x more opens and clicks and can generate 6x more revenue.
Most businesses completely miss the opportunity resting in transactional emails. Don't be one of them! Fill them with epic, value-driven content and watch your email results sky-rocket.
Very hot email marketing tip is to leverage your transactional emails