When it comes to marketing your product or services through email, there’s one pain point that every email marketer faces and has this one question in their mind – How do I get people to open my email? Practicing good inbound email marketing practices can improve your open and clickthrough rate but for that, you need to reach those people who want to hear from you. It will automatically improve your email open rates. In this article, we’ll talk about 15 tips that you can leverage to increase your email marketing ROI.
According to a report, more than 330 Million emails are sent daily and it might cross 376 Million by 2025 – all because of email marketing which outperforms SEO, Content Marketing, and even PPC. But what exactly is email marketing? Let’s understand that first:
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses email to promote products or services to current or potential customers. It is cost-effective and efficient for companies to reach their target audience and communicate with existing customers.
By creating personalized and relevant emails, businesses can increase engagement and drive conversions. It is more important than ever and is still one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach their target audience and those who may be interested in their products or services.
However, creating a successful email marketing campaign requires a strategic approach and careful execution. This article explores key best practices for email marketing that can help businesses achieve their marketing goals.
15 Actionable Email Marketing Tips That Will Increase Your Open Rates
Here are 15 email marketing tips that will increase your email open rates and marketing ROI in 2023:
1. Create attention-grabbing subject lines
The first thing to remember when crafting a subject line is to ensure it’s relevant. Avoid having your readers wondering why they’re receiving an email from you by making sure the subject line interests or draws them in.
When sending an email about a new product or service, use “New” as the headline of your subject line or even better, use their name. This way, people will immediately know what the email is about before opening it.
For example – Priyanka, you can use this new marketing tool to decrease your bounce rates by 10x
If the specific product or service doesn’t appeal to them, they can simply skip over it and move on.
2. Make use of a reputable email provider
Email is a vital communication channel for businesses, but it is often overlooked. To ensure that your business can communicate with customers and prospects promptly, it is essential to use a reputable email service provider. A good email service provider should have an easy-to-use interface, reliable uptime, and robust spam protection.
Additionally, it should have a good reputation for security and reliability and integrate easily with your website.
3. Segment your list
Segmenting your email list is essential for effective email marketing, particularly if you wish to focus on the most successful segments. There are various ways to segment your list such as:
- Gender and age groups (e.g., 18-29-year-olds)
- Interests or hobbies (e.g., foodies)
- Location (e.g., NYC vs Los Angeles)
This way you can create a more personalized message and increase the chances of success.
4. Don’t be hesitant to utilize emojis
Emojis are an excellent way to convey emotions and can be used in emails, social media, and promotions. They also help to make your message more memorable and engaging, setting you apart from your competitors. However, it’s important not to overuse them as too many can make your message appear cluttered and hard to read.
The key is to find a balance between using emojis that are perfectly suited for each situation, such as a smiley face when something good happens, and not going overboard by using them in every email. This way, you can make your message more engaging without overwhelming your audience.
5. Send an email blast to promote your content
When you have a new blog post, consider sending it out in the form of an email blast to your audience. This is a great way to inform them of your new content and drive traffic to your website.
Additionally, if you’re promoting a new product or service from your business, use email blasts to provide details about what’s available and how to access it.
If you’ve released a new video on YouTube or any other platform, send the link via email so that people don’t forget about it. This helps to increase engagement and drive more traffic to your video content.
6. Make highly effective landing pages
A landing page is a crucial part of your email marketing strategy as it’s where you want to direct people who have just received one of your emails. It’s also the place where they can take action. To make it effective, it should be relevant to the content in your emails so that people know what they are signing up for or buying when they click through.
Additionally, landing pages should be clear and concise to avoid confusion about what you are selling or offering. Avoid using long paragraphs, as they can lose readers’ attention by being too wordy or redundant. Keep the information simple and to the point to make it easy for them to understand and take action.
7. Avoid bombarding your list.
Don’t overdo it. Sending more emails than necessary may result in fewer people opening them. Limit yourself to one message per day for most campaigns, unless it is something of great importance.
Overwhelming subscribers with too many messages can lead them to ignore all of them and make decisions based on what they see first, rather than being fully informed through proper content creation strategies.
8. Make sure your website is responsive to mobile devices.
Make sure that your landing page is mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, people may miss out on an opportunity because they couldn’t access it while on their phones.
Use a responsive design, which will ensure that the layout of your website and emails is compatible with all devices. The text should be readable on any device size, from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones.
9. Don’t forget to comply with GDPR.
GDPR is a new EU data protection law that takes effect on May 25th, 2018. It aims to give citizens more control over their personal data by granting them rights over how it is collected and used.
This regulation affects all companies operating in Europe, including those who conduct business with customers from the EU. As a result, email marketing providers must ensure compliance with GDPR to continue doing business with EU-based clients.
For email marketers, it’s crucial to consider how the content of emails may be affected by GDPR. Sensitive financial information or personal details, such as names and addresses, must be protected as “Personally Identifiable Information” (PII). Failing to properly protect this type of information could result in legal action against the company.
10. Make your email social sharing friendly.
To maximize the reach of your email marketing campaigns, optimize them for social sharing. This can be done by including clear call-to-actions such as “Share” below each image, video, or other content in your email.
You should also include links to other popular platforms like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, to make it easy for recipients to share your content with their own networks.
11. Use your unique email style.
Instead of copying other people’s styles, create something unique and add a personal touch. Experiment with different formats such as video introductions, animated GIFs, or infographics to see what resonates with your audience.
Be careful not to make your emails look like spam. Remember, the goal is to communicate effectively and build a relationship with your subscribers.
12. Use automation where possible.
Email automation is a powerful tool that can save you time and improve your marketing strategy. By automating certain tasks, such as sending welcome emails, discount codes, and birthday emails, you can ensure that your customers are engaged with your brand and always know what’s happening in real time. Platforms like Zapier or IFTTT can help you automate certain events.
13. A/B testing and experimenting with fresh ideas
It’s important to note that testing and experimentation are continuous processes and not one-time tasks. As you gather data and analyze the results of your A/B testing, you should make adjustments to your email marketing strategy accordingly.
Also, it’s crucial to personalize your emails as much as possible, as this can increase engagement and conversions. Personalization can range from addressing the recipient by name to tailoring the content to their interests and behaviour.
14. Set goals
Additionally, setting goals helps to track progress and measure the success of your email marketing efforts. By setting specific and measurable goals, you can track the number of emails sent, open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and other important metrics.
This data can then be used to make informed decisions about how to improve your email marketing strategy, such as adjusting the frequency of emails, testing different subject lines, or changing the format of your emails. Overall, setting goals is crucial for effectively managing and improving your email marketing efforts.
15. Develop a strategy for email marketing
Creating an email marketing strategy is crucial. It’s important to have a plan in place before you start sending emails so you know how many contacts are going out per day and what type of content they should contain.
The first step is to create your creative brief. This will help you determine who your audience is and what kind of message they want from their emails (such as “buy now!” or “learn more here”).
Wrapping Up
Email marketing isn’t a new thing. It’s been popular for years but only a few email marketers can win this race of getting their emails opened by the maximum number of people. Though it looks hard but if you follow the above 15 tips while curating your email list, you’ll see a major difference from before.
Email marketing continues and will continue to deliver good results if done the right way. All you need is to target the right people, personalize your message and optimize it for different devices so that your target audience can go through the email with ease. These 15 email marketing tips will increase customer responsiveness, improve campaign performance, and help your business grow.
FAQs
Q1. How can I increase my open rate in email marketing?
Ans. Here are a few tips to help increase your email open rate:
- Use a clear and compelling subject line: Your subject line is the first thing recipients see, so make sure it’s attention-grabbing and relevant to the content of the email.
- Segment your email list: Sending targeted, personalized messages to specific segments of your email list can increase open rates.
- Test different sending times: Experiment with sending your emails at different times of the day or week to see when your open rates are highest.
- Optimize for mobile: Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly and easy to read on small screens.
- Make sure that your email is not marked as spam by monitoring your “spam score” and making sure that your email is not triggering spam filters.
- Send reminders or follow-up emails to non-openers.
Q2. What is the 80/20 rule in email marketing?
Ans. The 80/20 rule in email marketing states that 80% of your email content should provide value to your audience, while only 20% should be used to promote your products or services. This rule encourages marketers to focus on building a relationship with their audience by providing useful and informative content, rather than constantly trying to sell to them. By following this rule, marketers can increase the likelihood that their emails will be opened and read, and that their audience will be more likely to engage with their brand.
Q3. What are the best email marketing strategies?
Ans. Here are a few email marketing strategies that can help you achieve success:
- Personalize your emails: Use your subscribers’ data to personalize the subject line and content of your emails. This can help increase open and click-through rates.
- Email segmentation: Divide your email list into smaller groups based on demographics, behavior, or interests. This will allow you to send more targeted and relevant content to each group.
- A/B test your emails: Test different elements of your emails such as subject lines, headlines, and calls-to-action to see what resonates best with your audience.
- Email automation: Use automation to trigger targeted and personalized emails based on subscriber behavior, such as an abandoned cart or browse abandonment emails.
- Mobile optimization: Optimize your emails for mobile devices to ensure that they look great and are easy to interact with on a small screen.
- Deliver value: Provide value to your subscribers by sharing valuable information or providing exclusive deals or discounts.
- Good and crisp subject line: Make sure that your subject lines are clear, specific, and attention-grabbing. This can increase the chances of your emails being opened.
- Be consistent: Send emails on a regular schedule and make sure that your content is high-quality and relevant to your audience.