Marketers can track a variety of metrics to assess the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns: revenue, content scoring, nurture track success, opt-in rates, unsubscribe rates, and sharing of email content.
But there is one metric that precedes them all: the open rate.
Prospects must open your email in order to further engage them with any sort of messaging, content asset, or information; and before you can track click-through rates, revenue generation, or any other business-growth metric.
But with an average of 81 new emails landing in inboxes per day, and 84% of those being spam, how do you make any one email stand out?
Try These Simple Email Hacks
1. Create a Punchy, Memorable Subject Line
33% of people open email based on the subject line alone, so don’t let it go to waste. People tend to react to curious, intriguing information. Give your subject lines careful thought, and craft something that is informative, interesting, and note- (or click-) worthy.
33% of people open email based on the subject line alone.
2. Personalize the Message
Adding a personal touch to your marketing emails means a lot to your prospects. The brain has a heightened awareness when someone hears their name, and using first names in email subject lines and copy are no exception. Make your prospects feel cared for by using dynamic fields to enter a person’s first name, company name, or industry into the message. This will make your email stand out, and your chance for clicks greater.
3. Resend Relevant Assets
Email inboxes can be like black holes, sucking mail into oblivion. Don’t be afraid to resend relevant content to particular email segments, in case they missed the first email. This can drastically increase your overall open rates, and often times people appreciate the second chance to dive into the content.
4. Keep Subject Lines Short
Succinct subject lines tend to be more successful. Several studies have shown that shorter subjects lines have higher click-through rates than longer variations. For instance, this study found subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%.
Subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%.
5. Be Provocative
Not all marketing subject lines and copy can be provocative, but A/B tests have shown that—sometimes—a little personality or flavor can go a long way. For instance, folks at Promise Media found that subject lines that involved sex, violence, controversy, humor, and money perform better than more bland topics.
Use this tactic carefully, though. The line between offensive and provocative can get a little blurry, and you want to stay (mostly) on the right side of it.
6. Coordinate Your Messaging
Your inbound marketing should be consistent and meaningful to your prospects. Carefully design emails with nurture campaigns to connect with each other, and build on each other.
For instance, mention previous emails or content that the prospect interacted with prior to receiving the email at hand, in order to jog their memory about why they’d care to open it, and encourage them to learn more about that subject.
7. Use Interesting Verbs
Strong verbs convey action, excitement, and intrigue. Consider using active verbs in subject lines and throughout email copy to excite your readers and engage their interest.
8. Play Your Best Hand
Create emails in the way that your prospects want to receive it. 64% of people in 2014 said they prefer to receive HTML-based (rich-text) emails (as opposed to plain text), according to the Science of Emails 2014.
64% of people in 2014 said they prefer to receive HTML-based emails.
9. Know Your Audience
Not all inboxes are equal. Demographic differences often play a role in how people treat email. For instance, 63% of people between 18- and 29-years-old use automatic email filters in their inboxes, while only 49% of people over the age of 60 do; and younger people tend to use their phones more frequently to read email than older people.
Studying your target audience can shape your messaging and email strategy to give you a better chance for that almighty click.
63% of people between 18- and 29-years-old use automatic email filters in their inboxes.
10. Consider Local Schedules
Determining when during the day to send emails is over overlooked, but can be extremely important. Send email during opportune times for people to view the content, like during business hours and commuting hours rather than dinner time or during the middle of the night.
Similarly, be cognizant of time zones, and cultural tendencies in relation to time. For instance, the American east coast is often doing business later than the American west coast. This assures your email is connecting with your prospects when they’re awake and able to take time to read your content.
Email marketing is one of the more consistent marketing techniques in the digital age. Take the time to make each of your emails right. We hope these 10 quick hacks improve your click-through rates, boost revenue, engage a broader segment of your email database, and make you a better marketer.