Statistics indicate that for every Rs.1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of Rs.38 to Rs.44. Email is a medium that’s widely-used by all generations and so, email marketing is still a winning strategy, especially when India and the world stays indoors during the lockdown.
However, if you’re struggling to rake in profits and wondering how to start an email marketing campaign that works, consider inspecting your email open rates. Emails are doorways to calls to action that you can use to promote products and services, and unopened mails are nothing but a huge loss of revenue.
Having your emails opened isn’t a matter of tricking readers. Rather, you need to adopt a more calculated and nuanced email marketing strategy. Read on to know how you can improve your email open rates and increase the reach of your content.
Refresh your email subscriber list
While the number of subscribers is important, you need to ensure that they are active and still want to hear from you to ramp up your email open rates. The reason for them being inactive could either be changes in contact information or disinterest in your email content. So, use your email marketing analytics software to sift out subscribers that have been inactive for more than 6 months and consider dropping them from your email list. However, firstly, try re-establishing contact by sending welcome back emails and content that will spark interest. Ultimately, trimming your list offers you more quality leads and leads to cost-effective mail marketing.
Use subscriber preference to segment your list
Keeping your content relevant is one of the evergreen email marketing tips and to do this you can fall back on subscriber behaviour and preference. For example, your email design and content can be different for customers who have purchased products and for those who have showed interest in certain products only.
The former can be given tips on how to use the product and the latter given access to seasonal discounts. Similarly, you can create a B2B email list to cater well to the needs of the professional sphere. Segmenting your email list as per your subscriber’s preferences makes it easier for you to write subject lines and headers that will make readers open your emails.
Beat the spam filters
While spam filters have advanced over the years, they are not perfect. So, there’s still a high chance that your emails may get caught by email marketing spam filters, unbeknownst to your subscriber. Hence, the onus is on you to avoid spam trigger words and adopt intelligent techniques.
Here are some tips that can help you prevent your emails from being marked as spam.
- Ensure that all the recipients on your list have subscribed to your email campaign
- Send your emails via clean and verified IP addresses and domains that have not been used to deliver spam
- Use merge tags to personalise the ‘To’ field
- Ask your subscribers to add you to their contact list to avoid getting hoisted by their spam filter
- Avoid using spam-triggering sales language in your subject line and email
- Let your subscribers know how to unsubscribe from your email campaign
Schedule your email blast smartly
Time is crucial to email open rates and you can run a handful of A/B tests to identify the most rewarding window for an email marketing campaign. If you are not keen on conducting tests, draw from research carried out by Mailchimp experts, which indicates that the best time to send emails to your subscribers is during weekdays, as opposed to weekends, at 10 AM in the subscriber’s time zone.
However, you also need to probe into certain factors: What does a workday in your target audiences’ life looks like? Is your email content work- or leisure-related? Do your subscribers read emails once they are home? Considering such factors will help you zero-in on the perfect time to schedule email blasts.
Craft interesting subject lines
Your subject line is the first thing that your subscriber reads once your email lands in their inbox. Therefore, do not make the mistake of writing generic, uninteresting and salesy subject lines. Also, do remember that a unique, creative email subject line helps you avoid getting caught by spam filters.
To help you outshine your competition and write some witty subject lines, here are some useful tips:
- Your subject line should arouse curiosity without trying too hard
- It should be clever enough to entice your recipients but not be indecipherable
- Use statistics in your subject line as these instantly draw attention
- Keep the tone of your subject line conversational, funny and light
- Consider your subscriber’s comprehension level and calibrate your subject line accordingly
Implement these email marketing tips to boost your email open rates, increase subscriber numbers and achieve your goals. To plan and execute a comprehensive strategy for your email campaign, contact us.
