Email marketing is one of the most effective and affordable ways to reach your audience and generate leads, sales, and loyalty. But it's not enough to just send out emails and hope for the best. You need to optimize your email campaigns for maximum engagement and conversions. But how do you increase email engagement and conversions? Here are six practical tips to help you do that.
The first step to increase email engagement and conversions is to know who you're sending your emails to. You need to segment your email list based on relevant criteria, such as demographics, interests, behavior, or stage in the buyer's journey. This way, you can tailor your email content, tone, and offer to match each segment's needs, preferences, and expectations. Segmentation also helps you avoid sending irrelevant or spammy emails that could hurt your reputation and deliverability.
It’s tempting to assume you know your target and skimp on this part of the process. I’ve definitely done that. To ensure I’m working with real, actionable information about my target customers, I reach out to colleagues and friends in my network in a relevant job role and ask them 3 questions: 1. How are you solving <insert problem your product solves> today? 2. What product(s) are you using, and why. 3. If I sent you an email about solving your problem, what would stand out and make you open it? Don’t worry if you don’t have someone in your network. I’ve found strangers pretty responsive to my requests for insights.
The subject line is the first thing your subscribers see when they receive your email. It's also the main factor that determines whether they open it or not. Therefore, you need to write subject lines that capture their attention, curiosity, and emotion. Use clear, concise, and specific language that conveys the value and benefit of your email. Avoid using misleading, vague, or generic phrases that could lower your open rate and trust. You can also use personalization, urgency, or questions to make your subject lines more appealing and relevant.
When writing subject lines, I write at least 5, each emphasizing a different reason the target should open the email. For example, because it’s on sale or a discount ends soon, because it solves a problem they’re grappling with or thinking about right now as they’re navigating their workday, or because it’ll help them achieve a business or career goal, e.g. recognition. I whittle the list down to my 2-3 best and I test them all in combination with 2-3 versions of the body text and/or visual design of the email.
The preheader text is the snippet of text that appears next to or below the subject line in most email clients. It's another opportunity to entice your subscribers to open your email and read more. You can use the preheader text to expand on your subject line, summarize your main message, or include a call to action. Make sure your preheader text is consistent with your subject line and email content, and avoid repeating the same information. You can also test different preheader texts to see what works best for your audience.
More than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, according to Litmus. This means you need to design your emails for mobile users, or you risk losing their attention and conversions. You can use responsive design to ensure your emails adapt to different screen sizes and orientations. You can also use a simple and clean layout, a readable font size, a single-column format, and clear and visible buttons. Avoid using too many images, videos, or attachments that could slow down the loading time or affect the deliverability of your emails.
When I design emails, I am stingy with the images or graphics. I don’t use photos unless they are absolutely critical to conveying the message or helping my target customer understand what I’m selling. I limit the labels and words in graphics because they can be hard to read or distract from the messaging. After I’ve decided on my visual design elements, I take one more pass at the to ensure it’s optimized to leverage what’s best about your mobile device—the ability to take action immediately, like clicking a button to answer a question, shop now, or subscribe.
The content of your email is what ultimately determines whether your subscribers engage with it and take action. You need to provide valuable content that educates, entertains, or inspires your audience. You can use stories, testimonials, case studies, tips, or other types of content that relate to your audience's pain points, goals, or interests. You can also use different formats, such as text, images, videos, or audio, to make your content more engaging and diverse. The key is to focus on the benefits and solutions that your email offers, not just the features or details.
Here I always try to make sure I’m answering the question: “So what?”. My product does X. But rather than write that, I write the benefit to the target. It’s the difference between “provides a dashboard” and “provides utilization data that’s easily shared with your clients”. In most cases you’ll find that the feature list of your product is pretty generic, so I try to focus on no more than three unique benefits of my product, which could include how it gets the job done—if that’s what differentiates my product from competitors. Lastly, I try to minimize email length and drive the target to a landing page to learn more or buy.
The call to action (CTA) is the most important element of your email. It's what tells your subscribers what you want them to do next, whether it's to click a link, download a resource, sign up for a webinar, or buy a product. You need to include a clear and compelling CTA that stands out from the rest of your email content. You can use a contrasting color, a large and clickable button, or an action-oriented phrase that creates a sense of urgency or curiosity. You can also use one CTA per email, or multiple CTAs if they have the same goal or destination.
I keep the CTAs to no more than two—one that closes the deal now and one that provides the target additional info if they need it to make the purchase decision. For example, “Subscribe” and “Learn More”. I try to ensure the main CTA will be visible onscreen when the email is opened, without the need to scroll.