Intermediate Guide - Why Is My Email Campaign Performing Poorly?

In my last post, I spoke about ways to increase your email marketing ROI and gave you some statistics on email marketing. If you missed this post you can read it here “Beginner’s Guide - Why Is My Email Campaign Performing Poorly? ”.

In this post, I want to go over some ways to improve your email marketing campaign's performance to help you to hit your company’s revenue targets.

“On average, managers are spending 2.4 hours per rep on monthly coaching — we need to do better!” — Wes Schaeffer (Host of TheSalesPodcast.com) @SalesWhisperer

Ways To Improve Your Email Marketing Performance

Below are 8 tips that can help you improve a poorly performing email campaign to achieve better results.

1. Scrub And Verify Your Email List Regularly

It is important to keep your email marketing lists clean and relevant. This is because if you are emailing the wrong people and you have high bounce rates your campaigns will not be performing at an optimal level. Run your lists through programs such as AnyLeads or Hunter to ensure you have the correct email addresses and are not emailing non-existent emails.

2. Personalise The Email To Each Recipient

Many bulk email providers allow you to insert Snippets int your emails, which you can personalize. If you do this, the person receiving the mail believes you have taken the time to make it about them, this will improve your chances of replies and decrease your chances of unsubscribes.

3. Use Emojis In Your Subject Line

Emoji’s are fun and are being seen everywhere. For this reason, people relate to them and they feel more comfortable with them. Use them to break the ice and entice people to read your email. Do not overdo it though, as this will make your email look spammy and unprofessional

4. Test Multiple Deployment Times

Knowing when to send your email is crucial. It is also important to remember that what works for one person may not work for you. Don’t rely on generic times to be your times. Test when you send your email and look at the results. Perhaps people in your industry like their emails best on a Saturday. Most email tools allow for the analysis of engagement and open time monitoring, something that's sure to help you identify the best times to send your communications to each group.

5. Build A Double Opt-in List

Many people shy away from building a double opt-in list because they assume the extra step might act as a repellent, resulting in a smaller list. A smaller list that is more responsive to your emails is a much more valuable asset than a huge list that never opens your emails. If someone takes the time to opt-in to your list that means they are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

6. Segment Your Email List

By sending messages to targeted groups within your list, your audience finds your message more relevant, which ultimately provides you with better results. Every list has subscribers who are interested in different types of offers, segmenting allows you to give your subscribers what they want.

7. Use A Custom Responsive Email Template

The majority of your subscribers are going to be opening your emails on their mobile devices, so it’s important that you use a newsletter template that’s responsive. If you use a service like MailChimp, their templates are responsive and deliver your message perfectly across all devices and screen sizes. Take it a step further and have a custom template designed so your emails are branded and stand out.

8. Have One Clear Call-To-Action Per Email

If you don’t have one clearly defined call-to-action, you are going to experience minimal results. Your subscribers don’t have time to read through long emails, trying to determine what you want them to do or what exactly your offer is. If your recipient doesn’t know what you want them to do within seconds of opening your email, they will most likely delete your email.

These are just some tips that you can use to improve your email marketing campaigns' performance. For a more in-depth look at how you can use these tips and more, read our blog post - "Why Is My Email Campaign Performing Poorly? - Part 2 (The Intermediate Guide)".

In my next post, I will take you through the common mistakes that can kill your open rates as well as the best practices for using links in emails. Read it here: Advanced Guide - Why Is My Email Campaign Performing Poorly?