It does not matter how experienced the email marketer is, still, every message he sends out is created through hard work. The creation of every email starts with two questions: “Where to start” and “What to write.” Often, finding the answers to these questions takes lots of time and attempts to find the right “selling” words. And even with a perfect content, high conversion is still not guaranteed. After all, the content you deliver is important, but it is not the only element that influences the engagement.
Today, email marketing is still evolving. For example, a well-known service Gmail has 1 billion users, and this is not the limit. Different market studies predict that by 2020 the number of email users will increase to 3 billion, which is almost half of the world’s population. Thus, the effectiveness of email marketing can’t give in to doubt; you only need to use it right.
Of course, e-mail is not dead. However, it becomes more difficult to achieve success in this area every year. To help you avoid some common mistakes, in this article, we will share some tips on how to use email marketing for sustainable growth and increase the engagement of your recipients.
What Are The Best Ways To Increase Email Engagement?
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill to help you increase the response rate immediately. Only persistent and hard work on all fronts of email marketing gives a visible result.
In this article, we have tried to collect the most effective tips to help you increase the response to your emails step by step.
Provide high-quality content.
The text of your letter should be easy to read. Do not write in long and complex sentences. Professionals claim that 7-10 words are the optimal size of a sentence, while longer sentences are hard to read. However, you also should not write the whole text in simple and short sentences. The best decision is to alternate long sentences with short ones.
Another important thing is the structure of your content. A well-structured text that has subheadings and delivers important information to the recipients also contributes to the increase of the engagement and response rate.
Define the purpose of each email in advance.
Defining the purpose and goals of your letters is important. Having defined the purpose of the new letter, you will be able to form the mailing lists more effectively and, consequently, achieve greater success.
The purpose of the newsletter may be to obtain additional information about the recipient. In this case, it is wise to use special forms that your recipients can fill out. Another purpose is attracting potential buyers to the website. Based on your goals, you can create the right content and thus, increase engagement.
Provide the recipient with additional incentives, such as a call to action and links in the text. This way you increase the chances of success. Each person’s behavior is unique, so your letters must be flexible.
Personalize your emails.
Personalization of emails works! For example, letters that contain the recipient’s name in the subject line, have a significantly higher response rate compared to letters with the same theme for all.
However, it is important to stick to the basics concerning personalization. Professionals recommend using only the recipient’s name and the company name, but no more. Do not try to get into trust by using additional data. You may seem overly intrusive and even scare off potential customers.
It is hard to imagine a more unattractive letter than the one that starts with the template “Dear customer” or, even worse, “Dear [Surname].” To avoid such embarrassment, be sure to check the letters before sending. Also, don’t forget to make sure that you correctly indicated the name of the recipient.
Create a professional signature.
An email signature is a great marketing tool that will make your recipients more engaged, drive more traffic to your website, increase your social presence, and give a good presentation of your company to the potential customers.
Although some people still ignore the importance of this element of email marketing, it can work to the benefit of your business. Here are a few reasons to use an email signature:
It provides the links to the things that matter. Thus, with the help of an email stamp, you can attract more visitors to your company’s website, blog or social media channels.
It provides your contact details and a brief but memorable presentation of your business.
It makes your letters more professional and shows that you are running a legitimate and well-established business.
It increases the recognition of your brand.
Email signatures that contain photos help people make a personal association with you, which also contributes to increased engagement.
Try sending letters on different days.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days for sending emails. Therefore, the vast majority of your subscribers receive tons of messages these days. If you want more attention to your letters, try sending them on Mondays or Fridays. These days your recipients’ inbox is less clogged with all sorts of advertising mailings.
Also, people respond well to calls to action on Saturdays. So do not be afraid to experiment! Try different options and closely monitor the recipients’ reaction to find the perfect option for you.
Be attentive to the subject of the letter.
Do not use clickbait in the subject line. If people open an email and then immediately go back, realizing that the content doesn’t fit the subject, this has a negative effect on the response rate.
For the best results, customize and personalize the subject lines of the letters, and experiment with emoji. Professional advice: before starting the newsletter, read the topic of the letter out loud. Would you open a letter with such a topic?
Optimize the letter length, width, and size.
The width of the letter should not exceed 600 pixels for its correct display on different devices. There are no strict limitations on the length. If the information is useful, the person will read the long text. However, remember that with the same value, a short letter always wins.
If the letter weighs more than 102 KB, the Gmail email client will display it incompletely, which will lower the conversion. To prevent this, do not stitch pictures into the letter. Instead, you can use links to them.
Use the inverted pyramid method.
According to this method, a letter consists of three elements: first, a bright photo or catchy title to attract attention, then include all the important information about a product or offer, and finally, make a clear call to action.