by Cassi Knight Marketers, listen up! Are you trying… but failing to successfully use email to boost leads and get more customers? ...
by Cassi Knight
Source
Marketers, listen up!
Are you trying… but failing to successfully use email to boost leads and get more customers?
You’re not alone.
Email marketing is the most effective form of online marketing when it comes to increasing those conversions, but a lot of marketers struggle to get the results they really want from a campaign.
But… it doesn’t have to be an uphill climb!
In fact, by simply adding the recipient’s name into their
email subject lines, Quick Sprout increased their open rates from 21% to
53%.
Just one little change drastically improved their subscriber engagement.
So how can you make like Quick Sprout and turn your
campaigns from failing flops into tools that boost engagement, increase
sales, and get you more email opens?
How to Increase Your Email Engagement
1. Generate Engagement and Nurture Relationships
Engagement is a key part of any marketing campaign these days. 87% of consumers crave deeper connections with brands and, to do that, those brands need to open up a two-way dialogue with their audience.
Use Your Words
Engagement is all about interacting with your subscribers
and writing to them in a way they resonate with. When we’re having a
conversation with someone in real life, we feel more connected to them
if they use the same language as us, and this works exactly the same in
emails.
Instead of diving right into the pitch or the message of your email, start it off as if you’re writing to a friend.
So, rather than:
“Hey [subscriber’s name],Increasing your email open rates is really important if you want to make more sales…”
You might write something like:
“Hey [subscriber’s name],I went out to dinner with some friends this past weekend and we got to chatting about emails and what it is about them that makes us open them or send them straight to the trash bin…”
You see the difference there?
In the first email, I’m diving right into the subject
without really bringing the reader into the conversation. In the second,
however, I set the scene and bring them into the topic via a more
casual route.
This works for boosting engagement rates because it taps
into that hunger that we, as humans, have for connection with other
people. Consumers don’t want to just be sold to or to simply be the
“receiver” of an email; they want to be a part of the conversation and will actively want to get involved if you give them the chance to.
Create Emotions With Color
As well as using your words to boost engagement, you can
encourage subscribers to act in a certain way or engage in something
particular.
First and foremost, ask yourself what engagement means to you. Does it mean:
- Hitting reply and responding to your email?
- Clicking on something within your email?
- Sharing your email?
When you figure out what exactly it is you want
subscribers to do or engage with in your email, you can guide them in
that direction by implementing different colors.
Why does this work?
Because certain colors evoke certain emotions. In fact, 93% of consumers place visual appearance and color above everything else when shopping, while a further 85% claim color forms an important part of why the choose to buy a particular product.
When you’ve figured out what you want to do, implement a
color that guides subscribers towards that action: e.g. red for a sense
of urgency if you want them to buy, or blue to create trust and build
authenticity.
2. See a Surge in Conversions
Conversions are one of the most important metrics for
business. When you have no conversions, you have no sales, which isn’t
good news for your brand.
If you’re looking to boost your conversion rates, you need
to look outside of the email itself. Think of the email here as a
portal to a landing page that generates conversions. You send an email
to your loyal list that tells them about a product or service, they
click through and – bam! – they buy.
If you’re struggling to convert via this method, take a
look at the landing page and the call-to-action you’re using to get
people there.
Again, you can use colors and language that resonate to
drive clicks to your landing page, but it’s when the subscribers are
there that the magic needs to happen.
The simplest thing you can do here to fix a lack of conversions is to design your landing page with one single goal in mind – to get the subscriber to convert. I see a lot of marketers make the mistake of implementing busy landing pages that are stuffed full of information.
This landing page on Health Life is short and sweet, with one main aim – to get the reader to book an appointment.
The reality is, not everyone is going to trawl through
that information until they get to the good bit. Instead, you want to
make the “good bit” (a.k.a. The bit where they click “buy” or
“subscribe”) stand out.
It’s worth testing a range of different landing page designs with different colors and text to see which ones perform the best.
3. Encourage More Click-Throughs
Getting subscribers to click through from the email to a
blog post, sales page, or other resource is one of the biggest struggles
email marketers face.
Encouraging your list to open your email is one thing
(which I’ll discuss in more detail in a moment), but getting them to
take the action you want them to take is another beast entirely.
Create Irresistible Calls-to-Action
The most persuasive tool you have to drive click-throughs
are your calls-to-action. These are the buttons or linked text you use
to guide subscribers to where you want them to go. But for email
marketers, calls-to-action are often the most neglected part of the
email, which is a big mistake.
Why?
Because according to research by WordStream, emails with a single call-to-action increase click-through rates by a huge 371%.
By neglecting this important part of your email, you’ll
lose out on a large number of clicks and sales. So how can you create an
irresistible call-to-action? The key is to experiment.
- Try using anchor text instead of a button as a call-to-action, as HubSpot found that this increased click-through rates by 121%.
- Use first-person phrasing (like “start my free trial” rather than “start your free trial”), which can boost click-through rates by 90%.
Point Blank SEO uses first person phrases in their calls-to-action.
- Experiment with the color of your call-to-action. SAP found orange CTAs increased click-throughs by 32.5%, while Performable found red was their winning color, with an increase of 21% in click-throughs.
- Personalize your CTAs if possible, which has been proven to boost click-throughs by 42%.
Unsurprisingly, a good call-to-action is one that gets you
the most click-throughs, and you’ll only discover what kind of button,
text, or color works for you if you experiment with your list.
There are a few key things that are standard if you want to create a high-performing call-to-action, and those include:
- Keeping the “action” short and to-the-point (no long winded phrases allowed!)
- Using active phrases rather than passive ones (“e.g. Download your report now”, “Claim your free trial”, or “Reserve your spot”)
4. Supercharge Your Open Rates
Let’s face it, you can’t begin to improve any of the above
unless your emails are getting opened. I mean, how are you going to
experiment with calls-to-action or shake up your wording to build
engagement if people are actively opening your email in the first
instance?
If you look at it like that, boosting your open rate is the most important thing to fix.
So how can you do that?
Get Your Timings Right
Several case studies have shown that you can almost instantly increase your open rates by at least 20% by sending your emails to subscribers at the right time. According to research carried out by Yesware, 39% of email opens happen within one hour of delivery, so landing in people’s inboxes when they’re online and ready to read is vital.
Though many marketers send out emails late-morning, it’s
actually been proven that subscribers are more likely to open emails
and click through in the evening between 8pm and midnight when
they’re out of work and have some time to themselves. Experiment with
different timings, as what works for other marketers might not work for
your specific set of subscribers.
Craft a Compelling Subject Line
So you’ve sent your email at the right time, but you’re
still not getting as many opens as you’d like. This is probably down to
your choice of subject line.
While it can be tempting to just send out an email with
the first subject line that comes to mind, this can be extremely
detrimental to your campaign.
Why? Because 47% of email recipients decide whether they’re going to open your email based on the subject line alone, which is why it’s incredibly important to craft a subject line that’s compelling.
What makes a good subject line?
We’ve identified four key elements of a high-performing subject line that gets you lots of opens. They include:
- Urgency – creating a sense of scarcity or hinting that subscribers need to act fast can compel your readers to click-through. People don’t like to miss out, so they’ll be more inclined to find out what you’re email’s all about. The key here is to only create urgency when there is actual urgency, though.
- Curiosity – humans are curious creatures, so creating a subject line that piques people’s interest will encourage them to open it. As long as you follow through with that curiosity in your email, you’ll be golden.
- Personalization – people want connections with brands, and that means personal, one-on-one relationships. Now more than ever, marketers have the tools and ability to learn detailed information about their subscribers and send them emails based on their preferences, likes, and wants.
- Relevance – there’s a reason certain TV shows, films, and pop culture are popular at any given time. Crafting subject lines that incorporate what’s trending at any given time will tap into your subscribers’ need to “fit in” and can help establish your brand as an authority.
Email Marketing Means Big Revenue
Email marketing is one of the biggest sources of revenue
for businesses – if it’s done right. Research has shown that for every
$1 spent on email marketing brands get, on average, $40 in return.
It’s obvious the majority of marketers know that
email is vital in the success of their business, but they just don’t
know how to put it into action in a way that will help them smash their
business objectives.
If you take a step back and consider what your goals are,
you can easily find a way to implement email campaigns to help reach
them.
With a few small tweaks, you can take stagnant campaigns
and turn them into revenue-boosting tools that will build connections
and create more conversions – and who doesn’t want that?
Whether it’s experimenting with button colors, trying out
different anchor text, or playing around with catchy subject lines,
there are plenty of quick fixes you can test out to reach your email
marketing goals and take your business to greater heights. Are you in?
Say goodbye to failing campaigns today and start creating high-performing emails with Sendlane!Source
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