Email marketing has soared to become one of the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal. That said, many business leaders are still finding it hard to maximize the potential of their email campaigns, mostly because they’re not staying on top of the latest trends but also because they’re not leveraging those tried and tested tactics that the best marketers swear by.Improve Email Open Rate
A high bounce rate, a low open rate, and a low number of interactions per email blast usually depict an underperforming email campaign. If you want your emails to inspire customers to check out your products and, ideally, make a purchase, you must improve these KPIs. To that end, let’s take a look at some of the best ways to decrease your email bounce rate, improve your email open rate, and skyrocket engagement.
Simple yet powerful subject lines
A good email subject line can make or break an email campaign and define how your customers interact with the emails they get from your marketing department. This is why it’s crucial that you perfect your subject lines and tailor them for every new email campaign. The subject line needs to resonate with the campaign’s tone and help the recipient immediately get an idea of what your email is about. It should also complement the specific target demographic and their needs – if you’re sending educational emails to a demographic that’s looking to learn, the subject line must not be overly sales-oriented.
Crafting subject lines that convert is an art form, and it’s important that yours are compelling and engaging but also informational. When you’re segmenting your audiences to personalize email campaigns, make sure that the subject lines correspond with their unique sensibilities and preferences, and you will invariably improve your email open rate.
To make your subject lines more impactful, follow these steps:
- Identify the primary keywords that the email revolves around.
- Put these keywords first in the subject line.
- Be specific but retain a friendly tone of voice.
- If you’ve got a limited-time offer, make it known in the subject line.
- Highlight the value the email brings to the recipient.
Now that you know the formula, let’s take a look at what you should never do when composing email subject lines:
- Don’t waste precious space by using filler words. Keep it short and simple.
- Don’t make the emails generic; instead, personalize the subject line with the person’s name.
- Do not start a sentence in the subject line only to finish it in the email body. Nobody likes it, and it will confuse the heck out of the recipient.
- Proofread before sending, of course, and do some A/B testing to find the winning subject line!
DON’T USE ALL CAPS IN THE EMAIL SUBJECT LINE. You’ll immediately be moved into the trash folder.
Leverage your cloud infrastructure to personalize email marketing
If you’re running an online business, chances are that you have already migrated your business operations to the cloud. Even brick-and-mortar companies are nowadays leveraging cloud infrastructures to take their brands forward. But did you know that cloud services like Microsoft’s managed Azure allow you to personalize your marketing campaigns by analyzing vast amounts of customer and marketing data? You can leverage your cloud infrastructure to take your email marketing strategy to the next level effectively.
Be sure to utilize the full marketing functionalities of your cloud infrastructure to collect and collate email marketing data, automate and personalize campaigns, and make them more effective over the long term.
Brevity and CTAs are your best friends
Nobody wants to sit through a long email, especially if it’s from a company whose ultimate goal is to sell something. You have a narrow window of opportunity to capture the attention of your recipients from the moment they open your email, so you need to keep your email copy short, sweet, and to the point. Remember, brevity is your best friend, but you also need to integrate a compelling call to action to inspire the recipients to follow a link to your products, blogs, or special deals.
Of course, email CTAs need to serve a concrete purpose and complement the goal of the email. So, for example, if the email is selling something, then the CTA should be sales-oriented, but if the email is educational, then a sales-y CTA will only deter the recipient because it’s trying to sell a product to a person who is just looking for quality information – needless to say, this is a great way to lose leads for good. Remember, different recipients are in different stages of the buyer’s journey, and you need to respect that.
Add gamification to make emails more engaging
Amazing copy, compelling CTAs, relevant subject lines, all of these are powerful tools, but they won’t work every time. Customers are nowadays looking for more engaging content, preferably something that will inspire them to interact with the brand, like a simple quiz or a survey. You can use different integrations to make your emails more interactive.
Gamification in marketing is booming right now, and you can even find tools similar to Typeform nowadays that will allow you to create engaging quizzes that you can either integrate into your emails or publish on your site. You can then create an email specifically marketing that free quiz that your customers can take by following the CTA to your site.
Improve your domain authority and trust
Lastly, you won’t be able to move your emails out of your customers’ spam folders and into their inboxes if your domain is untrustworthy. It’s important that you authenticate your domain through trusted online registries like SPF, DMARC, and DKIM. Moreover, be sure to use a company email domain instead of free sender domains like Gmail, Yahoo, and others. This will improve domain trustworthiness and minimize your email bounce rate.
To maximize the authority of your domain, you should also choose a provider with a stellar track record, preferably one that employs industry-leading domain security measures to ensure the safety of your business and your customers’ personal data. Because remember, if you have a history of security breaches, your domain will be flagged as untrustworthy and potentially dangerous for the online audience.
Wrapping up
Email marketing is a powerful tool, but only if your emails reach the right recipients and actually get opened. Use these tips to decrease your email bounce rate while elevating engagement and inspiring your customers to open every email you send.
Author’s bio: Lauren is a digital marketing specialist and business consultant from Melbourne. After getting a marketing degree, she started working with Australian startups on business and marketing development. Lauren writes for many relevant, industry-related online publications, and she’s one of the authors behind Bizzmark Blog.