As an marketer, data is critical. For email publishers today, it’s more critical than ever to focus on what this data tells you about the subscribers on the other end of the send button – and understand what “makes them click”. If you’re seeing low or declining click-through rates for your emails, you may need to present your content in a more engaging way or offer more value to your email audience. If you don’t, they will begin to tune out your message or unsubscribe altogether.
To help you better engage your subscribers, here are some simple tips to optimize each and every email you send – keeping more eyes on your email and less clicks on the unsubscribe.
1. First Impressions Count
Ever hear your mother tell you “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Well, email is different. The most important ideas should always appear at the top of your email. Capture your audience’s attention quickly with special offers, or enticing ideas that encourage them to continue reading. Be clear as to what the purpose of the email is and make sure your subject line reflects that as well.
2. Rich Content Experiences
Add images to help make it an engaging read and easy to skim for users on-the-go. And make sure your images render on all devices! More than half of all email sent today is opened on mobile devices – for younger audiences, this percentage is even higher. Ensure your format is compatible for mobile, as well as each device used by your audience. Your email reports should help you determine which devices and operating systems are prominent for your audience.
3. Animation/Video
Create engaging, visual experiences with the content in your email. Increase click-through rates, time spent reading, as well as replies and sharing by targeting your audience with personalized video content. Digital video has been one of the fastest-growing ad formats for the past several years, and is increasingly popular among consumers. It’s unsurprising then to see email marketers getting on board with video.
4. Quality Over Quantity
Break up the text into short, concise paragraphs with bold keywords to call out major ideas. Forget the filler words and get straight to the point so readers click through to read more.
5. Get Social
Successful emails prompt the reader to take action, whether it be a click, reply, forward, or share – you want them to be engaged. Link to your social sites to continue the conversation with your subscribers beyond their inbox.
6. Accessibility
Design for viewing on different platforms. More than just devices, make it accessible for people with disabilities and those that need to be able to navigate easily.
Most Importantly – Test!
Your audience will more than likely respond differently than another so be sure to test subject lines, headers, images, copy, calls to action, colours – the more you test, the more you will learn about what makes your audience respond and create incremental improvement with each and every email campaign you send out.
Taina Suomela is the General Manager of the Toronto office for Inbox Marketer, a data-driven digital marketing services & technology company. For more information on email marketing and ways to engage your audience head to www.inboxmarketer.com for lots of resources