“Average conversion rates are meaningless. Switzerland on average is flat.” -Chris Goward
Conversion rates make huge sense for the email marketing of any organization. Be it the website conversion rate or email conversion rate, conversion rates play a crucial role in the success of any website. In relation to email marketing campaigns, all the hard work goes in vain if the subscribers don’t open it or click it. The average user’s inbox today is flooded with lots of emails, hence it becomes really competitive to make the user pay attention to your email.
So how can you make your email stand out from all the clutter? Here’s 9 tips for writing email campaigns which engage & convert:
1. Using A Personal Tone Of Voice
Don’t treat your users as the masses, treat like a friend. Forget the corporate tone and make them feel that you are just talking to them- nobody else. Keep the tone subtle and communication style simple. Use power words more. If you have made a mistake, then apologize for it rather than playing smart. Try to be one of them- empathize and you will be accepted as one of them.
2. Only Communicate Important Information
Remember, the time of your users is very precious. Don’t send unnecessary emails to them. If you are sending them emails, make sure that you are delivering value. Sending lot of emails will do nothing but cause irritation in the eyes of your subscriber and you might just lose a subscriber.
3. Deliver Value Content
Are you adding a value in the life of your subscribers? Are you sending them something which will add to their knowledge? Or would it help them in any way?
If not, then you need to reconsider it and redesign your email campaign. If you really want to please your customers and bring them in confidence, then you have to deliver value.
4. Determine An Objective
What is the reason that you are writing this email? What is the outcome that you want out of this email? How do you want the user to respond to the email? Before writing your ‘perfect’ email, answer these questions and once you have determined the outcome, plan your mail accordingly. A well-planned email is what converts. Understand the situation of your subscribers (the numbers of emails they receive every day) and accordingly write your best email. Keep open ended or close ended questions based on the requirement. Remember: Engage your users, don’t disappoint them.
5. Personalise Your Email, make them feel important
Who doesn’t like being called by their name? Everybody! Yes, in your subject line & email, call the user by his or her name or ‘you’. It makes them feel that you are talking to them.
6. Make Use of Subject Lines
There is no fixed format for subject lines. However, the ideal character length for the desktop view is 50 characters and for the mobile view, it is 25 characters. Ideally, it is suggested to keep the email subject line 50 characters long but you may test a different length for your campaign. The subject line should be explanatory and should excite the user to open the email.
You can also make use of emoticons and symbols. Emojis have been gaining quite a lot of attention these days. Emojis make subject lines expressive. Next time you write an email subject, try using emojis.
Note: Exclamation marks have been overused already, so try to avoid them in your email subject lines.
Let’s try to understand more by taking examples of subject lines:
- Simple subject lines: Keep the subject line very short and descriptive. An example of the same can be: “Your order has been dispatched.”
- Funny subject lines: Funny subject lines are a good way to make the user feel good. The inbox of users is mainly flooded with loads of boring and dull emails. If you can bring a change, you will get noticed. An example of the same can be: “A gift which all of your girlfriends will love.”
- Single word subject lines: Single word subject lines leave a lot of mystery behind to be discovered. For example, for a subject line like “Found” the user will wonder what has been found. Thus, sometimes subject lines with single words can also do a great magic.
- Controversial email subjects: Have you read any subject line which just makes you think for a while and forces you to check the mail. Those are controversial subject lines. For example: “SEO is dead: Why you should consider other organic marketing options?”
- List type or numbered subject lines: In this type, the subject line usually contains numbered lists. For example: “7 ways to optimize your Facebook ad campaigns.” Now, these are very specific and thus gain the attention of the readers/users.
7. Segment your List
Having a segmented list is the key to higher open rates and click through rates. The subscriber’s location and their engagement level with your mails can be two factors based on which you may want to segment your list. Also, you can segment the users based on their past shopping pattern, customer personas, etc. Segmentation is an important part of personalizing emails. Once you segment the list, you can customize the subject lines and email content as per the list, making the campaign more targeted.
8. Keeping the Subject Line and Email Content In Sync
Keeping the subject line and e-mail message in synchronization with each other is an important thing which you mustn’t miss out. Also, the subject and mail copy should be relevant to each other. It should never happen that your subject is talking about something else and email shows something else. This throws a negative impact on the reputation and may decrease future open rates and click-through rates.
9. Use tiny images in the mail
The images in the mail should be fast loading. Thus, you must always minimize the images before placing in the images. You can optimize your email images on tinypng.
10. Optimize Email For Mobile
It’s the era of mobile users, smartphones and tablets. Most of the recipients check their emails on mobile. Thus, it is a must for the email campaigns to be mobile friendly.
11. Choosing The Right Time To Send Emails
What is the best time for sending the email campaigns?
- Studies show that the emails have a better chance of being showed at 8 am – 10 am or 4 pm to 6 pm.
- Open rates of the emails are highest during early morning time. Thus, the emails should be sent between 6 am to 8 am for them to be opened by the users.
12. Conducting Split Tests For Subject Lines & Content
Running split tests is a good idea for checking which of the subject lines are working the best by comparing the open rates. And comparing click-thru rates with different content / design.
13. Frequency of Emails
You should also avoid sending too many or very few emails to users as it may cause fatigue or having your subscribers forget about you. Ideally, send at least one useful mail every week or fortnight.
14. Using A Personal Email Address
Sending from a personal email address to the subscriber base makes the email look less spammy.