Emails are one of the most effective ways of engaging a new audience and giving existing customers what they demand. As email marketing has increased in volume, metrics such as click rates and response rates have assumed high importance in marketing teams.
The problem: everyone is now used to marketing emails and this makes eliciting a response tough. For instance, how often have you received an email and instantly identified it as an attempt to market something and immediately deleted the email?
Here are 4 reasons why some people’s emails receive better responses than others and how you can increase your email response rates.
1. Email signatures
Signatures might seem like not a very common place, to begin with, but they leave quite an impression on a reader. A great email signature leaves a positive first impression and builds authority. Including an attractive and professional email signature is more likely to elicit a response since your email will look less spammy.
Creating an email signature might seem tough but you can choose an appropriate one from a vast selection of templates. Check to see which email signature template is the right one for you and integrate it with your email client. Make sure to temper your template to suit the norms in your industry.
For instance, if you’re operating in the financial services industry, an understated email signature is the way to go. If you’re addressing marketing executives at agencies, you can afford to be more colorful and brash with your signature.
Make sure you include appropriate links to social media and lead magnets within your signature. These assets will build more credibility and will get recipients to trust you. The result is more email replies and better outreach.
2. Attractive subject lines
A subject line is the first thing a recipient views when they receive your email. Needless to say, your subject line is extremely important. Previously, formulaic subject lines such as questions or last-minute deals used to receive high open rates. However, people are accustomed to these and rarely open them anymore.
Recipients expect greater customization these days, and you must conduct thorough research into what your audience wants. Much like your signature, the tone you adopt must be industry-appropriate. Without this, you’re likely to come across as less than professional, leading to the dreaded spam marking.
The key to great email subject lines is to avoid trying to trick the recipient into opening the email. Subject lines that create unjustified urgency or motivate people using fear only lead to resentment within users. Personalizing the subject line is always a good idea since it avoids giving the impression you’ve hurriedly put something together.
Before crafting a subject line, look at examples of other attractive subject lines to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Tailor it to fit your audience, and you’ll find response rates improving significantly.
3. Segmentation
One of the keys to receiving higher response rates is audience segmentation. Segmentation refers to dividing your audience based on data-driven attributes. For instance, you can send one campaign to users who are over the age of 50 and another to those who are under the age of 30.
Segmentation should ideally go a lot further than just your users’ age. It should take their behavior and interaction with your product into account as well. Highly accurate segmentation allows you to easily customize your email campaigns and tailor them to the segment’s interests.
When done well, segmentation alone guarantees higher response rates. However, collecting data and segmenting your audience using the right attributes is essential. For instance, if you segment using the wrong attribute or misinterpret a group’s actions, you’ll likely miss the mark and see lower engagement.
A lot of segmentation involves trial and error. Make sure to test your segment definitions on a pilot group before scaling it to your wider audience.
4. Go mobile
Mobile friendliness is essential these days since so many users prefer interacting on their mobile devices. Some studies estimate that users access online content from as many as 7 devices. Ensuring cross-platform friendliness is the key to ensuring high response rates.
Choosing the right email template is essential when launching any campaign. Outlook, for instance, is notoriously unreliable when sending campaigns to users on mobile phones. Make sure you test your campaigns on multiple devices before hitting send.
Test different versions of graphics and images you use before sending them in a live campaign. Device differences will lead to presentation changes and can reduce your response rates. As always, test everything before hitting send.
Easy steps to better emails
Emails are a great way of interacting with your audience, but you must take the time to craft them in a highly personalized manner. The tips in this article will help you craft great emails and engage your users in better ways.