As trends in email marketing continue to grow, it’s important not to overlook this marketing strategy.
Increasing your open rate and email deliverability isn’t as related to your email marketing campaign as you might think. There are other elements that can affect how and why people might be interested in opening and reading your emails that are not related to how you’re building your email list. If you have low open rates and would like to raise these numbers, you’ll have to think of other factors, like the appeal and quality of your content. To understand how you can do this, continue reading this guide.
Segmentation
Sometimes, people won’t open your email simply because the content isn’t relevant to them, which can increase your email deliverability rates. To prevent this from happening, you can segment your email list based on their demographic characteristics and use that information when emailing your subscribers. Demographics can include age, race, interests, location, and education. You can also segment your subscribers based on how they get on to your email list. Once you have your segmented list ready, it will be much easier to compose emails and find topics that will interest them. You might also have to adapt your sense of humour, tone, and level of formality for the different segments.
Consistency
You probably already know how crucial it can be to regularly email your subscribers in order to keep them up to date on your blog/ business’s news and show them content that can actually be of use to them. Emailing your subscribers infrequently will more likely have adverse effects; people will start unsubscribing, or they’ll simply ignore your emails because you’re not providing them with valuable, consistent content. So it is important to periodically send emails to your subscribers with new, engaging content to encourage them to open your emails and read them. Also, make sure that you’re periodically verifying the contacts that are actually opening your email. To do this step, you can use a free email verification service, which can be easy to use, especially when you’re updating your email list. If you have inactive subscribers (inactive for about 6 months) it’s a good idea to remove them from your mailing list, but before you do that, make sure to send a win-back email campaign.
Targeted Campaigns
Imagine someone receiving an email that is highly formal, exceedingly impersonal, and pointlessly long. Their reaction would probably be to delete it or postpone reading it until later. Only, of course, they won’t get around to reading it and will eventually ignore it. In the worst-case scenario, they might unsubscribe or even mark your email as spam, which will run counter to the purpose of your emails. For those reasons, it is imperative that you make your emails personal, relevant, and relatively short in order for your subscribers to appreciate them. Make sure not to send email to unengaged users, as this won’t really do well for your brand’s reputation. Instead, allocate these emails to people who are engaged. You can also create a targeted re-engagement campaign to ensure that these subscribers will change their minds in regard to your content and emails.
Engaging Content
Long subject lines were never appealing to anyone and certainly not to your subscribers. That’s because these lines will be cut short on mobile devices, which are the primary tools that people use to view their emails. Instead of writing long subject lines that go on and on, use concise and precise subject lines. Generally, you need to make your lines shorter in emails, because your audience is probably seeking instant gratification. This will hold their attention and keep them engaged. In addition to this, write your subject lines in a way that reveals what your email is about. People like to know what they are going to read about in order to continue reading. Otherwise, they’ll be discouraged from reading the rest of your content. Thus, try to be as clear as possible when you formulate your subject lines.
Use Templates
When it comes to choosing templates for your emails, you have to make your choices carefully. Some emails might get filtered into Gmail’s promotions if you use HTML templates. Google will also filter your emails based on your content and the receiver’s reaction to these emails. So, in addition to making your subscribers invested in your content, you need to use the right type of template. If your emails include offers or deals, then it’s okay to use HTML templates, as these types of emails are promotional. If they’re not, make sure to use other types of formats so that these emails won’t end up in the promotions file. Another tip is not to use only images in your emails, as email providers will raise a flag in case there is no text in your message. For that reason, make sure that you maintain a good text-image ratio.
Use Common Writing Strategies
There are several writing strategies that can keep your audience engaged and encourage them to continue to read your content. If you, for example, write in a formal, stiff language, people might not be invested enough. So, make sure that you write in a simple friendly language so that people find you more relatable. Being friendly will arrest the attention of readers and will make your emails feel more personal, something that will encourage finding out what you have to say to them. Make sure to write your emails as if you’re writing only for one person. Doing this will make your emails more personalized, which will showcase that you are understanding of people’s needs and desires.
The more you understand your subscribers’ values, likes, and dislikes the better. However, getting to know this information can be a bit difficult. A survey or indepth chats with a random sample of subscribers can be a real help with this. Even better if you can do both!
There are many ways that you can go about increasing your email deliverability, but in the end, it is down to consistency and real customer engagement and understanding. Make sure that you follow these tips in order for your email marketing campaign to succeed. Results won’t be yielded right away, so be patient and keep learning from customer feedback while you build your list and improve that open rate.