This is practical advice and actions you can take to optimize your email program. Email marketing has the highest return on investment for small businesses. It is a cost-effective way to connect with customers and build brand loyalty. Although impactful, email marketing faces steep competition in the inbox. Here are our top tips to optimize your email program to ensure customers open, click, and take action.
#1 Know Your Target Audience
Your email subscribers are your biggest fans. They have chosen to opt-in to communications from you, and it is up to you to send them targeted messaging. Here are the top things to look for when analyzing your email list:
- Email Domains– Determine what percentage of your list uses Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or other popular providers. This will help you adjust the email design and monitor inbox deliverability.
- Recent Engagement– Engagement will look different for every business. For some, it may be email open rates, and for others, it will be based on actions like recent purchases. No matter what this looks like for your business, subscribers with the most recent engagement are likely to be a priority in your email list. On the contrary, subscribers with no engagement are candidates to remove from your list due to age or lack of interaction. This helps keep your email list healthy and current.
- Demographics– Analyzing demographic data pertaining to your business will help you better target your messaging. This could include geographic location, age, and more.
#2 Create Enticing Email Subject Lines
Subject lines help email programs in two significant ways. First, a good subject line can be the gateway to making it to the inbox. Creating a well-written subject line helps your email avoid landing in junk mail. Secondly, subject lines create the first impression for your email by either communicating directly with customers about the content or building curiosity that leads to higher open rates. If you’re having trouble evaluating your subject lines, we recommend using SubjectLine.com. This free application helps you to rate your subject line and find the best fit for your business.
#3 Make Relevant Content
Write and tailor content that directly speaks to your subscribers. Remember, even the most engaged email audience tends to skim the highlights of your email, so you want the messaging to be on target, easy to understand, and actionable.
#4 Include a Call to Action (CTA)
Most marketing emails have a next step for subscribers to take, and a majority will link to the company’s website. Whether you’re prompting a subscriber to make a new appointment, purchase an item, or even update their profile, this message needs to be clear within your email. A CTA button or link will help provide the next step your subscriber needs to take, and we recommend making it stand out in your email. This can be done in many ways, including changing colors, isolating the CTA in the email body, or placing it in multiple places within your email.
#5 Resend Your Emails
We’ve talked with email marketers who worry about sending duplicate content to their subscribers. While we don’t recommend inundating your subscriber list with the same email, it can be both efficient and effective to do an email resend with an updated subject line. Sometimes subscribers can miss an initial email or will forget to take action. Resends can serve as a necessary reminder for email audiences.
#6 Review Your KPIs
What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your email program? These KPIs will look different for every business and can provide important insights for marketers looking to build email engagement. Here are our top metrics to look for when evaluating email performance:
- Open Rate
- Click Through Rate
- Deliverability Rate
- Unsubscribe Rate
- Promo Code Usage
- Direct Revenue
- Transactions
- Website Traffic
- Sign Ups
- Lead Generation
- Replies
#7 A/B Testing
Test – test – test! One of the top benefits of using email in your marketing plan is the ability to easily test new things to optimize your program. A/B tests can boost your engagement by narrowing down the best ways to communicate via email with your audience. Here is a list of our recommended email tests to get you started:
- Subject Lines
- Pre-header Text
- Timing of Send
- Day of Send
- CTA buttons
- Headlines
- Imagery
Email marketing is growing across industries and is likely becoming an important piece of your business plan. Make 2023 the year you dive deep into optimizing your email program and watch your customer engagement expand. Happy sending!
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