Contributed post by: Corina Leslie
If your email marketing isn’t returning the results you’re expecting, fret not: there are always new tactics you can implement in your strategy to turn things around. Whether your list needs a good cleaning, or your copy and design could use a boost, you have all the tools you need to get your emails opened and increase your conversions. Let’s take a look at three essential techniques you can make the most of – starting today!
Take a closer look at your copy
Start with your subject line: is it compelling? Does it make you want to click? A useful habit is to write down several versions of your email subject line before you decide on the best one. If you’re still unsure, ask a few friends and colleagues to give you their feedback. Also, consider running some split tests to see what style, tone, and length works best with your subscribers.
Once you’ve found a winning formula, take a closer look at your email body. Step out of your marketer head for a second and ask yourself how you’d feel if you received your email. Would you find it useful, educational, and entertaining? If given the opportunity, what could you improve about it? Be your own editor and cut out everything that doesn’t serve your purpose, which is to help, inform, and entertain your audience.
Final step: how do your call-to-actions sound like? Are you using all the classic formulas, such as “buy now” or “click here”? How about changing things up a bit? Use your creativity to come up with different ways to invite your readers to take a specific action. However, make sure your CTAs clearly convey your message and don’t generate any confusions.
When was the last time you used an email verifier?
One of the best habits you can develop, as an email marketer, is to keep a constant eye on your reports. Your Email Service Provider (ESP) should display the metrics of each campaign, so you can get a clear idea on how they’re performing. Do you look at your open and click-through rates? Good. How about your bounces? If they are anything above 2%, your list may be in need of a cleaning.
Invalid and fake email addresses not only skew up your reports – of course your open rate is not accurate if, let’s say, 20% of your leads are dead ends. But also, they affect your sender reputation, which has a crucial impact on how many of your emails actually reach the inbox. That’s why email verification has become vital to marketers, who are always looking to boost their campaigns’ ROI.
The most effective way to improve your email hygiene is by using a good email verifier. It removes invalid, fake, abandoned, or temporary addresses, thus helping you reach actual people instead of bots and useless contacts. Also, most email verifiers find and eliminate abuse emails – these belong to known email complainers who may label your messages as spam. Spam traps are difficult to detect, but an advanced email verifier will be able to weed them out at least partially.
If you want to prevent risky email addresses from joining your list, stop them in their tracks by deploying an email verifier API on your platform. The API won’t allow misspelled and other types of bad email addresses to sign up for your emails.
Email your list more often
You don’t have to turn into an emailing machine, because this tactic will backfire and you’ll start to see an increasing number of subscribers waving you goodbye. But people actually love hearing from you. A recent email marketing study shows that 47% of consumers prefer email to communicate with a brand. However, it’s a known fact that the number one reason people unsubscribe is because they receive too many marketing emails.
The key is to find your sweet spot. If you email your list once a month, try sending out your newsletters every other week. Look at your reports and see if that’s a strategy you want to stick with. Then, some of your subscribers may want to hear from you every week. Create a separate sequence for them and ask them to opt in.
In email marketing, what matters most is email hygiene and getting to know your audience well enough to predict what they need and want. Always put their interests above yours, strive to send them useful content, be consistent in your efforts, and you’ll reap the benefits.
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A former journalist, Corina Leslie is the PR & Marketing Manager for email verifier ZeroBounce. She is passionate about communication and helping others email successfully. You can find her on the ZeroBounce blog, where she shares her best tips on digital marketing, copywriting, PR and everything in between.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corina-leslie/