Do you spend time, energy, and money investing in email marketing, only to see a limited return? Are you frustrated by the fact that nobody is opening or reading your messages? Are you ready to give up on email and devote your time to some other marketing medium?
If you answered yes to any of these three questions, please stick around. You’re in the right place. We’re going to explain to you why email is more valuable than ever and how you can cut through the noise by crafting email copy that converts at an impressive rate.
Will you dive in and discover what you’re missing?
The Value of Email in 2020 and Beyond
Email might seem like an archaic medium. And when you compare it to other digital marketing/communication channels like social media, blogging, and SMS, it certainly is. But don’t let the established nature of email make you think it’s no longer relevant. Email is as valuable as it’s ever been – and will continue to be for some time.
Here are a few data points and statistics that prove why:
· 99 percent of email users check their email every single day.
· 58 percent of people check email before checking social media in the morning.
· Email has an average open rate of 22.86 percent, compared to just 0.58 percent engagement on social media.
· Approximately 60 percent of consumers subscribe to a brand’s email list to receive promotional messages and deals. In contrast, just 20 percent follow other brands on social media.
· Email marketing has an average ROI of 4400 percent, meaning every dollar you invest brings in roughly $44 in return.
There are dozens of other data points just like these – and they all support the fact that email is more relevant than ever before. The only question is, how do you make it work for you?
Why Emails Must be Carefully Optimized for Conversions
The biggest issue isn’t whether or not email works. It’s how to cut through the noise so that your emails get seen, opened, read, and clicked.
For many years, average email open rates hovered around 24 percent – meaning roughly one out of every four recipients would open the emails brands sent out. Then in 2019, the average open rate dropped down to 22 percent – a year-over-year decline of roughly 8 percent.
And while you might think this is an indication that email is no longer relevant, all of the other data suggests it’s still as valuable as ever. Instead, the problem is competition. People are receiving more emails than ever before and, as a result, have to be selective with which ones they open and engage with.
By one estimate, the average office worker receives roughly 121 emails per day. That number is up from just 90 between 2014-2018. No wonder email open rates are dropping! People are receiving roughly 31 more emails per day. They don’t have the time or focus to open them all.
The 6 Tactics You Can Use for High-Converting Email Copy
If you want your emails to get opened, you have to take tangible steps to make your emails more compelling. And then once they get opened, you actually have to get people to engage beyond the first couple lines of text.
That’s what we’re going to focus on for the rest of this article.
Here are a few tips you can implement right away:
1. Make Sure Your Emails Are Getting Delivered
Emails can’t get opened, read, converted on, etc. if they aren’t being delivered to the recipient’s inbox. Sadly, more than 20 percent of marketing emails never make it into a subscriber’s inbox. This can happen for any number of reasons, but here are some quick ways you can lower this rate in your own campaigns:
· Ask readers to add you to their address book. This prevents their email system from sending your messages to spam (which happens all-too often).
· Use a double opt-in system to ensure subscribers really want to receive your emails. This might slightly lower your subscriber numbers, but it’ll lead to a higher quality list.
· Go through and cleanse your email list with the help of an email validator every six months or so. Look for subscribers who haven’t opened three or four consecutive emails and go ahead and remove them from the list. (Gmail and other email providers are intelligent enough to know when users don’t open emails and may send them directly to the spam folder in the future.) By purging your list, you’ll get a better feel for what your true deliverability and open rates are.
2. Write Better Subject Lines
The great thing about email is that we’re very familiar with it in our own lives. You have your own email account(s) that you check. You’re getting promotional emails, newsletters, and other forms of correspondence on a daily basis. So start making mental notes of how you process your own inbox.
What you’ll find is that many of your decisions regarding which emails to chuck out and which ones to open are based solely on the subject line. And the same is true for your subscribers.
The best email marketing experts in the industry don’t necessarily have the best emails or offers. They do, however, have incredibly enticing subject lines. Their best practices and tactics include:
· Regardless of what your specific goals are, a good email headline should include as many of the following characteristics as possible: urgency, curiosity, personalization, relevance/timeliness, and name recognition.
· Every industry has certain power phrases and words that work. For example, real estate power terms include luxurious, captivating, impeccable, remodeled, spacious, open concept, natural light, fenced backyard, and kid-friendly neighborhood. Do some research on the words that work in your niche.
· To ensure your subject line doesn’t get truncated, try keeping it to 50 characters or less. (This also helps people quickly get the gist of your email when scanning their inboxes.)
· Use personalization tokens in subject lines – such as names or locations – to help emails feel more specific to each recipient.
· Don’t capitalize the first letter of the sentence. This makes it feel like a personal email (rather than a big email blast).
3. Optimize the Preview Text
Preview text – which is the sentence of text that’s included next to or below the subject – also plays a key role in influencing people to open an email or pass over it. Here are some best practices:
· Preview text is best kept between 85 and 100 characters. Anything longer and people won’t read it. Anything shorter and you aren’t taking full advantage of this valuable inbox real estate.
· Preview text should be descriptive, but it also needs to stoke curiosity. Give recipients a reason to click.
· Personalized copy – like the subscriber’s name – is a great fit for preview text. It grabs their attention and makes the email feel a little more interesting.
· Try using emojis in your preview text to make your emails stand out in crowded inboxes. Not enough companies are doing this right now, which creates a prime opportunity for those that do.
4. Grab Attention Immediately
You have no more than three or four seconds to quickly grab a recipient’s attention and convince them to read the rest of your email.
Most people will read the first sentence or two of text and then scan the rest of the email before deciding whether or not to continue. If you don’t make a powerful statement upfront, your engagement will suffer.
5. Use Conversational Copy
If you study what the best email marketers are doing today…
…you’ll notice that they write short paragraphs.
Like really short.
Sometimes using only a few words per line.
This is intentional.
It creates a conversational type of message that people resonate with.
It’s also far less intimidating than massive blocks of text.
Give it a try and study the results.
Most marketers find that it increases engagement and drives more clicks!
6. Don’t Send so Many Emails
Do you know why people disengage and unsubscribe from your emails? Well, the number one reason is “receiving too many emails.”
You might think you’re increasing touchpoints by sending out a couple of emails every day, but you’re really just frustrating your subscribers. Try limiting the amount of emails you send. In some cases, one email a week is most effective. It all depends on your industry and the types of subscribers you have.
Hit the Refresh Button
Email is far too valuable to neglect. Stop settling for poor open rates, bland engagement, and click-throughs. No matter what you’ve done in the past, there’s still time to right the ship and get your email marketing moving in a positive direction. Gather your team and start strategizing!