2020 continues to show billions of emails are sent daily and for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), email continues to be the main driver of customer retention and acquisition. 81% of SMBs rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% of retention (Emarsys, 2018).
In part two of our four part email series, we provide you with 15 ways to improve your email marketing campaigns and analytical benchmarks to gage your results. Read them. Look at what you are doing. Make adjustments. And, always TEST!
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
15 Ways To Improve Your Email Marketing Campaigns
1. List segmentation – It’s important to know whom you are sending emails to.
2. Make sure your emails are mobile friendly – layout, images, headlines subject lines and CTA buttons play an important role in this.
3. Consider text-only emails – email clients, like Outlook, automatically block image-based emails.
4. Have email come from a real person – According to SuperOffice, a cloud based CRM platform, sixty-four percent of subscribers open an email based on who the email is from.
5. Make your subject line compelling and to the point – the subject line will make or break your email, so make it as compelling as possible. Spell out an offer that your customer will find irresistible or inform customers of something special that is happening. This becomes more effective if you have segmented your list.
6. Personalize your email – when done right, emails with personalization can encourage contacts to open the email and then interact with the content once inside.
7. Have a clear call to action (CTA) – One of the biggest mistakes in email marketing is not having a clearly defined CTA. A reader should be able to determine what they are expected to do within 5 seconds.
8. Keep the preview pan in mind – Most recipients will glance quickly at the preview pane, the from line, subject line and pre-header on mobile, and decide whether or not to open your email. Therefore, make sure key information and CTA’s are above the fold and visible even when images are blocked.
9. Optimize your pre-header text – ensure your pre-header text supports your subject line and provides another reason to open the email by leading with an offer when relevant and use personalization and urgency to engage the subscriber and drive your open rate.
10. Be succinct - give readers an option to read or learn more.
11. Find out the best time of day to reach your target audience(s) – segmenting based on times zones, business type, product time will always have a positive result over a mass general send.
12. Allow customers to manage their email subscriptions – this helps reduce your list attrition and unsubscribe rates.
13. Track your emails – Using UTM codes to track post-click visitor engagement to see if your subscribers are converting, what pages they’re visiting or if they bounce immediately.
14. Constantly test – test, test and test. Email marketers need to test everything; subject lines, featured content, creative and send times. A/B testing is your best friend.
15. Regularly update and cleanse your email list – keep your recipient list as clean as possible. A well maintained list consistently have higher engagement rates than older, neglected lists. Make sure you are removing addresses that haven’t opened an email within the last 12 months, and segment your list by engagement.
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
When was the last time you audited your email campaigns to see how they are holding up to the industries benchmarks? When it comes to email marketing you should be analyzing your efforts on a monthly basis as a whole, an average, and individually, per campaign.
Below are average benchmarks you should look at when analyzing your email campaigns and efforts.
Average Email Benchmarks
Average Click-Through Rate: 3.43%
Average Open Rate: 22.15%
Average Click-To-Open Rate: 15.49%
Average Unsubscribe Rate: 0.02%
With 51% of companies using automation, we thought we would provide insight here too.
Automation tools are used for sending:
Welcome Emails: 47%
Promotional Emails: 46%
Transactional Emails: 28%
Invitations & Reminders: 27%
Blog Updates: 26%
Upselling Emails: 23%
Event-triggered Emails (based on customer lifecycle): 15%
Marketing Automation Benefits:
Saves Time: 30%
Lead Generation: 22%
Higher Revenue: 17%
Customer Retention: 11%
Monitoring Marketing Campaigns: 8%
Shortening the Sales Cycle: 2%
Triggered Email Benchmarks:
Average Click-Through Rate: 10.39%
Average Open Rate: 44.05%
Average Click-To-Open Rate: 23.59%
Average Unsubscribe Rate: 0.51%
Contact CMCollective to improve and automate your emails today!
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CMCollective is a growth marketing firm focused on digital marketing and strategy. We are your marketing partner who understands brands and the marketing efforts needed to boost growth and results. We are an extension of your organization, helping you grow boldly and quickly by creating and implementing results-driven digital strategy. CMCollective specializes in Business and Marketing Strategy, Mobile App Strategy and Management, Inbound Marketing, Email Marketing, and eCommerce/Website Strategy and Management.