You might be surprised by the biggest challenge in email marketing. Many may think it’s deliverability, but it’s not. Today’s biggest challenge is the Click Through Rate (CTR). Getting people to take action and click on your email campaign once they’ve opened and read the email content.
53% of email marketing professionals struggle with low CTRs and 41% lack an effective email strategy.
7 Ways to Increase Your Click-Through Rate
1. Ask for the Opt-In: It does not mater if you use single opt-in or double opt-in, whichever you choose, the user needs to voluntarily give you their email address. People who have opted in are more likely to open your email, and if you used a double opt-in, they already confirmed their interest, making email opens even more likely.
2. Use a strong subject line: According to Litmus, 34% of recipients say the subject line is the most crucial factor in emails opens. 69% of people will mark an email as spam before they open it, just because of the subject line.
When writing subject lines think about some of the following:
Write subject lines that make people curious, so they want to open the email to learn more
Use urgency and trigger fear of missing out (FOMO)
Ask a question
Make your emails stand out in the inbox and look more appealing by using emojis and symbols
Keep it short! According to HubSpot, 46% of all emails are read on mobile devices
And remember to always TEST!
3. Be a reputable sender: make sure your email comes from a sender the recipient recognizes and trust. 42% of emails recipients open emails based on the send or from name. There are two approaches you can take for this.
If your brand is well-known, you can use the brand name as the sender
A more personal approach is to combine the name of the sender and the company name.
The second option, a more personal approach, is the direction CMCollective takes.
4. Include social sharing options: According to SuperOffice only 29% of email campaigns include social sharing links. Get Response found that the average click-through rate for emails without social sharing links was 2.4%. Those that include social sharing links see a click-through rate of 6.2%. That’s an increase of 158%.
5. Segment your email list: Everyone’s business is different which means that how you choose to segment your email list will vary. However, there are some basics that you will need to properly segment your list.
Email Segmentation Software – most email service provide this in their platforms
Page-Level Targeting – allows your users to opt-in to segments they’re interested in
Lead Magnets – this provides potential clients/buyers downloadable content, i.e. free PDF checklist, reports, whitepaper, etc., in exchange for their email address.
Once you understand the specific characteristics that differentiate your groups, you can tailor the content of your email campaign to each individual segment and significantly increase your CTR.
6. Use personalization: Actually, 82% of marketers reported an increase in open rates through email personalization. Yet, 70% of brands fail to use them. Marketers who use personalization in their emails see 39% higher CTRs
Audience segmentation and dynamic content make it easy to customize your massage and send the right email to the right person at the right time. Take into account subscriber’s demographics, behavior, and email preferences.
7. Optimize for mobile: Yes, recipients who open emails on their desktop are 3x more likely to click through than those on mobile. However, desktop only represents 16% of all open mail. Where mobile accounts for 55%. That means, optimize for mobile.
Consider the following for mobile friendly emails.
Keep your email width to no more than 650 pixels
Use alt text with your images. This gives a description of the image if it does not load and it makes the email more accessible.
Use image blocks
Create white space around content and images
Consider hiding content on mobile so the email is not to copy heavy
Test your email to ensure the layout works on all devices
Don’t be in the 41% of email marketing professionals. Contact CMCollective today to ensure you have an effective email strategy in place.
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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.
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