One of the advantages of running an online store is the ability to create an email list. This is propriety information that no one else has access to except you, and it will give you an edge over your competitors. It is your tool for building a strong relationship with your customers. Email marketing is one of the best conversion channel.
8 Practical Tips to Improve your Email Marketing Conversion Rate
The strategies you develop with your email list are just as important as your interaction with your clients in forums, social media, and on the phone. Here is expert advice to implement in your email marketing campaigns to improve your conversion rate.
1. Use Urgency Signals
One of the best practices to enhance conversion rate is to employ urgency. Research indicates that when faced with an urgent situation, the human brain stops thinking and goes into action. There are two types of urgency you can use in your marketing: scarcity-based and time-based. The time-based urgency says that you have a particular duration to purchase a product at a special price.
For instance, you can receive an email that states that you have two days, three minutes and twenty-three seconds to make your purchase. Most of us have even acted on such emails before. When using time-based urgency, use specific words such as last chance, limited time only, final day, etc.
Scarcity-based urgency relays to your customers that there is a limited number of something left. It makes people want what everyone else has already bought. However, be careful not to say you have 20 left when you really have 200. Whichever method you decide to use, urgency is a major conversion rate booster when incorporated into your marketing campaign.
2. Choose a Captivating Title
The title is the fist thing we see, and it is usually the deciding factor whether or not we open an email. To improve your open rate, ensure the subject of the email clearly indicates what your email contains. ‘30% off for New Customers’ sounds sharper than ‘Discounts for New Customers.’ It gives additional information, and it’s more direct.
Also, ensure the title of the email stands out in the body of the email. You can make it bold, or give it a larger font or different color. Make sure it is consistent with your email’s overall design. Or else, it may deter your prospective customers.
3. Use the Power of Three
Buyers need choices, but not too many of them, and this is why the power of three matters. Many experts agree that the power of three makes your marketing more efficient. Many things in our world come in threes; three primary colors, Olympic medals, high, medium, and low, and the list is endless.
To employ the power of three in your email marketing endeavors, keep the number of listed items in your email to three. Or, keep three bullet points, schedule three days in between sending your emails, or send three emails per campaign.
4. Avoid Images
Two primary problems occur when you use images in your email marketing campaigns. The first is that they distract viewers from the main goal. It might seem a good idea to put a large image above the fold of your email, but it ends up distracting the receiver from the core content of the message, thus, nullifying your conversion proposition.
Another problem is that many email providers now bock images from unknown senders, and if your message is embedded in the picture, your readers have to take an extra step to read your message.
5. Personalize the Emails
Personalization is crucial. Recipients are more likely to read a personalized email addressed to them using their first name. Lots of marketing emails lie unopened in inboxes. But, you can enhance your open rate by personalizing the emails. According to a 2013 study, personalized emails have a 29 percent higher open rate and a 41 percent higher click rate than non-personalized emails.
So, collect every bit of information you can about your prospects and customers, and document it in your mailing system. And, when drafting your emails, think about unique content and offers you can provide based on their personal information. Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries are excellent opportunities to give coupons and other promotional offers.
6. Add a Clear Call-to-Action
Your customers shouldn’t be wondering what to do to get your deals. Your call-to-action (CTA) should be clear, visible, and not surrounded by clutter. It should include well-stated and straightforward directions on what to do. Using CTAs, you can do more with less, especially when it comes to the steps your readers should take to redeem your offers.
The longer and harder you make your customers work to receive your offers, the higher their probability of giving up. Reduce it to two or three steps, with the first one being a type of ‘click here’ that will direct them to a landing page designed specifically for this offer. This page should be clean, clear, and without additional distractions and advertisements. Landing pages are great because they reduce the amount of time your reader will take to redeem your offer.
Also, be keen on the loading speed of your landing page. It should be fast. But, this can only happen if you streamline your designs. For instance, don’t include high-quality images and animated gifs on this page.
7. Use Large Buttons
Avoid using link text as CTAs in your email messages. There is a huge number of people checking their emails on mobile phones and other portable devices. So, use large, beautiful buttons for your calls-to-action. These buttons are meant to draw your readers’ attention and lead them to your desired action. Alter the colors to determine which ones lead to higher conversion rates.
8. Avoid Spam Filters
It is becoming more difficult for email marketers to bypass spam filters. The reason is the influx of impersonation, phishing, and spoofing has forced email providers to improve their security to ensure the safety of their users. To prevent your emails from ending up in the spam folder, make sure your domain has valid SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) certificates.
Spam filters automatically inspect your domain to see if these keys are forged. You can also ensure you are not blacklisted by checking your sender score.
Email marketing is crucial for your business. And to make sure that your email campaigns are effective, you have to follow the above best practices. Use a captivating title, personalize the emails, avoid using images, and have a clear call-to-action to see your conversions skyrocket. And you, what do you think could improve your email marketing conversion rate? Tell us below or Tweet us!