Have you ever checked your email on your phone only to see the majority of the message is cut off? It’s an incredibly frustrating experience, and one that easily could and SHOULD be avoided. Like many users, I’m tempted to simply delete the message outright if I can’t read it straight away. Even if I don’t, the chances that I remember to check the email from my computer later on are slim.
The hard truth of email marketing is that unresponsive emails are likely to be tossed directly into the trash folder. This also holds true if the email is responsive, but the content is boring or irrelevant to the reader.
Don’t fall behind when it comes to correctly targeting your marketing efforts and creating content that’s both readable and interesting. Take a look at the following tips for optimizing your email marketing strategy.
Pay Attention to the Subject Line
Creating an effective subject line is one of the most important things you can do when optimizing a campaign.
Did you know that 33% of recipients decide whether or not to open an email based entirely on the subject line? That’s a lot of people! If your subject line isn’t living up to par, as many as 33% of recipients might never even open it.
You don’t want your hard work and effort to be wasted. Keep your subject lines informative and concise, but also relevant to your audience. Is your target audience one that is running perpetually short on time? Use that data to help create a subject line that catches their attention!
Mention your service as well as the fact that it can save them time, but do so quickly — you don’t want a 50-word title.
Utilize Calls to Action (CTAs)
Remember that the whole point of an email marketing campaign is to collect new customers to help your business thrive. With this in mind, don’t forget to include calls to action!
CTAs are important to the conversion process, and offer readers an easy way to purchase your product or service.
To optimize your CTAs, the first thing you must do is remember to keep it simple. Including multiple different calls to action in a single email is a bad idea. This can dilute your message and even confuse your readers.
Once you’ve decided on a CTA, keep the language simple and direct in order to better incite the reader to engage. You can also include different links and buttons to the same page throughout your email — just keep the actual landing page and intent the same throughout.
Don’t Forget the Visuals
Readers love images. In fact, many readers find images easier to digest than text. They also tend to find them more memorable, meaning that even if they can’t recall the text of your message right away, there’s a good chance they’ll remember the related image and recall the content later.
To help tap into this potential, include images in your emails to help catch, and keep, your readers’ attention.
Make sure that you optimize the email for high-resolution displays if you decide to include images. Low resolution, pixelated images look unprofessional, and are unlikely to convince anyone to stick around.
Make Your Content Personal
Strive to make your customers feel like you’re talking directly to them. Instead of a faceless mass, you want your readers to feel as though they matter to you and are a part of a caring community.
One way to do this is by sending your emails from an account that looks as though it’s coming from a person. Instead of “info@mywebsite.com”, for example, consider something like “YourName@mywebsite.com”. You might also want to use the demographic information you have about your audience and use it to personalize subject lines and greetings.
Optimize for Mobile
This is the big one! To best optimize your emails for different readers, make sure they’re responsive in design. This means they can be easily read on any number of devices, from a widescreen to a small smartphone screen.
This makes it easy for customers to stay up-to-date with your emails, and in turn increases the chances that they read your content.
There are a number of things you can do to help improve your email marketing campaign. Follow the tips above, and create the campaign of your dreams!
