Are you creating email campaigns for your business? How do you measure their success? The true key performance indicator for an email is the Open Rate. If you’re sending out weekly emails but your Open Rate is in the single digits, you don’t have your e-mail campaign dialed in just yet.
So how can you improve? Check out this list and optimize your next campaign.
Get the Opens Rates you want…with a great subject line
What do people use to form first impressions of an e-mail? The subject line is the first thing your reader sees and should be eye-catching enough that it warrants clicking.
Modern consumers are inundated with literally thousands of brand messages each day. You have to make sure your messaging stands out. The subject line needs to be something they can’t wait to open, not something that makes them roll their eyes and delete without opening.
What turns off readers or makes an e-mail wind up in the Spam folder?
Excessive punctuation, currency signs and ALL CAPS are just a few things that make your emails look like spam. Keep it simple and keep it spam-free. Keep in mind that you’re up against every other email—be it personal, professional or pleasure—in your customer’s inbox and they’re all fighting for a small modicum of attention.
Even worse, if you’re sending out e-mail after e-mail that someone finds lacking in engaging content you’ll not only wind up in a spam folder…but they’ll completely unsubscribe from your list.
Making the ideal first impression
View your email inbox right now and check out subject lines. Which ones make you want to click? Check your spam folder and see what’s hiding in there. How did it wind up there? A key element to success is to inspire a call to action. Verbs like “look,” “save” and “learn,” are simple words that can improve open rates.
Consider the likes, dislikes and interests of your target audience in order to create the most interesting subject lines. Your email could contain the latest news, promotions and offers, but none of it will matter if you can’t get customers to open your email.
Creating an e-mail campaign is relatively simple, getting it opened is an entirely different challenge. Then once the e-mail is open, are your customers utilizing the contents of the message to engage with your brand or abandoning you without clicking anything?
Analyze your campaign analytics and optimize your campaigns in real time. Don’t wait for a month’s worth of data to compile before righting the ship…you want to get your campaigns generating results sooner than later, don’t you?!?!