I’ve sent and received hundreds (if not thousands) of marketing emails over the years, and as a result, I’ve been able to identify a few important elements that affect open rates. If your email lists are targeted and you’ve taken steps to personalize, yet your response rate is still less than 10%, your email format could need some work.
If you want to increase your open rate, consider optimizing these three email elements.
1) Length
Attention spans are smaller than they’ve ever been with content constantly flying past our eyes. No one wants to read a mini-book at work, so it’s a good rule of thumb to keep email length on the shorter side.
With that said, you still have to consider your audience. Some audiences go against the grain and actually appreciate long chunks of text. Just look at this newsletter from the team at Brian Pickings. Though some audiences would hit “delete” as soon as it pops into their inbox, their audience prefers these heavy, intellectual articles.
2) Focus
Here’s a simple question to ask before you send any given email:
Am I trying to make too many points?
Too much of a good thing can still yield a bad result. It may be tempting to list out every way your product or service adds value, but making so many points at once can be counterproductive.
Don’t highlight too many value propositions in one email. Focus on 1 or 2 points for every message.
Emails are cheap, so don’t feel like you have to cram as much information as possible onto one. You can always send another.
3) Consideration
Treat your email message as a conversation. It’s usually pretty inconsiderate to talk about yourself when you’re chatting with a prospect, so why would you do it in an email?
Don’t just talk about how awesome your company is. Give your etailer client perspective so they understand how that awesomeness translates to value for them. It always has to be about them.
The next time you reassess your email marketing program, consider these important elements.
Do you know enough about your clients to be able to send quality, targeted emails? Our eCommerce database solutions can help you find out.
