In 2020 you need to be switching up your tactics to boost those open rates, and even better, the number of conversions coming from your email marketing efforts. In fact, you only have 3-4 seconds to capture their attention and luring them into opening your newsletter. So, what can you do boost your chances of securing that open? Here’s a few tactics you need to be thinking about to freshen up your email campaigns for 2020.
1. Keep it Short and Sweet
It can be tempting to cram everything you’re doing into your monthly email, but all you’re going to do is lose people halfway through. Emails should be long enough to cover what’s necessary, but short enough to keep things interesting. If you feel that you’ve got content for more than 1 email, think about splitting it in two and sending 1 email every 2 weeks, depending on the size of your business. If your emails are interesting enough your open rates and clicks will reflect this.
2. Limit your Emails
Did you know that the average office worker receives 121 emails per day? That’s an overwhelming amount for people to deal with and the likelihood is most of them end up in the spam folder. Your audience has signed up to your newsletters because they are interested in your brand so don’t bombard them with emails or you too will end up in the spam folder. Splitting your emails into manageable, interesting chunks is one thing, but bombarding your audience is taking it to the extreme.
3. Don’t Neglect your Subject Line & Preview
This is a tip we’re always talking about at our digital marketing workshops. If you want your email to be opened, you need to start with the subject line. Perfecting this will determine whether the recipient opens it, ignores it or reports it as spam. You need to make your readers feel as if they are missing out or they are going to gain something substantial from opening your email. Your preview text then gives you up to 140 characters to reel your audience in further and spark their curiosity, forcing them to open it. However, avoid using caps at any point - you’ll end up straight in the spam folder.
4. Keep Your Branding Consistent
This one may be basic, but we see so many newsletters that don’t look as if they are connected to any business at all. Your email newsletters should look like an extension of your website. Don’t stray away from your brand colours, fonts and be sure to add key elements such as your logo. You want your audience to be able to recognise your brand as soon as they open your email, even if your logo wasn’t there.
5. Mobile-Friendly Mailings
By 2025 it is expected that over 5 billion of us will be mobile internet users, so you already need to be considering how your email looks on a mobile device. Consider how a length of text will look on a mobile. If it looks long on a desktop, it’ll look like a novel on a mobile. Make sure your images are optimised too so you don’t lose the attention of your audience thanks to slow download time. When it comes to mobile, you need to be shortening your subject line too, as many mobile email tools cut off your subject line at 25 characters, so make them count!
6. Always Proofread
You’d be devastated if something you sent to print contained a spelling or grammar error, and email newsletters should be treated with the same level of accuracy. Mistakes are going to reflect badly on your brand so draft the copy, then re-draft and check thoroughly for errors before even sending a test email. Always make sure the tone of your email reflects your brand too, if people know your brand as being relaxed and friendly, they’re going to be confused and tempted to click away if it feels like your email has been written by someone else.
7. Make it Personal
Read any article about creating effective emails and it’ll mention personalisation somewhere. Using a customer’s name in your subject line or email will help to engage them and feel that you have crafted your email just to contain what they want to see.
8. Perfect Your Timing
Timing can have a huge effect on whether your subscribers open your emails, so be selective as to when you send them out. You won’t be able to determine this by chance; you’ll need to do some A/B testing to identify the timeframes that work best and make the most of them in future campaigns. Overall, Mailchimp reported that weekdays work better than weekends with 10am usually being the optimum time. However, this varies for every business and you want to try and imagine a day in the life of your audience to help you decide on the best time to send your emails.