Wondering why your open and click through rates are looking so low? The e-mail marketing game is much more complex than it originally appears and can easily mystify even the most seasoned of marketers and savvy business owners. To ensure that your efforts aren’t going unnoticed, we’ve put together a few pointers to keep in mind when building your next e-blast.
Experiment With Deployment Times
Chances are, your contact list is likely to be filled with prospects in various time zones around the world. While sending out an e-mail at 9:00 am might be ideal for those living in the same region as you, this could very well also result in a prospect across the world receiving it hours after having left the office – making it less likely for them to click that magical open button. In this sense, deploying the e-mail at different times to various geographic segments would be more beneficial. From another perspective, you might not have any idea when your e-mails are performing best until you start experimenting with varying deployment times. Keep an eye on your open rates when you send the e-mail out in the morning, then send your next campaign out in the evening. Depending on the results, you can then keep experimenting until you’re able to narrow down which specific hour of delivery leads to the highest open rates.
A/B Test Your Subject Lines
Your subject line is one of the most important tools at your disposal to convince prospects to open your e-mail. It’s also one of the trickiest, as this means you’ll have to rely on a single sentence to incite people to click through. Consider testing different subject lines – known as A/B testing – to see how your prospects respond to each and to guide your content efforts for future campaigns.
Segment Your Campaigns
Not all audiences are created equal! Subscribers from a specific geographic region or age group are likely to have their own product or service preferences in comparison to somebody else from the next country over or from a different generation. Make sure you’re segmenting your campaigns’ content based on who you’re trying to reach instead of mass e-mailing everybody at once.
Cut Out The Fluff
Think of the last time you read a promotional e-mail. Chances are, it was short, sweet and to the point instead of being overcrowded with unnecessary content. If your campaigns are too lengthy and packed to the brim with needless copy, your prospects will skim right over them. Be sure that you capture their attention right away and make your call to action as clear as possible. Essays are best left behind in your college days!
Don’t Forget About Analytics
It’s important to keep in mind that testing deployment times, subject lines, content segmentation, engagement and open rates can’t be measured without a thorough look through your e-mail analytics. These analytics will serve as your best friend when it comes to figuring out what’s working and what’s not for your business. Monitor them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to measure your work and be able to accurately plan ahead for future campaigns!
Need help optimizing your e-mail marketing efforts? Our digital team can help you out with that – contact Skyfall Blue today to learn more.
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