We all know that email marketing offers an incredible ROI – about $40 for every $1 spent. But it’s possible to milk the money-making machine that is email marketing even further.
Here are seven quick and simple ways you can immediately boost your email marketing results and return on investment:
1. Optimize for Mobile
When 53% of emails are opened on a mobile device (and with that number continuing to grow every year), your emails have to be mobile-optimized, and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. In fact, 75% of email subscribers say they are highly likely to delete emails that do not render well on mobile devices. The easiest way is using an email campaigns platform that automatically makes your email templates and messages mobile-friendly. Even when using a mobile-friendly platform, if you are creating your own messages or designs, test your email and make sure it appears correctly on a mobile device before sending.
It’s important to understand the influence that email marketing has worldwide. Below, you’ll see a chart from Statista that shows the growth of email marketing and the revenue it’s expected to create.
2. Personalize
On average, people receive more than 100 emails each day. The best way yours can stand out is through personalization. Consumers expect unique messaging tailored to them. The most obvious way to personalize is to use your contact’s first name in the subject line or body of the email. Segmenting your email lists is another way to personalize your messages in a more sophisticated manner than simply adding a name to an email. Create subgroups within your lists based on various demographics, from age and profession to hobbies and geographic location, depending on the content you send or the results want to achieve.
3. Survey Your Contacts
While this can take some time, the end results are worth the work. Once a year, survey your contacts and clients regarding your email marketing. Either in meetings with clients or through an email, survey your contacts with questions such as:
- How often do you want to receive emails?
- What type of content would you like to see more or less of?
- What time and day of the week do you prefer to receive emails?
- Do you have any friends or family you think would enjoy receiving these emails?
While statistics and research are helpful, nothing beats cold, hard facts straight from your client base.
4. Add Images and Video
A strong email campaign that gets results doesn’t look like your standard email. It should include visual elements, including images and video. A Skyword study found that total views of their content increased by 94% when they included at least one image. Why? Visuals make people stop and think. They consume the image, and if it’s a good image, they look at the rest of your message. Along with images, video is the favored communication method among most Internet users. People are 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than other types of content. Furthermore, using the word “video” in your email subject line can boost open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%.
For example, we have an advisor podcast featuring Darren Wurz. If Darren wanted to create an email campaign to market his podcast, including images like the one below would be a great way to generate interest.
5. Provide Value
The easiest way to lose prospects and see an increase in unsubscribe rates is by turning your emails into a sales pitch. The goal and expectations of your email marketing shouldn’t be to sell your services. It should be to sell you as a trusted and knowledgeable professional who can solve people’s problems. Your email messages should provide valuable content that alleviates pain points and brings up questions. If the content is strong enough, your readers will pick up the phone or email you for more information. Give 90% of what you know away and encourage people to contact you for the other 10%.
6. Include a Call to Action
If your analytics show that people are opening your emails but not clicking through, it’s likely because you lack a strong (or any) call to action. While your recipient may read your email and find it interesting, if you don’t prod them to take the next step, they likely won’t, either because they don’t know there is a next step or they don’t know what the next step is. Every email should include a call to action – preferably a visually engaging button – that encourages readers to take the next step, whether that’s reading more content on your website, signing up for your next community event, or contacting you for a consultation.
Below, Money Maven includes a great CTA that invites site visitors to schedule a free consultation.
7. Proofread and Test
We’ve all heard horror stories regarding misspellings and grammatical errors. Not only are they embarrassing, but they’re also unprofessional and can detract from the rest of your message. The absolutely simplest way to improve the results of your email marketing is to proofread for any errors and test for mobile and desktop views.
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