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4 Tips for a High Converting Email Marketing Campaign

by | Mar 22, 2010 | E-mail marketing | 0 comments

Looking to increase conversions in your email marketing campaign?  Whether you use an in house program or a web-based service to send out your newsletters, there are a few simple tips that can profoundly boost the number of opens, clicks and conversions you get from your subscribers.  These aren’t your standard “personalize the message” style email marketing tips, but rather proven steps anyone can take to make sure their message gets noticed by their target market.
1. Put the Opt-Out Link at the Top of the Email – “But won’t that increase the number of unsubscribers?” you might ask.  Not necessarily – since people who unsubscribe are most likely not your ideal client anyway.  Perhaps they purchased something from your website as a gift but have no particular interest in it themselves.  In this case, letting them unsubscribe immediately also reduces the likelihood of your message getting tagged as spam.
2. Remind Them Why They Signed Up – Right along with that trigger-happy spam finger, subscribers will often forget why they signed up for the newsletter in the first place.  Remind them up front – “You are receiving this email because you are a valued customer of Acme, Inc. and have ordered from us in the past.”  You can then follow this up with the opt-out link and then continue with the regular newsletter content.  This reminder text might seem redundant, but the less your email address is reported to the user’s internet provider or a blacklisting service – the better. 
3. Archive Your Email Newsletter on Your Web Page – Since most HTML email programs can’t deal with common scripts like Javascript, advanced CSS, Flash and ActiveX, you’ll likely be using a highly trimmed-down, plain HTML version.  That’s not to say you can’t give your readers the option to “Read This Email in Your Browser” and link it to your website.  You can also include related posts within your blog to keep the user involved longer.  Including an archive version can also make it easy for people to send the URL to their friends, rather than having it run through the equivalent of a digital paper shredder as it gets forwarded from one person to the next, and images, links and content get broken or mangled.
4. Test Even the Smallest Things – What you might think is the most seemingly insignificant thing to test may end up boosting your conversion rate by 3%.  Try switching out photos, editing the wording of your links (instead of the plain standby “click here”), shortening or lengthening the subject line, changing the From: to a personal name instead of a business and so forth.  Remember that your customers likely get dozens, if not hundreds of emails every day.  Taking the time to test and analyze their responses to even the smallest things will show you what works, and what can be trimmed out.
The end result – you get a more refined, more concise email message that more of your customers appreciate and look forward to receiving.

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