Is there anything more disappointing than putting in a ton of effort into your email marketing campaign only for it to receive a poor open rate?

Don’t let that happen again! We have developed our top tips to increase your email response rate.

Tip #1 – An effective database

Building an email list represents the foundation of a successful email marketing campaign. Having a robust database or CRM system to manage your mailing list is key to getting the most out of your mailing campaigns. Using an automated system such as Mailchimp, Klayvio or Hubspot allows email databases to be updated and segmented, in addition to providing attractive layouts for your email campaigns.

Tip #2 – An attractive title

Your subject line is your first impression on users. With that in mind, your email subject line is more important than the content of your email. No matter how great the rest of your email is, this might be worthless if it never sees the light of day.

Tip #3 – Stunning hero image

A hero image is the first, main photo or graphic that you see at the top of an email. Your hero image should immediately draw your visitors in and promote what the email or communication is about.

It is important to design your content and images in a way that draws attention step-by-step from the most important feature in the email – enabling your information to be scanned and understood easily.

Tip #4 – Call to Action

When you create an email marketing campaign, one of the most important components is the call to action or CTA. A call to action email button grabs a subscriber’s attention and encourages him or her to act. Once you have caught your audience’s attention and held their interest—now it’s time to point everything toward clicking.

Tip #5 – Urgency

When you express urgency in an email, subscribers are more likely to open your emails and click through to your site. By creating urgency in your emails, subscribers are more likely to convert, meaning more engagement and revenue for your business.

Tip #6 – Link + Link + Link

Your ultimate goal in email marketing is to get people to click through to a web page. One way to increase the clickthrough rate is to hyperlink the images in your email to the webpage that corresponds with the content of the image.

Tip #7 – Personalisation

Personalization, in the context of email marketing, is the act of targeting an email campaign to a specific subscriber by leveraging the data and information you have about them. Basic email personalization includes tactics like using a subscriber’s name in the subject line, while more advanced tactics can include changing the content of the email based on a subscriber’s gender, location, or other things you know about them.

By now you should have a good idea of what it takes to create a successful email. However, you must also understand how to measure the results of your efforts. Let’s take a look at the metrics you should be paying attention to in your email marketing efforts.

1. Open Rate

Once your email has reached your clients’ inbox, the next challenge is to get the email read. The amount of emails sent compared to the emails opened is known as the open rate.

• What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who open a given email.

2. Click-Through Rate

Clickthrough rate is a very important metric for all email marketers to be tracking, as it gives you direct insight into how many people on your list are engaging with your content and interested in learning more about your brand or your offer.

• What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links contained in a given email.
• How to Calculate It: (Total clicks OR unique clicks ÷ Number of delivered emails) * 100

3. Conversion Rate

Because your definition of a conversion is directly tied to the call-to-action in your email, and your call-to-action should be directly tied to the overall goal of your email marketing, conversion rate is one of the most important metrics for determining the extent to which you’re achieving your goals.

• What It Is: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link within an email and completed a desired action, such as filling out a lead generation form or purchasing a product.
• How to Calculate It: (Number of people who completed the desired action ÷ Number of total emails delivered) * 100