But how do you know if your email marketing campaigns are working? Here are 7 proven ways to improve your email marketing results every time you hit “send.”
According to a 2019 GetResponse study, the average email open rate is 18.39% and the average CTR is 2.78%. Constant Contact had a 13.94% open rate and MailChimp had a 21.33% open rate in 2019. MailChimp emails had a 2.62 percent average CTR. If you’re measuring CTOR, aim for 10%-15%.
Open and click rates vary by industry. Emails about art, government, hobbies, and religion have the highest open rates, while hobbies, media and publishing, government, and games have the highest click rates. Religion, primary and secondary education, and government agencies or services had the highest open rates for Constant Contact. These two industries had the most clicks.
Here’s how to improve your email campaign’s performance.
1. Mobile-friendly
For non-mobile users, a non-optimized email will quickly alienate a large portion of your audience.
Create emails using a responsive template, use a simple font, reduce image file sizes, keep content concise, and make buttons and phone numbers clickable and easy to read.
Before sending to your entire list, test your emails on various mobile platforms and devices to ensure they look and work properly.
2. Avoid Spam Filters
Spam filters were created to prevent unwanted email, but they also catch many legitimate emails. It’s estimated that 20% of legitimate emails are marked as spam and never reach the inbox.
If you collect emails, make sure you have a clear opt-in form and don’t send emails to people who haven’t explicitly opted in or asked for them.
Use honest subject lines that deliver what you promise in the subject line. Don’t use subject lines that make it appear like the email is from a friend or coworker, or that refer to an order or urgent matter that doesn’t exist.
Before sending your email, run it through an anti-spam filter like IsNotSpam or the GlockApps Email Spam Tester.
3. Make Use of a Double Opt-In for Subscriptions
Many landing pages, websites, and welcome emails have a single opt-in form. A single opt-in adds new emails to the subscription list when another action is taken, like placing an order. In those cases, a line informing the user that their email will be added to a subscription list may be present, as well as a check box that can be unchecked.
You run the risk of adding people to your list who didn’t realize they were signing up for emails and may later unsubscribe or report your emails as spam.
Use double opt-in subscriptions to weed out unintentional sign-ups. This requires subscribers to confirm their email address and subscription choice rather than just adding them after a single click.
4. Create Catchy Subjects lines
The subject line alone attracts 35% of email recipients, according to one study. To add mystery or urgency, subject lines should clearly state what the recipient will gain by opening the message.
Shorter (five words or less) is better for mobile users, so test to see what length works best for your email campaigns.
5. Design Triggered Campaigns
Trigger-based emails are sent automatically after an action. A welcome email could be sent upon joining a newsletter, a thank you email after a purchase, or an abandoned shopping cart could be followed up with a follow-up offer.
Triggered emails have higher open rates, increase conversions, and generate revenue.
6. Clean Up Your List
You may be sending emails to invalid or inactive addresses, or to people who no longer want to receive them. To avoid hard bounces, perform an email purge and consider using a list scrub service to remove inactive subscribers.
Send a friendly reminder email to ask subscribers if they still want to hear from you.
7. Personalize
Adding a personal greeting to a subject line can increase open and clickthrough rates by up to 50%. It doesn’t have to be the standard “Hi, [firstname]” greeting; you can customize it based on the user’s location, birthday, recent transactions, or other data.
Use a real name as the return email address (rather than noreply@), sign your emails with your name, and segment your list to target specific interests and preferences with customized offers and content.