Email may not be the new kid in the neighborhood, but it’s still one of the most influential things to
- Connect with your audiences, clients, or customers.
- Create brand awareness.
- Build trust and loyalty.
Inbox is crowded today. You have got to stand out if you are aiming to catch your recipient’s eye because there is some pretty stiff competition going on in the inbox.
- How does the business communication happen?
- How do banks send the statements and transaction alerts to you?
Email is the answer.
Take a guess. How many emails are sent every day around the world?
Do you have a number in your head? Now add few zeros in it and few more.
Well, the sending rate is higher than you think.
According to Statista, the figure is expected to grow around 320 billion daily emails in 2024.
Source: Statista
So it makes sense that the marketers need to think of a creative way for crafting emails, so that s/he can attract the target or potential customer’s attention and stand out in a crowded inbox, drive traffic (and also subtly invite the audience to try-buy your products, services).
Before you hit “send” on another composed email, take one step back and re-think your approach. Here I present you 6 simple tips to refine your composed email and stand out in the inbox.
1. Ask The People What They Want, Feel And Think
This trick is not something we see a lot but it’s definitely effective. Speaking to your ideal client is very necessary, just like branding.
You can get a little creative and include a little easy to play game that engages your subscribers. Let’s say, for example, you own a restaurant, then you might ask your subscribers to pick one special dish that the restaurant should make coming weekend by giving them options to choose between.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It just has to be out-of-the-ordinary. This way you can include them in the decision making of your brand. This way you can include them in the decision making of your brand.
Another best way to find out what your subscriber wants and needs from you is by gathering feedback from them directly. Doing surveys you can immediately find out what’s working and what not and then in future, you can craft the emails according to the data you’ve collected.
Here’s an example of how you could use surveys to seek the information from your audiences:
Source: ConstantContact
By doing this, you will come across less professional and more fun and plus it won’t even feel salesy to your subscribers.
2. Address All the Potential Q’s and Requests
We all have heard that phrase time is everything, in marketing it really is.
You don’t want to waste people’s time with your incomplete and not worth reading emails. Send a few unhelpful emails and you could lose a potential client forever (and nobody wants that).
If you want your potential clients to open your emails and act upon it then make sure to be thorough and accurate.
- There shouldn’t be any room for misinterpretations.
- Give and advance thoughts on the questions that may come and answer them.
- Don’t keep email recipients guessing.
- Include an attachment, it saves you from sending another email.
Each email is an opportunity to get closer to your recipients.
For example, if your boss needs you to plan a venue for an upcoming business event then you should provide the links of the hotels or restaurants websites, details about the catering, include a cost comparison.
Remember the more accurate you make your first email, the less you will have to do following up on it.
3. Move Beyond Personalisation
Do you have an email marketing crush? I do. And it’s Starbucks!
Hands down, Starbucks is one of the most successful coffee chains in the world. Starbucks is known for personalisation, but now they have become hyper-personalised by adding personalised images- naming the cup. They know how to make you buy that Frappucino.
Like Starbucks, you can use the reward system that engages your customers for interesting offers and other things for which people are willing to share their personal data.
Behave like a friend, not like a salesperson.
In an email campaign keep things personal, keep this one rule in mind:
The way you start your virtual communication with your customer/subscriber in an email increases the chances of attention.
That’s going to increase your click-through rate and just increase your results overall.
4. Follow Spam Guidelines
Nowadays, spam filters have become more knowledgeable. Not just that, research says that 69% of email recipients report emails as spam based on subject lines alone.
So save yourself from being filtered out by spam filters or recipients. Avoid controversial words in your subject lines and make them more relevant.
Here you can quickly scan the top 5 spam rules:
( it’ll take just 20 seconds)
- False or misleading headers information – The information in your “from” and “to” must be accurate
- Deceptive subject line – Your subject line should accurately reflect the content present in your email.
- Ads disguised as something else – You must disclose clearly that your message is an advertisement.
- Invalid location – Your message must include a valid postal address.
- Not letting recipients to opt-out – You must honor recipients opt-out request within 10 business days.
Spam emails don’t make business. It’s important to note that spam every interaction you have with your customers and prospective customers matters – the result of that interaction builds loyalty and trust.
For more details do have a look at CAN-SPAM Act.
5. Clean Out Your Email List
Now, this one thing I will shout out from the rooftop over and over again. You must give your email list a good scrubbing. If you have got a bunch of recipients receiving your emails but not engaging it’s time to hit that refresh button. Why?
Let me explain it to you with one basic example, when you don’t take care of your body the way you should, it will not function well. Your email list also behaves the same way.
Group of unengaged subscribers residing in your email list means you are wasting your valuable time, efforts to make the conversion rate higher n higher and here’s the big one — revenue.
How do you know that it’s time?
1st sign: If you see a fall-off in your click-through and open rate in your last few emails, then there is a chance that you are unfortunately building a list of unengaged subscribers.
2nd sign: Check out your spam complaint and unsubscribe rate. Do you an increasing graph there? Bingo. You got your answer!
Unfortunately, there is no way you can convert such subscribers into your customers.
It absolutely makes sense right, why market your business to the people who just aren’t interested?
6. Timing Is Everything
Consider you are sending an email on the exact same day when everybody else is sending and by everybody else means the one with whom you are not even competing.
How likely your subscribers will focus on your email?
Pretend you are in a shopping mall on the weekend just before Christmas. All the stores are crowded. People are everywhere with bags full of gifts. It’s loud.
How will you manage to focus on one particular company’s offer that you want?
Now let’s say Chrismas is over and the stores got rid of the excess Chrismas merchandise. Now, will you be able to focus?
Shoot an email to your subscribers just when there are fewer distractions.
Here is a bonus tip.
Test Subject To Max Open Rate
One of the important factors to get a high open-rate is the subject line you use. Make it absolutely clear, exactly about what you are going to cover in your email at the same time engaging enough to get your audience curious to open it. There are few free tools you can use to test your email subject line.
Here is one example. Email Subject Tester.
Wrap up:
Whew! I know that might be a lot to take in but trust me an email has the highest ROI and it’s getting easier day by day to deliver the relevant and useful emails to your recipients. You just have to make use of few tips for getting your email stand out in the modern inbox.
Prayers, wishes, and hopes won’t get your emails open; follow the above tips and you will have more email open rate.
