In my last post, I discussed how to improve email open rates through using attention grabbing subject lines, testing EVERYTHING, and using segmentation to target specific audiences based on their demographics and interests. I also discussed the merits of why email is still a relevant platform for engaging with your customers. For a refresher on these stats, visit the post here.
So, once you’ve employed some or all of these suggestions to get people to open your email, how do you get them to actually click and visit your site? You take it a few steps further and integrate some proven tactics into the body of your email to entice the recipient to want more.
Shoot to score by capitalizing on your goals
First and foremost, every email you send should have a specific end goal. You likely already have a goal in mind, even without saying it in so many words, so consider what exactly you are asking from your intended audiences. Are you looking to increase sales, spread awareness about a new location, ask for reviews or referrals? It’s likely you mentioned this in the subject line, but repetition is the key to results (Paquet, 2015). Whatever your main focus is, make sure that is the highlight of the email and isn’t upstaged by superfluous messaging. It’s great to have additional content for those of your audience who might have already acted on the call to action or were never going to act at all, but hopefully through segmentation you can avoid sending irrelevant messages for the most part. As tempting as it might be to include a lengthy introduction or cram a bunch of information in the top of the email, you must make sure your main message is at the forefront. Design has a lot to do with this, which is why you must…
Make it pretty and keep it simple
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in an email, a few well chosen words might be all you need to get people clicking. Putting your most compelling imagery and a clear call to action above the fold (where the screen cuts off your message in a standard email browser) gives the best chance of catching a reader’s attention (Wainwright, 2012). If they can’t see a picture of your beautiful new products and don’t know they are invited to purchase right this minute, they might write the email off as a dud and move on to something more attuned to their interests, especially considering more than 205 billion emails are sent/received each day (Radcati Group, 2015). By minimizing the clutter and making your email as aesthetically pleasing as possible, you’re giving your email its best shot at not only being appreciated by the readers, but also getting them to click through to your website.
Say you’ve done all this and you still aren’t getting the results you want – you’ve tested different variables, your emails look great, but you still think you could be doing more. It’s time to bring out the big guns, which means getting psychology involved.
Play some brain games
There are many ways you can tap into psychological theories to try to entice your audience to click; however, I must caution you to use these tactics only if they are genuinely applicable to your content or product. Using a click-bait call to action that is only remotely tied to what you’re marketing is a surefire way to annoy customers and make them never want to click on your email again, or worse, unsubscribe completely. That being said, piquing curiosity is a strong way to get people to your website, if only to get the instant gratification of knowing what it is that you are teasing (Beashel, 2014). If the content you are providing lives up to their expectations (or better yet, exceeds them), they are more likely to keep clicking on future emails as well.
Another tactic is to personalize the email exactly to them, or at least make them think it’s tailored only to them. People love to see something that directly relates to them, so by using a first person call to action (“download my free trial”) or including their name in the email, customers will automatically feel more connected to your brand. Some services available allow you to customize email so specifically toward an individual, it will appear as it was lovingly crafted with only them in mind instead of compiled using an algorithm and stored data. These services can get pretty pricey, so depending on the size of your marketing budget they certainly aren’t for everyone, but simply invoking the first person to demonstrate ownership to the customer will often do the trick (Beashel, 2014).
Hopefully these tips are helpful as we all continue our quest to become better marketers. Again, if you aren’t in charge of the email program, see if these tactics work for your general email communications. Try putting your call to action at the front of the email instead of after a lengthy intro, or see if using the recipient’s name multiple times (not in a creepy way) gets a better response. Any questions? I’ll do my best to answer!
Is there anything else you’d like to know about creating effective marketing emails (retargeting, automation, etc.)? Let me know in the comments below, and if finals don’t get the best of me I’ll do my best to add one more post.
References:
Beashel, A. (2014). 3 psychology-backed ways to improve your email click-through rate. Retrieved from https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2014/07/improve-email-click-through-rate-psychology/
Paquet, M. (2015). 7 Things You Can Do to Significantly Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates. Retrieved from http://blogs.constantcontact.com/click-through-rate/
Radcati Group. (2015). Email Statistics Report, 2015-2019. Retrieved from http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pdf
Wainwright, C. (2012). 11 Sure-Fire Ways to Increase Email Click-Through Rates. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30451/11-Sure-Fire-Ways-to-Increase-Email-Click-Through-Rates.aspx
5 Responses to Elements of Email: Getting More People to Your Site