Your email has been sent, but was it well received? Read this before crafting your email marketing strategy.
50 milliseconds. That’s the amount of time you have upon your subscriber seeing your email notification, and determining if they will open it or not.
When a subscriber is excited by quality headlines, hormones release into the body. This chemical reaction happens subconsciously and triggers the feeling of joy and excitement, causing the subscriber to take increased motivation in what they are engaged by.
For businesses, this predetermined reaction can be used to compel your email list to become curious about your subject, and cause them to explore it.
So, how can you satisfy the appetite of those dopamine blasts?
By understanding what compels your audience to open your emails will give you the best advantage each time you press send! According to campaign monitor, 35% of recipients open emails based on the subject line alone and this is the anchor and entrance way to getting the reader hooked.
So, how can you start the triggered chain of reactions so that your email subscribers get past your headline, read your email and make a purchase?
Here are 6 tips to ensure your email headlines get noticed as relevant and lead to sales conversions in your email marketing strategy.
Number of characters in a subject line
The majority of emails are opened on a mobile device, android phones can display up to 30 characters whilst on Outlook, up to 60 characters can be displayed. One of the mistakes marketers make are using headlines that are using headlines that too complicated and confusing.
Try to create email headlines that stay under 30 characters, or above 70 characters. Under 30 is a sweet spot to get people to open your emails, while over 70 is great for converting sales within emails.
The highest open rates are subject lines that your audience can interpret and within 30 characters or less will help improve your chances of your email being opened, though for mobile optimisation using 6-7 words would be enough.
Keep in mind that being concise with using words that engage and excite your reader will make your subject line more compelling.
Having a keyword strategy and using power words
Keywords can make or break your email subject line and readers will quickly associate and reject words that they associate with spam, for example, misuse of the word ‘free’, or ‘sale’.
69% of people report emails as spam based solely on the subject line, but by having insight into the most relevant keywords for your email campaign heading will add better value to your campaign. Using words that engage, excite and inform your readers greatly helps improve open rates and conversions.
Here’s a 10 words that are simple power words for building engagement:
- You
- New
- Save
- Proven
- Guarantee
- Immediate
- Results
- Free
Tools such as Adestra’s email subject line keyword checker will help you in establishing what keywords will hook your audience, and reel them in.
Personalised emails
Personalised subject lines attract a 26% higher open rate than non-personalised subject lines.
Collecting important data during the sign-up stage with apps like Shopify will enable you to store information relating to the person’s name, age, gender, location, and interests, that will allow you to better customise your email headings and the main body of content.
By using customised emails you gain the advantage of being able to identify with and preempt triggers that you know your audience member will find familiar and can relate to, which increases the likelihood of them progressing to the main email body, and the action converting to a sale.
Segmenting your email list
Personalising your email encourages receptive action from the target, though, you can add more bait by providing specific content to specific subscribers through segmenting your custom data.
One email blast doesn’t fit all. If one of the products in your line is a pair of women’s gloves, then you needn’t include males in this list.
Depending on your customer’s past activity, location, gender, age, income, and other variables, email segmentation will appeal much more to customers at various stages of the sales cycle and add more relevance to your message.
Relevant and repeated content
In order to receive a receptive response, it’s vital to send a message that is relevantly targeted but also interesting content that applies to them. What is it that your subscriber needs and values the most?
For example, if this is a previous purchaser or a lead that has shown interest in a particular product or service in the past, then you can influence their purchasing behaviour by using this as a bait to anchor and add luster to them being encouraged to make a purchase.
According to Jupiter research, subscribers that are shown a product that they previously considered, increased immediate purchases to approximately 60% of respondents based on being subtly reminded of their past intention.
Identifying what works and what doesn’t with A/B testing
In email marketing, the subject line of your email is the primary and first line of defence for whether your email will be well received, or not. Testing different email subject lines and content elements allows you to compare and contrast how your content is being received.
Testing elements such as the length, topic, personalisation and promotional offer in an email subject line can offer valuable insight into what your audience prefers.
Campaign monitor recommends testing subject lines for 3 months to determine the best subject line to use to update your email marketing campaign with.
By implementing these creative techniques into your next email campaign strategy will not only increase your email open rates but also, because your subscribers feel valued by your efforts, you will see increased rewards in conversions and sales.
Written by Daniella Smithson
