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6 Trivial Email Marketing Hacks to Trump-up Click-Through and Conversions

Email Marketing Hacks

Email Marketing Hacks

Email marketing dominates the digital marketing scene, especially in terms of organic reach.  

In the U.S. alone, about 80 percent check their emails daily. As per Statista, in 2017 global email users touched 3.7 billion. And, by 2022, the number is expected to reach 4.3 billion.

Despite emails, overwhelming influence in the marketing realm, certain trivial but key practices are yet to make the required impression on the marketers.

So, what are these trivial practices that are easily been ignored by marketers without a prick of conscience?

Here, I walk you through 5 email marketing best practices that marketers need to care about to increase click-throughs and conversions.

#1. Bring New “Sender Names” On Board  As and When Possible

As it turns out, a typical “from” of an email either comprises the company name or the employee name. This is the normal process followed by the companies while sending the emails. But, if you look at it from an email recipient’s perspective, both the employee name and the company name would sound foreign to the recipients, unless, of course, the employee happens to know the recipient.

Maybe the recipient would recognize your company name.  But then, how’s that going to help?

It won’t tell the recipient anything about the email content. Whether the email is about a blog update? Or a support ticket? Or whether it contains invoice details?

Likewise, an employee’s name won’t be of any help either, unless as I mentioned before, the recipient knows the employee, somehow.  So, if sender seems stranger to the recipient, be assured the email is sure to make its way to the trash folder.

HiP, a full-scale demand generation agency that specializes in lead generation for top-gun marketing and technology clients has been experimenting with its email “from” for some time now.

This is HiP’s Before and After “From”

These “friendly from” from HiP achieves two things: One, they provide additional information and context about the sender. Two, they look different. Together, these can increase your email open rates and thereby your click-through rates.  

Another way of accelerating your email open rates is to use names of different employees to send your emails and not just rely on one single employee name.

The American Writers & Artists Inc., or AWAI, a top community for freelance writers, sends emails using different names.

There’s Katie, Steve, Rebecca and more shooting emails to subscribers on AWAI’s behalf.

Key takeaway: Don’t simply use a single employee’s name or company’s name while sending your emails. Try using different names. More importantly, include the job title or even the department name to help your recipient determine the purpose of your email even before they open it.

Plus, test different formats. If one “friendly from” is not working for you, try experimenting with others.

#2. Create Revealing Preview Text – Every Time

Do you plan to auto-populate your preview text, also called as pre-header text? No. Don’t.  If your email client allows, it’s always better to optimize your preview text because it helps you communicate better with your email recipients, and more important, it helps you stand out from your competitors.

Granted, coming up with preview text would involve some coding, but think of the benefit it provides as it inevitably prompts recipients to open their emails.

Key takeaway: Try experimenting with clever, relevant text as HP uses in its image. You could even try using fewer words to create more white space.

#3.  Add *Action-Packed* Text to Your CTA Buttons

CTA matters. But, CTA text matters a helluva lot more. In fact, every word counts.

Be it your website or your emails, if your CTA buttons and especially the CTA button text doesn’t stand out, it would defeat the very purpose of coming up with the website or an email copy.

So, make sure to avoid boring, bland text in your CTA copy, instead, try playing with words and concoct action-packed text that not only delights the readers but inspires him or her click take action.

A couple of examples that I stumbled upon while looking for action-packed CTA copies:

Check out Udemy’s *Take This Course* CTA button,

ConversionXL has slipped in a benefit-driven statement into its CTA text.

Or Check out exitbee’s bright-pink-purple CTA button with an action-packed text on it.

Additionally, you could even add a line or two before your CTA buttons. It could either be in the form of a question,  “want to see how to…?” or you could try the first-person approach, “I want to…”, “Tell me…” For more information on the importance of CTA buttons, in particular, and website design, in general, go ahead and check out GoodFirms research on website design stats and trends for small businesses.

Key takeaway: Test your CTA copy time and again, until you get it right.

#4. Make Unsubscribe a Two Step Process

Sure, having a single click for unsubscribing your emails is a good practice. But then, there are downsides to it.

With more and more people checking their emails on their smartphones, people accidentally tend to click on links, even unsubscribes links, they might actually not want to in the first place. According to Pew Research, about three-quarters of American adults were fine with people who used their phones while walking down the street, riding public transit or waiting in line. So, just imagine the kind of risk your email list is open to.

So, make sure to add a second link in your email copy that might help them go back on their decision, then just have lost a hard-earned subscriber.

A medium user reduced his unsubscribe rate by 19% when he experimented with his unsubscribe link by making it a two-step process from a single step.

Key takeaway: Subscribers might accidentally unsubscribe your email. Help them reverse their decision by making unsubscribe a two-step process.

#5.  Try Multi-level Approach

When you are trying to reach important individuals like stakeholders, shareholders and other top-notch officials through emails, try the multi-level approach.

You could send them an email first, and also follow it up with a LinkedIn message saying that you have sent an email and it talks about such a thing, which could prompt the recipient to at least check their email.

This is going the extra mile in a respectful way.

#6. Include a Few Fan Followers to be Part of Your List

Personalization is central to email campaigns. And, businesses make it an effortless affair by making it a one-to-one approach.   

But then, the process may seem tedious and time-consuming. So, what you could do is,  tweak this strategy a tad bit by narrowing down your focus on a few selected people, including a few brand advocates. Then get your brand advocates to shoot a positive reply to your email and that too through a “ Reply all” email.  The positive reply might inspire your selected target audience to respond favorably to your email as well.

Key takeaway: Avoid bulk emailing. Choose a selected few individuals and get a few advocates as well and inform them well in advance the purpose of your email.

Conclusion

There could be plenty of other trivial but key things that might need to be considered, however, I have included the most overlooked ones.

Can you think of other overlooked strategies that could drive click-throughs and conversions for your emails?   

If you have any suggestions that we should have added to the list or your own story of making a mistake which eventually cost you badly, share it in the comments.

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