Subject Line Tricks To Improve Open Rates
When it comes to improving open rates, there are several aspects that are key. One of those is the subject line that the audience sees. If you have a boring subject line, then your mail can be lost in busy inboxes. However, if you make slight tweaks to your mail, then you can make it stand out and improve your campaign’s performance.
So, what are the subject line tricks you can use to improve open rates?
1. Bracketing Text
One of the newest ways that people have started to build upon their open rate is by including brackets in their subject lines. A line like this:
Some amazing daily deals that can’t be found elsewhere
can be turned into
Some amazing (exclusive) daily deals
The brackets used to be unusual. So it drew attention to the email in an inbox. However, more marketers are starting to do this, so consumers are going to get used to the practice soon. That doesn’t make it less valuable, there are still going to be some audiences who are more likely to click through on this type of subject line.
2. Avoid Blacklists (Spam) Words
Another key aspect to getting your emails opened is getting them seen in the first place. When you include spam words in your subject lines then mail servers are going to be blocking your content, making them bounce, or sending them to the spam folder, where few people check for emails.
There are a lot of words that can be considered bad for spam. So be sure to check out those lists carefully. We’ve even created an article recently where we detailed some of the worst options for words.
However, two good examples would be the words ‘daily’ and ‘deals’. These are often associated with spam and so should be removed and replaced. So this subject line:
Some amazing (exclusive) daily deals
could be turned into
Some amazing (exclusive) products available today.
3. Add Ownership To The Subject Line
Call-to-action optimisation is all about giving ownership of the action to the reader. The same can be said to email subject lines. After all, they are both there to tell the audience to do something. In the case of the email subject line, it is to read the rest of the content.
There are several ways to add ownership to a subject line. But the most powerful is by including the word ‘you’ somewhere in the text. While personalisation used to work, customers are becoming more aware of the technology that can just add it in. So placing a name within the subject line is becoming less effective.
Therefore, this subject line:
Some amazing (exclusive) products available today.
Could become
Some amazing (exclusive) products available for you today
4. Be Controversial And Keep A Secret (Very Badly)
Another key tactic used by numerous other people on email marketing is being controversial and implying a secret. This adds intrigue and a desire by the audience to know what is hidden within the email. Controversial aspects are hard to apply without offending certain elements, but there are ways of doing it.
You don’t have to use the word secret, or confidential within the content to get the secret element across. Instead, you can use words like ‘exclusive’ or ‘just for you’ to get that same sense. For instance, in the example above, we’ve used the word exclusive. That implies scarcity and secrecy. Therefore, audiences are more likely to click through.
To add controversy, you could add something like:
Some amazing (exclusive) products available for you (that your [name of relation] doesn’t want you to have)
The name of relation can be swapped with any relation like wife, husband, mum, dad, etc..
Conclusion
Improve your email marketing success with some of the tips above. When they see your new subject lines, you should see an increase in the number of people who are reading your content and therefore making a purchase.
How do you monitor your open rates? Have you tried split testing to see what subject lines perform better?
Let us know in the comments below.
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Why Your Marketing Emails Need Less Marketing Content
Adding media can help reduce the amount of content needed on an email and improve ROI on campaigns
Emails are the perfect channel to get your sales message across. They are easy for audiences to digest, they can sit in inboxes until the subscriber is ready, and you can track results. All these reasons make emails one of the best performing digital channels for ROI.
However, one of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make when they’re creating emails is to put too much content in the copy.
Email design and content can be pivotal in making a campaign a success or failure. And while some small business owners might think that more is better – audiences tend to prefer the opposite. In fact, emails with too much content can lead to poor sales and high unsubscribe rates.
But why might audiences not like too much content in an email? Here are some of the top reasons, and how you can turn it around without losing any of the power of email marketing.
1. Audiences Have Little Time To Read Too Much Content
One of the biggest reasons is that too much text takes time to read and audiences don’t want to spend hours reading. They want to know what’s important, quickly, and what they need to do next to solve a problem, find out more information, or learn something new.
There are several ways you make it easier to get a message across. Firstly, you can break up long pieces of text into little sections with clear headers explaining what is being said in each section. Audience members with the least time might then skim-read your email, deciding what’s important to them based on the headings.
Another option is to use images to communicate your messages. Images can portray more than words in a given space and can be read and understood faster by audiences. So they make a great option.
2. Audiences Don’t Want Too Much Information
Audiences really only want to know what’s important to them. You might have a great backstory as to why you’re celebrating your business’ five year anniversary, but to your audience, that story isn’t that important. They want to know what the point of the email is: i.e. what’s in it for them.
By all means, write your incredible story, but put it on a landing page for those interested to read it. On your email, be short, clear and very concise. That way you can keep audiences happy and get them to take actions on your emails without losing their interest.
3. Too Much Content Can Seem Pretentious
Audiences don’t want businesses that make themselves seem more than they are. Emails with too much to say make the business sending them look too pretentious. This can lose you trust. Your subscribers will look somewhere else.
Instead, you should be focusing on ensuring your audience feel as if you are all part of one team. They want to know that you see problems from their point of view. Keep your content grounded to ensure you do this, by losing the jargon and not talking too much.
4. Audiences Want To Read Content From A Human
Too much text just looks like a book, something that’s impersonal and not unique to the reader. When you write less text and content, you might find that your audience believe the email was a personal one, something that was developed for them.
This, with other personalisation options for your email, can help you improve your campaign’s success.
Conclusion
Don’t be the business that falls into the trap of having too much information in email campaigns. While you might think you are giving audiences everything they need to make an informed decision, you are more than likely just giving them a reason to unsubscribe.
Be more concise in your email marketing campaigns and see how your success grows. Use images, graphs, videos and other tools to help communicate your message and never write too much.
How do you make emails more concise? Have you ever received an email with too much content?
Let us know in the comments below.
Read post 5 Comments. Tagged in: content design, email campaigns, email content, media content
Tips To Stop Your Emails Being Deleted In The Preview Pane
Get your email stuck up on a board and not deleted before being read.
Emails are a very effective way to get your brand message across to your prospects. Customers like to receive promotional content via their email address as it is a relatively un-intrusive form of communication. However, the scary thing is that unless you are great at designing emails, 80% of your messages will be viewed and actioned in a preview pane.
As the trend of opening emails on phones becomes more mainstream, the challenges of getting people to see the whole of your message will increase.
It is All About The Details
Research by Lyris found some useful information on how prospects read and action emails. According to their survey results:
- 60% believe that the sender’s name and email address is the key information.
- The subject line is the second most essential piece of information for 54.3%.
- The main headline is the next piece of vital information (53%).
- Teaser copy is not very important. Only 30.3% of respondents stated they examined the email in the preview pane before taking action.
This information can be very useful in deciding how to design and send your emails. So what tips can we provide to optimise your email campaign designs to get more opens?
1. The ‘From’ Field
Spam is the biggest challenge for email users. Our addresses are bought and sold to companies without our consent and sometimes we can receive dozens or hundreds of unwanted messages a day from companies offering us products we don’t want.
Therefore, being seen as not spam can be very challenging. One way to do this is to ensure your ‘from’ field is not that of an organisation but a recognisable individual to help beat spam filters and make your message look genuine to the subscriber.
2. The Subject Line
The subject line should be working hard on the message you want to provide. Forget the boring and generic subject lines like “RE: Your winter wardrobe needs” or “March Newsletter”. Instead, look for something that provides a benefit to the reader of your email. It could include the action you want them to take after reading your email.
Key action-inducing messages will increase the open and action rates of your emails, giving you a greater ROI.
Don’t be afraid to personalise your emails. Have their name within the subject line and perhaps in the copy of the email, which will make it appear as though the email was created just for them and therefore, more worthwhile for the subscriber to read.
3. Take advantage Of Your Space
Don’t waste the top of your email with text that is only stating the obvious. There is no value in ‘view this email in a browser’, place this at the bottom of the email instead. The top space should be for highly engaging and informative teaser text. Let the reader know what your email is about and what it will give them but keep some information back so they are intrigued about the rest of the content.
Alternatively, you could use this space to offer reassurance that the email is not spam and worth a good read.
4. Don’t Be Obsessed With Images
If you are selling business services, forget the images. Many business email users have firewalls and email client settings that restrict the download of pictures. Therefore, when they see your email in the preview screen, it can look messy and unattractive. If they don’t like the look of your email in the preview screen, they aren’t going to download those images.
Conclusion
Your emails are the key to selling online. They have the greatest ROI of any online marketing channel and can support your business’ revenue continuously. Just ensure you have the right design so that when people preview your emails, they want to open them up and read more.
What are your open rates like? What is your click through rate?
Let us know in the comments below.
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5 New Ways Small Businesses Can Spice Up Email Newsletters
Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your target audience. The only problem is that the majority of businesses online are now using email to contact and sell to the same people you are contacting. These can be direct competitors or businesses offering substitute goods. This can be bad news for your email marketing campaigns as it limits the effectiveness of your message; unless, you find a way to stand apart from these competitors and spice up your email newsletter.
There are several ways you can do this. Here are five options for you to consider.
1. Using A Preview Image For A Video
Videos are very intensive to send via email. To avoid this, most businesses use a simple link to a video on YouTube or another video sharing website. This can often lead to a poor video viewing numbers. Yet, videos can be highly effectively in the sales process. Therefore, use an image from the video that looks impressive to entice your audience to click on it and find out more.
You should also consider hosting the video on your website. This way you can set up better monitoring to see how effective the video was at increasing page views.
2. Keep Your Text Short And Snappy
If you really want your audience to read your emails and then click through to your website, don’t place all your content within the email. This only encourages the audience to read the email copy and then either click off your email or delete it. You want them to visit your site and therefore, the best option is to get them there to read the content.
Use teaser paragraphs or descriptions of the content on your email copy and then link them to the full article on your blog or on a landing page.
3. Humour
Comedy is not used frequently enough within the online marketing realm; yet it is one of the best tactics for engaging your audience. Emails containing humour are often shared more via email and social media than those without. This can grow your brand’s online footprint and email marketing list.
Ensure all jokes are clean, short and funny. They cannot be sexual, sexist, racist or in any other way offensive – otherwise you may grab headlines, but not for the right reasons.
4. Competitions
People love to win and entering a competition is one way to achieve that. By offering them that chance through your email marketing campaigns is a way your brand can satisfy their need to compete. The prize doesn’t need to be expensive as long as it something that will have value to the customer.
Ensure that your competition isn’t just related to one email. Promote it over several emails and encourage people to share the emails with their friends and family to gain more tickets or chances to win the prize.
5. Quotes To Inspire And Motivate
Whether you are engaging customers who are already buying or attempting to attract new customers, using quotes from famous people is likely to grab their attention. Quote sites are very popular and are often categorised by industry and type of quote, so finding a good quote for your business is not going to be difficult.
Don’t go overboard, but if you include one good quote from an inspirational person you will be sure to grab some attention. Experiment with where to place the quote as different audience may prefer different placement.
Conclusion
The email marketing landscape is becoming a very busy place. Many of your competitors are likely to delivering their content to your target audiences at the same time as you. Therefore, you need to create content that is highly effective and a little different. One of the best ways: use techniques that will add a little spice to the content and allow your emails to look different to your competitors’.
Take Action:
- Add a new element into your email marketing design.
What do you use to spice up your content? How effective has it been?
Let us know in the comments below.
Read post Post a Comment. Tagged in: email content, email design, email marketing, Email Newsletters, Email Strategy