Your Email Optimization Strategy for Maximum ROI

Just because your email campaigns are doing well doesn’t mean they couldn’t be doing better. There are plenty of opportunities for fine-tuning your strategy to help increase opens, clicks and conversions. Your ultimate goal? To do more of the things that work, fix or eliminate the things that don’t work and drive the most revenue possible from your email marketing activities.

Here are our top tips for making that happen.

1. 1. Optimize Opens

   Your emails won’t do much for your company if your customers don’t open them. If you’ve noticed your open rate is waning, make sure you’ve got your basics covered:

   Clean your list: The first step in effective marketing is to make sure your email gets into the right inbox. If your list contains bad email addresses, not only are you wasting your efforts, you might also be jeopardizing your overall sender reputation. Taking the time to validate your email list allows you to remove invalid or abandoned addresses, fix typos or other obvious errors and maximize the number of emails that make it to the inbox.

   Write a killer subject line: A snoozer of a subject line is a surefire way to get your email deleted before it gets read. The best subject lines have three elements working for them: They target something that interests the reader, they are clear and unambiguous, and they have a sense of urgency. On a technical note, given that so many emails are read on mobile devices, front-load the most important words in your subject line to make sure they can be read even on a small screen.

   Don’t ignore the preheader: Too many marketers fail to make use of this valuable email real estate. The preheader is that little snippet of text that appears in your inbox next to an email subject line. This gives you one more opportunity to give the reader a teaser of the offer contained in your email, so they are sure to open it.

2. 2. Maximize Clicks

   Once your email has been opened, you want your reader to do something. As a recap, here are a few of the tactics we suggest using to encourage the reader to click through to the next step.

   Personalize the email: You’re gathering data on your subscribers, right? Put that data to good use by sending offers and content uniquely targeted to each individual. Start by segmenting your list as narrowly as you can. Then use the defining characteristics of those segments to create a customer experience that truly feels one-on-one.

   Early, actionable call-to-action: With html, it’s easy to create long, scrolling email messages. While you may have good reasons for doing so, what you don’t want to do is force your reader to scroll all the way through to the end of your message before being able to take action. Make sure a clear, crisp CTA is placed near the top of your email so highly motivated readers can take action quickly. By all means, include CTAs midway through and at the end of your content, too. Offer multiple opportunities for your readers to click through.

   Optimize for mobile: If you own a smartphone, chances are good you’ve experienced the frustration of trying to click on a tiny little link with your finger. Avoid doing this to your readers by making sure your emails are easy to read and your links are in the form of easy-to-click buttons when viewed on a small screen. Given that 65 percent of emails are opened on a mobile device, this step is imperative.

3. 3. Maximize Conversions

   Now that your readers have clicked through, here’s what you can do to guide them toward a conversion:

   Connect your landing page with your offer: Continuity of experience is critical if you want your email readers to click through to your website and make a purchase. Make sure the story you’re telling carries through from the email to the landing page, so the reader barely notices the transition. And make sure the final call-to-action is so enticing, your prospects can’t help but convert.

   Add urgency to the offer: In marketing, it can be a kiss of death when a customer says, “Let me think about it.” Encourage your reader to take action now. You can do this by adding a time-sensitive component to your offer, by stressing the importance of taking action now, or by simply making your offer so outrageous there’s simply no reason to say “no.”

   Automate your messages: Auto-responders let you react in the moment to a variety of actions a subscriber may take. Whether you’re delivering a welcome message to a new subscriber-sweetened, of course, with a handy-dandy coupon for first-time purchasers-or celebrating the subscriber’s birthday, sending thanks for a purchase or acknowledging recent Web activity, auto-triggered emails get you in front of your customers at the perfect moment to close a sale.

With a clear optimization strategy driving your email marketing campaigns, you’ll undoubtedly find multiple areas ripe for improvement. By continuously improving your tactics and implementation, you’ll be thrilled with the improvements in ROI you’ll generate.

Want more advice for taking your emails to the next level? See how this TowerData client turned its customer data into customer engagement.