Ever since Gary Thuerk sent the first unsolicited email in 1978 that generated $12 million in sales, email marketing has been on the upswing. In fact, as per a McKinsey article, emails are nearly 40 times more successful than the combined force of Facebook and Twitter in acquiring customers.
No wonder email marketing remains a much-favored tool used by marketers across industries to gain customers.
But just because emails are the rage doesn’t mean email marketing is easy to master. It is no mean task to catch the recipient’s eyes in an already crowded inbox and move them down the sales funnel.
However, worry not! We have got you covered.
Top 10 Effective Email Copy Tips to Drive Sales
Here are the top 10 effective email marketing tips for targeting the right users and improving sales.
1. Research Your Target Audience
The first step for a successful email strategy is knowing your target audience and what they want. After all, if your marketing techniques don’t resonate with your target customer audience, it will be tough for you to close a deal.
Therefore, adopt a laser-focused approach to identify your target audience and their pain points. Once that is done, you can then show them how your product solves their problems.
2. Write a Great Subject Line
Your subject line in the email is the first thing your target audience sees and is crucial to deciding whether your customers will click through or trash your newsletter without even opening it. With the average email open rate across industries a mere 21.33%, it is evident how important the subject line is.
Even if you’re using email marketing automation to reach your audience, how do you make your recipients click through your email?
Well, include an element of surprise or suspense in your subject line so that the recipient is compelled to open it. Some ways to go about it:
- Play on FOMO (Guess: “Tonight only: A denim lover’s dream”)
- Ask questions that arouse interest or provoke curiosity in the recipient (Eat This Not That: “9 Disgusting Facts about Thanksgiving”)
- Use personalization techniques like addressing the user by their name, mentioning location, etc. (ex Hey Ash, see you at the Opera House)
3. Personalize Your Emails
Today’s intelligent and savvy target audience expects personalized services at every step of their customer journey.
For example, an Experian market study found that personalized emails generate six times higher transaction rates. Here are some other statistics compiled by Instapage.
- When emails are not personalized, 52% of customers say they’ll go somewhere else.
- 75% of marketers believe personalization yields higher click-through rates.
- 82% of marketers reported an increase in open rates through email personalization.
The message is obvious: With consumers being wooed left, right, and center by everyone out there, sending blanket emails to multiple recipients will not take you anywhere.
Email marketing and automation has made it possible for brands to focus on a user’s past purchases to boost conversion and engagement. Marketers who do not invest in personalization efforts risk being ignored by the very people they are trying to woo.
4. Create Interesting Content but Keep it Short
No matter how well you optimize your emails, they will fail if they’re not relevant to your target audience. So, instead of sending out irrelevant stuff, aim to provide targeted and functional content to keep your email subscribers interested in your product/service.
When composing an email, keep in mind two things: the information you want to impart and the key takeaway for your audience after they read it.
Also, remember, sending a lengthy email packed with technical jargon is probably one of the worst mistakes you can make as a marketeer.
Long content makes audiences glaze over; in contrast, short, snappy content piques their interest and urges them to read more. Therefore, keeping the content brief and using conversational language is the best way to maintain the interest of prospective leads.
5. Do A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a research method to compare two types of the same message to see which one delivers better results. A/B testing can help you prevent making costly and time-consuming mistakes that later turn out to be unproductive.
With A/B testing tools, you can send one version of your email campaigns to a group of subscribers while you can send the other version to another group. Depending on the feedback received and the conversion figures, you can then decide whether or not to proceed with the changes.
If you have low click-throughs or too many unsubscribe requests, it is perhaps time to do a split-test to find out what your customer wants. By toying around with different options, you’ll be able to work out the right game plan to capture your audience’s imagination and their wallets.
6. Target the Mobile Market
Do you know 41.6% of emails are opened on mobile nowadays? Yet, in a combined research by Salesforce and Litmus, only 56% of B2C brands reported using mobile-aware responsive email design, with the rest stuck on desktop-focused designs.
To target mobile customers, you need to create responsive email designs customized according to the user’s device. Responsive email templates get higher click-throughs across all devices and more so with the mobile versions because they consistently reproduce the correct image/text irrespective of the medium they are viewed on.
Other tips for a mobile-friendly email service are to keep the subject line short and catchy. Additionally, make the CTA big, so it is visible even on a smaller screen.
7. Segment Your Email List
Email segmentation is the process of breaking up subscribers into smaller segments based on predefined criteria. Grouping subscribers based on their search history, buying history, or interests will enable you to create custom-made marketing campaigns that are more likely to drive sales and increase the ROI of your business.
Research from Optimove found that segmentation results in customer uplift. From the results, they deduced that the smaller the target group, the more is the uplift.
For instance, campaigns targeting up to 150 customers had a $1.90 uplift per customer, while target groups of 1,500+ had an uplift of around $0.50.
Simply put, email segmentation is far more effective than sending out emails in bulk as they retain customers and help drive greater sales volume.
8. Use the Double- Opens Strategy
Coined by Noah Kagan, Double-Opens is an effective marketing strategy to increase conversions. In a double-opens approach, you resend the same email to the subscribers in your list who did not open your email the first time around. On the other hand, you can also use direct mail marketing.
By sending the same email with an improved subject line, you can amplify your open rates and have a better chance at targeting those subscribers who ignored your initial email.
But, before sending the same emails again, do note to:
- Improvise your subject line and make it more interesting
- Wait at least for 3 to 5 days before resending
- Perfect your preheader text
9. Advertise Benefits, Not Features
A golden rule in marketing is to focus more on the benefits than the features. There is a reason for it. Consumers are not interested in your product’s x,y,z features, but are more interested in knowing how those features solve their problems.
Although this concept doesn’t work with aspirational purchases (for example, buying an expensive watch for social recognition), it usually holds true for the rest.
A good marketer knows how to convert the features into benefits for their target audience deftly. Of course, features are important as they prove the benefits you are touting; however, continually harping on them will not drive sales. You need to balance both and make it more about “you” than “us.”
10. Use CTAs
Once your potential lead has read your content, what do you do next? You would want them to turn into valuable paying customers, but how do you do that?
Simple: place CTAs in your email.
Call To Actions or CTAs are a vital element of an email marketing strategy. A compelling CTA uses urgency and excitement to guide your leads down the sales funnel effortlessly.
So, ensure you compose a powerful and actionable CTA; after all, it is the link between your brand and your customers. If possible, try to personalize your CTA as personalized CTAs have improved conversions by over 200%.
Conclusion:
Despite the rise of numerous communication platforms, email with a user base of over 4 billion people remains the most popular.
With email marketing showing no signs of letting up, it’s imperative for marketers to successfully master the art of netting leads and converting them into potential customers.
The tips above can help you perfect your email marketing efforts for greater conversions.
