Email marketing is one of the most profitable digital marketing channels. You can generate some serious ROI with emails (up to 3,500%), but only if you’re able to convert your audience effectively.
There are many strategies you can use to increase conversion rates. In this blog, I’ll share seven proven, data-backed strategies on how to improve email conversion rates and bring in even more revenue from email marketing.
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Email Conversion Rates - Defining the Metric
Conversion rates are defined as the percentage of people who take a desired action after viewing your email. The desired action can be anything from making a purchase to subscribing to your blog. Your overall conversion rate is determined by how well your email performs in comparison to other marketing channels.
What is a Good Conversion Rate?
The answer to this question depends on your business goals. If you’re looking to generate leads, an average conversion rate would be around 2 to 5%. 6 to 9% is above average for lead gen, and anything over 10% is considered good. If you’re selling products or services, a good conversion rate would be around 10 to 15%.
Of course, these are just averages. You should always strive to have the highest conversion rate possible for your business.
How to Calculate Email Conversion Rate
To calculate email conversion rates, take the number of people who take the desired action and divide that by the total number of email recipients.
For example, if you sent an email to 100 people and 10 of them subscribed to your blog, your email conversion rate would be 10%.
Example:
230 conversions divided by 1000 emails = .23
.23 x 100 = 23% conversion rate
Now, let’s dive in! Here’s how to increase conversion rate in email marketing.
7 Data-Backed Strategies for Boosting Email Conversion Rates
Follow these tips and best practices to grow your email conversion rates:
1. Optimize Your Mobile Experience
Approximately 66% of emails are read on mobile devices. So first and foremost, ensure you're optimizing your emails for mobile. As many as 70% of recipients will ignore or delete an email immediately if it’s not mobile-friendly.
Here are five mobile-friendly design tips to help you increase conversion rates:
- Keep subject lines short so it’s properly displayed (30-35 characters maximum)
- Use a single-column layout
- Keep image sizes small to shorten the load time
- Write short, concise copy with larger fonts for easy reading
- Use CTAs instead of links for maximum clickability
Continue Reading: Key Components of User-Friendly Mobile Design
2. Segment Your Email Lists
In today’s world, users receive information and content at their fingertips - constantly. What’s the best way to stand out from the crowd?
Segmentation allows you to group customers by their precise interests or characteristics. No one product or offer will appeal to every single person, so it’s critical to understand what different groups of people might be interested in.
Use information like demographic attributes, purchase history or browsing activity to create targeted marketing campaigns that are specific to each segment.
For example, send a discount to individuals who haven’t purchased in the past six months to increase the likelihood that they’ll return as a customer.
Mastering this strategy enables you to give your prospects and customers what they want, when they want it.
Plus, marketers who used segmented campaigns can achieve as much as a 760% increase in revenue. Segmentation is definitely worth a shot!
3. Automate Emails
Did you know that automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails?
As your business grows, giving individual attention to customers becomes increasingly difficult. Email automation workflows allow for in-depth customization and streamlined drip campaigns.
You can send personalized emails to individual contacts or customer segments based on their criteria or specific actions taken. Most email platforms enable you to set up drip campaigns with just a few clicks.
If you think automation is impersonal, think again. Combining segmentation and email automation allows you to target customers the right way at the right time.
Continue Reading: Email Automation Workflows to Boost Your Customer LTV
4. Integrate Dynamic Content
Want to make a good first impression? Provide your customers with content that speaks to them.
Dynamic content (also known as adaptive content) refers to content blocks in an email that are specific to a customer’s interest or demographic.
Dynamic content blocks are “dropped in” to predetermined areas of an email message, reducing bounce rate and increasing conversions.
As many as 65% of email marketers deem dynamic content as the most effective personalization tactic in their arsenal. Dynamic, personalized email content can generate up to 50% higher open rates and 100% higher click rates.
Not sure how to get started with dynamic content? Try using an AI-powered personalization tool like Personalize, which reveals the products and services people are most interested in at any given time, giving you better response rates and increased revenue.
5. Perform A/B Testing
Have you ever created an email marketing campaign that delivered less than stellar results?
Don’t rely on what you think is the right email message or layout. Let your customers tell you what works by their responses.
While proper A/B testing (also known as split testing) does take time to yield the most accurate results, the investment in effort pays off.
Nothing works forever, which is why successful marketers regularly test and tweak. When results show a downward trend, it’s time to look deeper and evaluate different approaches to reach your target customers.
As marketers, it's essential to monitor response rates and optimize your campaigns’ effectiveness continually.
Continue Reading: Highly Effective Email Testing Ideas for Your A/B Strategy
6. Incorporate Strong CTAs
Don’t end all your emails with the same “learn more” button – that’s a rookie mistake.
Personalized CTAs convert 202% better than default messaging. Sprinkle CTAs throughout your content, varying the messaging to pique customers’ curiosity.
Design your emails for skimming vs. in-depth reading. Your content should be to the point, encouraging your readers to take the next step. A strong CTA points readers in the right direction.
Check out Hubspot’s blog on Call-to-Action Examples for some excellent ideas on CTA’s that convert and an eaxplanation of why they work.
7. Write Compelling Subject Lines
Last but not least, don’t forget to craft a tantalizing subject line.
Your email’s subject line plays a vital role in your email marketing efforts. If your contacts aren’t enticed by your subject line, they won’t even open your email.
Subject lines are perfect for A/B testing. According to Litmus, 79% of marketers say they regularly experiment with different subject lines to optimize their performance.
Here are a few quick tips for writing a compelling subject line:
- Personalize the subject line. Emails with personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates.
- Keep it short. Subject lines with 50 characters or less ensure that your readers can scan the entire subject line at a glance.
- Create a sense of urgency. Does your offer have a deadline? Make sure customers know that the time to act is running out.
- Ask a question to attract attention. If you’ve segmented your customers effectively, asking a question that prompts a “yes” answer will encourage a reader to open the email and look further.
- Use a human sender name. Never use a “no-reply” sender! People respond better to other people, not anonymous boxes. Make a strong (and friendly) impression by using emails sent and signed from “john@yourbusiness.com”.
Make Personalize Part of Your Email Conversion Strategy
If you’re looking for a tool to enhance your content and increase email conversion rates, Human has just what you need.
Personalize is an AI-powered recommendation engine that enables you to track your customers’ top interests in real-time.
Personalize is easy to use and hooks directly into your CRM or email platform. Obtain the data you need to build conversion-friendly, automated personalized campaigns –- your way!
Check out Personalize and sign up for a free 30-day trial today.
