One of inbound marketing’s best practices is to send emails only to those that have opted in to receive them.  Even while abiding by this practice, you may find your click and open rates are still below your goals.  Email is still a very effective marketing tool if used correctly.  There are many ways you can optimize your emails to maximize their impact.  Here are a few tips to ensure your next email campaign is a rousing success.

CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM is a law that was passed in 2003 to regulate email marketing practices.  Essentially it outlines the rules for commercial emailing campaigns.  Some of the requirements include providing a clear and easy way for recipients to opt out, including your postage address, having From, To, and Reply To fields that clearly identify who you are and disallowing the sale or transfer of email addresses to another list.

Timing

Once a prospect has opted in to receive your emails, it’s important that you send them something within 24 hours.  This ensures you reach out to them while your company is still on top of their mind.  One of the best ways to do this is to set up an automated email workflow that sends out an email to engage your new contact once they have opted in.

From Field

Email opens have been proven to increase when the message is sent from a real person instead of a company name.  Personalized senders tend to invoke greater trust with recipients and are therefore more likely to be opened.  If you still want to include your company name, include it along with a real person’s name.

Preview Text

Email servers will automatically pull from the body of your email to provide preview text of your email unless you preset it.  Presetting your preview text allows you to provide a clear and concise snippet of the value your email holds.  It’s best to keep these to 50 characters or less so they don’t get cut off.

Subject Line

You want to make sure your subject line is clear and clickable.  As with the preview text, you want to keep it to 50 characters or less so it doesn’t get cut off.  Use actionable language to create a sense of urgency to entice your recipients to open.  Use language that is familiar to your buyer persona and even include personalization such as their name, job title or location.

Length

It is important that you keep your emails short and to the point.  Most people are inundated with email and a very unlikely to take the time to read a long email.  Too much copy can also be a red flag for spam filters as well.  If your email does need to be on the longer side, be sure to separate it into small paragraphs to increase scanability.

Calls To Action

A clear, easy to spot call to action is essential in getting results from your email campaign.  If someone is scanning through their emails, you want to ensure they see the value offer within your email.  Without a CTA button, you won’t be calling your readers to take any action that will benefit them, or the growth of your business.

Link Images

The main goal of an email is to get the recipient to click a link that leads to your website.  A great way to increase these clicks without filling your copy with hyperlinks is to link your images. 

Text Links

You’ll want to have several different ways that your recipients can click to receive your value offer.  Along with your call to action and image links, it’s a good idea to include one or two clear text links that will guide them to your offer.

Social Sharing

Including social sharing buttons will extend the life of your email and increase the number of people who will see it.  Make sure you’re using sharing buttons and not follow buttons as the sharing ones will share the link to your offer as the follow buttons will only prompt them to like or follow your page.

These are just a few tips that will help to improve your click and open rates.  For more tips on how to improve your email and inbound marketing strategy, click below to schedule your free inbound marketing assessment.