With marketers reporting that, on average, 13% of their leads were generated through email marketing, making sure your email campaigns are optimized is more important than ever.
Fortunately, we’ve figured out some common reasons why your campaigns may not be getting the results you want. Often, all it takes is fixing one the following to see your open rates, click-throughs and conversions skyrocket!
8 Reasons Why Your Email Campaigns Aren’t Getting Results.
1. Not making use of segmentation
Segmentation isn’t just the latest buzzword in email marketing. Segmenting your list based on interests, geographic location, purchase history, or even gender allows you to target your campaigns to specific groups of subscribers, making your emails more personal, more relevant, and ultimately, more likely to be opened and read.
And don’t worry; you don’t have to be a ‘techie’ to segment your list. A good email marketing service will allow you to do it quickly and easily.
2. Using a generic ‘from’ name
Using generic usernames or email addresses in the ‘from’ line of your email will get your readers clicking ‘delete’ before they even know who it’s actually from.
Instead use your full name or company name so it’s clear who’s sending the email.
3. Not previewing emails before sending
We’ve all done it. It’s easy to hit that ‘send’ button without proofing your emails. The problem is, if your formatting or merge tags aren’t quite right, you could be sending a page full of gobbledy-gook instead of your intended content.
4. No call to action
Happy with your open rate, but not your conversions? If you’re not telling your readers exactly what you want them to do next, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to elicit conversions.
Make sure each email contains a central call to action, at least once or twice in the body of your content.
5. Less-than-captivating subject lines
If your open rates are suffering, the culprit could be your subject line. To create headlines that will grab your readers’ attention, try using wording that conveys a sense of urgency (“Act Fast…”), asking a question, or stating the benefit readers will receive from reading your email.
6. Big blocks of text
Just like with writing for the web, good email writing involves using short paragraphs, bullet points for ‘scannability’, and relevant headings to signify main ideas. Your readers are busy, and will appreciate concise, easy-to-read content.
7. Sending at the wrong time
The ideal day and time to send your emails will differ depending on your business and industry. However, with a bit of testing, you should be able to figure out what times your subscribers are most inclined not only to open your emails, but to take action.
8. Content: too much about you, not enough about them
I’m sorry to say, but generally speaking, people are much more interested in themselves than they are in your business.
Your content should be relevant to your subscribers (see #1 above: segmentation), and should offer something of value. This could be a deal or coupon, a ‘how to’ piece, or anything else you think your audience would find useful.
By fixing these common problems, you could be mere minutes away from your next successful email campaign.
Image Credit: mrpuen