How to Make Email Marketing More Effective

At the Internet Summit, I stopped by to watch this great session on email marketing by the Chief Revenue Officer at NetProspex, Michael C Bird, which reinforced some excellent email marketing best practices.

Email marketing is a highly successful avenue for getting messages across to customers and prospects, but there are several factors that could turn a successful campaign idea into an ineffective email marketing effort if not executed properly. Bird highlighted seven important points to keep in mind when setting up your next e-mailing.

7 Tips to Drive Revenue

No matter what you have, your whole role surmounts to sales. What impact does this have on sales? Open rates are nice, but the bottom line is more important.

The ROI for Email Marketing is $48 for every dollar spent.

#1. Create a sense of urgency
Email marketing is more effective when there is at least the hint of a time pressing urgency to the message.

• People will buy almost anything if they think they can’t get it at some other point in time.
• Some form of a date in the subject line will generate a 24% higher open rate

#2. Time your emails strategically
People don’t open every single email that comes into their inbox so timing your message is important to make sure it doesn’t end up in the trash box.

• Early in the day has the highest open rate. (7am-9am time period)
• Emails delivered in the morning peaked at an open rate of approx. 19% for B2C and 18% for B2B.
• After lunch open rate plummets significantly. No one is paying attention after lunch. Don’t bother sending anything after 3pm. At 4pm, average open rates are as low as 4% for both B2B and B2C.

#3. Don’t make them think
Creating confusion leads more people to delete the message and move on to the next. Keeping messages and content simple leads to a higher conversion rate.

• Drive all links in an email to one destination (48% higher conversion rate)
• Keep the messages simple, don’t clutter with a lot of different options and messages. Focusing on a targeted message leads to a higher conversion rate.

#4. Go Mobile or Go Home
The year of the mobile is here and it is critical to design your messages in a mobile friendly way.

• 38% of customer emails read on mobile devices.
• 31% of prospect emails read on mobile devices.
• 48% of technology decision makers read more than half of all email on Smart Phones.

#5. It’s all about relevance
Why should someone pay attention to your message? Create a message that is important and relevant for your reader considering their busy schedule and personal needs.

• 51% of recipients will still label an email as SPAM if the offer or message is irrelevant, even if they have opted-in to receive it.
• Spend more time active with team understanding relevance.

#6. Walk a mile in their inboxes
Consider, would you open, read and respond to your own emails? If you hesitate at all, don’t send.

• Speak directly to the person with confidence or don’t send until you have a message that is worthy of their time.

#7. Define your own best practices.
Best practices will be different for each business.

• A best practice is what works generally for most people.
• Email marketing works only when you measure and optimize.
• Measure, fix, rinse and repeat!

Key Points to Remember

1. Email marketing must drive revenue. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter to the company.
2. Everybody in your company is in sales.