Five Email Marketing Tips for Increasing Open and Click Through Rates
Despite what you might have read or heard, email is still one of the most effective sales tools. Learning and following a few simple tips will dramatically improve your results.
PERSONALIZATION
First and foremost, your open rate and impact will be significantly higher if you personalize your emails with the recipient's name. If at all possible include their name in the subject line indicating up front that the email is not spam. Then open the email with a greeting that incorporates the recipients name. Depending on the type of message this could range from “Hi First Name" to "Dear Ms. First Name." A very effective technique is then to sprinkle the recipients name throughout the email using it in questions or statements.
NARROW COLUMNS and WHITE SPACE
Reading text on a screen is difficult at best so it's extremely important to make it as easy as possible. There are two important rules to follow.
First is to keep the length of each line to around 40 characters. This will require that you use a carriage return rather than letting the email program or the browser window control the width of each line of text. Readability goes up dramatically with narrower columns. That’s why newspapers and magazines use narrow columns.
Second, make every effort to use a double return, creating a white space between at least every six to eight lines of text. The idea is to have lots of short paragraphs so there is more while space when looking at the page of copy. It will make the copy more inviting.
CALL TO ACTION
Remember, that in most cases you are writing to your recipient to get them to take some kind of action or create a response. Don’t forget that. Make it clear what you want them to do. Give them clear instruction and repeat it at least twice throughout in the email.
INCLUDE OPT-OUT LINK
It’s imperative that you include a clear and working “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email so that your recipient can “opt-out” of future mailings from you. Such unsubscribe links show the reader that you care about spam and do not support it.
The unsubscribe link should be automatic so that if the recipient clicks on it, they will be taken to a page that allows a one click “unsubscribe” option. The rule to follow is, “You don’t want people on your list who don’t want to be on your list.”
AVOID SPAMMY SYMBOLS AND LANGUAGE
It’s important avoid $$$ and other symbols and language as these will often cause your emails to get rejected, by the spam filters that many ISPs and email programs use. It’s always a good idea to run your emails through a spam checker before mailing to catch words, symbols and phrases that trigger the filters and lower your delivery rates.
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