7 steps to boost open and click through rates for better ROI

Email marketing is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways for businesses to nurture client relationships, yet the fact remains that we are all inundated with too many emails, making a marketer’s job that much harder to cut through the clutter. Here are seven steps you should take to optimise your email marketing for better statistics in email open and click through rates.

Look after your database

We have said it before, and we will say it again. Your database is worth its weight in gold so keep it clean. Clean data should be considered one of the most important assets to your business, so we face a never-ending battle of cleansing and updating it. Clean data reduces the chance of your email being flagged as spam, automatically improving your chances of a higher CTR, so it’s basic good practice to regularly clean your database. There’s plenty more on this in our data cleansing blog for specific industries here.

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

By personalising both your content and email address, you will see an increase in open rates when compared to a generic email address like “info@yourmail.com”. By A/B testing your list you can see whether your particular subscribers prefer a more personal approach, as it is not expected of all industries. Behavioural Targeting has been shown to increase conversion rates, reduce cost abandonment and increase lost sales by up to 12%. Sounds good? Find out about our behavioural targeting tools here.

Great expectations

When someone signs up to receive your e-newsletter or any other email from you, make sure you have an auto-response email programmed that tells them what they can expect and how often you’ll be emailing them. This not only makes that all-important first contact but also provides an opportunity for you to entice them into their first purchase by sending a welcome offer.

Grab attention with a good pre-header

A good pre-header needs to be meaningful and contain the key messages of the email to draw the reader’s attention to your CTA first. Think of this as an additional opportunity outside of your subject line to entice those readers in, letting them know what delights wait for them inside your email, you’ll be surprised at the impact this will make on your CTR.

Include calls-to-action early

Every email communication needs a call-to-action that lets the reader know what you want them to do. Is it to sign up for a newsletter? Download a free report? Place this information near the top of your email so they don’t have to scroll to get to it. If they must scroll, why not try something a little different and use a side-scrolling email with some snazzy images as these quirky little additions will automatically grab attention. Find out how to use them here.

Say goodbye

We know it’s hard, but sometimes you have to let subscribers go. Wipe that tear from your eye and allow your recipients to opt-out of your emails easily, or edit their preferences in a few simple steps. There is nothing worst than making it difficult for your subscriber to unsubscribe, as they will likely get frustrated and mark you as spam instead.

Share

Adding social share buttons to your email marketing communication not only makes it more likely that your message will be spread to a wider audience, but research shows that emails with social sharing buttons enjoy a 115% higher click-through rate than those that do not. With an estimated 2.13 billion social network users around the world, you need to ensure your campaigns run across all channels and ideally, seamlessly integrate with one another!

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a few simple steps you can take to easily improve your open rate and CTR and we haven’t even touched on the more obvious ones such as snappy subject lines and campaign analysis (although whilst we’re on the subject, whatever you do, don’t forget to look at your campaign data!)

You’d be surprised just how much psychology is involved in successful email marketing, and the most effective campaigns are often the ones that most effectively align with their customers’ thought processes, basic wants and needs. You can find out more by reading our blog ‘3 ways that simple psychology can boost your CTR’ here.