Posts Tagged ‘email personalization’

The most important email optimization elements

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Marketers know there is no one formula for an ideal email marketing campaign. The secret to success is testing and optimizing emails. In-depth analysis of previous results and well-considered changes in email elements can significantly boost your email marketing ROI.

Marketing research firm MarketingSherpa has published marketing research chart on top email campaign elements routinely tested to optimize performance. The chart shows 9 email elements that are tested the most in order to increase the return on email marketing efforts.

The more you are in email marketing, the more you understand the importance of studying analytic and making some changes over time to increase ROI.

The best way is to take a step back and look at your message form the customer’s perspective. So, let’s have a walk in our customer’s shoes. What questions could he ask when receiving a newsletter?

Subject line – Why should I open your email?

As opening of email depends on the subject line, it is the most popular element to test and 90% of email marketing practitioners focus on that.
Vary with word order leaving the most important ones at the beginning, try questions, buzzwords and active voice inviting people to take action. And certainly write them short and adjust for mobile phones to increase open rates of mobile readers (more about subject lines).

Message – Why should I read your email?

The majority or 64% of marketers share the opinion the message should be regularly analyzed and tested in order to boost the effectiveness of email campaigns.
After the subscriber has swallowed the subject line and opened the email, he desperately seeks approval for this action in the message.
Test on the first words and phrases in the message. Make sure they are linked with the subject line. And write message in active voice to make people take a further step.

Calls to action – Why should I click on the link?

Almost as many marketers (61%) test on calls to action. It’s very important testing element because clicking on a link is already a half of all campaign success.
Try different wording (people prefer „learn more”, not „click here”) and placement (instead of traditional „at the end” use F-shape across the page). Make sure there is only one call to action, however links can be several (read our article about call to action).

Layout and images – Is this email eye-catching?

According to MarketingSherpa chart, more than a half of marketers have tested email layout and images to improve campaign results.
Test on how the text is structured and what kind of photos you place in email. Bullets, paragraphs, enough free space, one or two pictures stressing the message would be the best choice.

Day of week and time of day sent – Do I want and do I have time to open your email now?

A little bit less than a half of marketers search for an ideal day and time when to send newsletters.
Firstly, identify the profile of your subscriber. If they are too different, better segment them. Send emails to business people on working hours on Tuesdays to Thursdays. Usual customers you can email on Fridays to Sundays when they have free time (read in our blog when to sent emails).

Landing pages – Is your offer worth it?

40% of marketers test and optimize landing pages to increase email marketing ROI.
Here you can test on layout, text, call to action and other details. But be sure you include a clear call to action, tell the subscribers exactly what is your offer and what kind of action you want them to take (more about landing pages).

Personalization – Is it relationship between us?

The same number of marketers pay attention to personalization. Personalization is not only adding subscriber’s name at the beginning and your personal signature at the end of email. Segment your subscribers into groups to send them relevant emails. The more personalized information you send, the closer relationship you demonstrate (read about email personalization).

From line – Do I know the sender of the email?

Although from line also has impact on open rates, only a third of marketers test on that. Change the company name to your personal name to grow the effectiveness of results (more about from lines).

In comparison with last year

A year ago, we published the previous MarketingSherpa chart on elements marketers test in order to optimize email campaigns. If we compare the two charts, we see tested email elements are the same – subject lines, offers and calls to action, send time and day of week, creative copy and layouts, landing pages, and from lines.

But the importance of testing elements has jumped dramatically. In 2010, 48% of marketers tested subject lines and 36% were willing to test them. This year, 90% of marketers have included testing subject lines in their to-do lists. The same increase for other elements. Seems all who had planned to test email elements did it, were satisfied with results and now continue to do this.

Conclusion

Some elements are easier to test than others. In campaign statistics, you see open rates and click through rates, so you can estimate your subject line and call to action link. While you can’t precisely know how effective your layout or images were. Only regular testing and optimizing can lead you to high ROI.

Just don’t rush by changing each element every time you send campaigns. If you make changes, give yourself some time to observe the impact of changes and draw conclusions.

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Email subject lines that work: what, why & how

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Writing good email subject linesWriting email subject lines is often guesswork, and, like copywriting, your ability to write a strong subject line can depend on “the flow of the moment”, not only your past experience.

However, you can make your newsletter subject lines better than the average, and set them forth in the recipient’s inbox so your emails get opened — which is ultimately what you want.

10 newsletter subject line best practices

1. Write them short.

You have to catch the reader’s attention, and long sentences don’t do it properly. Although short headlines don’t necessarily have a purpose or a call to action (which is to open the particular email), it is likelier that a short headline will have one.

2. Put the most important words at the beginning.

Even if you write a 100 character subject line, if the first words are interesting, chances are that it will be opened. Subscribers don’t really read the subject lines, they skim read even those 50 characters for something interesting — if it’s there, they’ll stick around.

3. A/B testing.

As it is important to read into your past campaigns to determine what subject lines work best, it is worthwhile to do actual, real-time A/B testing. The open rate will tell you which is the most effective subject line. It’s easy too: simply send two or three the same content emails with different subject lines and see which one get’s better results.

4. Greet new subscribers politely.

If your email list is fresh, you probably won’t talk with familiarity and utter clever phrases. Be polite if you’ve had an influx of new subscribers or you are new in the business.

5. Personality.

#4 comes after #5, because the readers could dislike your personality, but they will appreciate you being polite. Don’t be afraid to convey your personality, though. The best emails are not always funny, but they leave a pleasant aftertaste to everyone who reads them.

6. Highlight the most attractive piece of what’s inside.

Maybe your newsletter is somewhat scattered and reaching across a number of topics? Not necessarily a bad thing, though. Think about the most interesting articles/snippets in the email, and write about them in the subject.

7. Keep it simple.

If you’re experiencing writer’s block or have no idea of what subject lines could catch your recipient’s information, just keep your subject lines simple. Tell your subscribers what’s inside, and, again, highlight what you yourself find interesting in the email.

8. Buzzwords.

Most of the Apple products from the past few years have been buzzwords, but buzzwords aren’t restricted to brands. For example, taking Rebecca Black’s famous music video as a buzz example, a headline ‘Friday — catch your bus with 20% off’ makes perfect sense and instantly attracts attention.

9. !!!Avoid SPAMMY subject lines!!!

Exclamation marks look unprofessional; generally avoid any spe©ial symbols or CAP$ LOCK
Needless to say, avoid anything that includes “viagra” and “cialis” and other spam words, about that you can read more in our article.

10. Adjust your subject lines for mobile phones.

Which means that you should do steps #2 and #1 until you’re sure that you can catch your reader’s attention with approximately the first 30 characters of your subject line. For the iPhone and E series Nokia which I got to test, the subject lines were 32 characters long and then got truncated.

Please add anything that’s missing from this list in the comments!

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How to Personalize Your Emails

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Imagine that you’re receiving an email from your own company. Would you open a letter that doesn’t even mention who you, the recipient, are? The thought isn’t enthralling, and your subconscious instantly realizes that you’re merely a number in the eyes of the sender. Dismissing the recipient’s name isn’t the only mistake that marketers make. Imagine that you receive a skiing equipment offer… if you reside in Florida! Doesn’t make much sense.

Start personalizing your emails even before you start a campaign. If selling products through email marketing is what you do, a few additional questions on the email subscription form on your website won’t hurt. In fact, the more information you have about your subscribers, the better your targeting is, and thus the bigger are the chances of converting your clients. Keep the subscription form simple, but effective. Focus on obtaining more information from fewer questions.

The emails you send should be as personal as possible, not only to avoid the confusion, but also to connect with the reader. It is very powerful tactic to include the subscriber’s name in the subject field. Furthermore, if you can tell the subscribers why they should open the email, your click-through rates are likely to skyrocket.

It is especially important to mention the name in the subject field when you start a campaign and send a welcome message. The subscriber has to know that he/she can expect information that is made for them, not some random guy whose email you bought from a shady company.

Use the available email marketing system to your advantage. Numerous email marketing companies have a ton of effects that employ an if-then scheme when sending the emails. The newest software is any marketer’s dream, but only if you know how to utilize your subscribers to the fullest. You have to ask yourself what are you selling and to whom are you selling. Only when you use targeted emails you’ll start to grasp the infinite possibilities of email marketing.

Segmentation is the most overlooked part of marketing, even though many say that it’s the most important part of the process. Although initially it may seam it is harder to measure how effective targeted marketing is in comparison to standard marketing, you’ll start to see your efforts fruit in rapidly increased conversion rates.

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