Welcome to another Monday morning, marketers! How about some email marketing news to accompany that wonderful cup of coffee? Here you go:
Seven tweaks for improving your click-through rate
IoT Business News takes a close look at the importance of a high click-through rate (CTR) – the percentage of your email subscribers who click on the link(s) in your emails – and provides seven tweaks email marketers can use to improve it. Their suggestions to improve CTR include employing personalization and a compelling call to action (CTA), designing for mobile, and concluding with a persuasive “P.S.” that reiterates the email’s offer. CTR is a critical metric because it “tells you how well the relationship between you and your subscribers is going,” says the site. “If people don’t click the links in your emails, how on earth will they come to your website and be potential customers?”
Top digital marketing trends to watch
“Studies show that using the word ‘video’ in the subject line of an email will prompt 19% more recipient to open them, 65% more to visit your website, and 26% less subscribers to leave,” writes Jaime Nacach on Business 2 Community, in an article looking at “five growing digital marketing trends.” In addition to the growing importance of video in email marketing, Nacach cites content marketing, mobile marketing, the “Internet of things” and the evolution of search beyond the web as additional trends that will “dominate” the rest of 2016 and 2017.
High value seen in use of triggered emails
Citing statistics showing that triggered emails dramatically outperform typical email marketing campaigns in terms of open rates, click to open rates and click-through rates, Douglas Karr, writing on the Marketing Tech blog, encourages email marketers “to incorporate as many types of triggered emails as you can to increase engagement, acquisition, retention and upsell opportunities.” He says that “broad categories of triggered email campaigns fall under lifecycle, transactional, remarketing, and real-time triggers” and suggests ten types of specific triggered emails for marketers to consider, including welcome and onboarding messages, personal-event (i.e., birthday) messages and messages triggered by the weather, location and specific events.
Tips for making a lasting first impression
“Everyone knows how important first impressions are, and brands need to keep this in mind as they plan their campaigns, writes Seamus Egan at MarTech Advisor. He stresses the criticality of emailing customers as soon as possible after an initial interaction with a brand, but says that “40 percent are still not engaging with new subscribers within 24 hours — a missed opportunity to keep their brands top of mind.” He advises the use of simple “thank you” messages and customer polls to foster engagement with new subscribers, stresses the importance of keeping email lists refreshed to avoid landing in spam folders, and says timing matters – new subscribers have been found to most responsive to emails sent in the morning and at midday, he writes.