5 Marketing Tips to Improve your Email Conversion Rates

How effectively are you using your business’ email list?

Email lists are some of the most valuable assets that a business can accumulate. They’re the key to being able to directly communicate with your clients and customers. No matter what kind of emails you’re sending out, whether they be digital newsletters, sales campaigns, or just “thinking of you” messages, the strength of your email list will play a huge role in the effectiveness of your marketing.

But even with a great email list, your emails might not be converting. Why? Most businesses make a series of small, totally understandable mistakes when they’re first setting up their email marketing campaigns. Here are some of the things that you should think about the next time you’re creating an email to send out to your clients:

1. Simplify Your Message

Do you use a lot of industry jargon in your sales pitches? If you’re using that kind of copy in your marketing emails, you might be losing your readers. Industry jargon can be confusing or just plain boring for customers, so it’s important that you’re simplifying your message using more descriptive language rather than jargon.

You want to be able to communicate your message to your buyers and demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field. By communicating with simple, straightforward language that speaks directly to your reader, you’ll strengthen the connection between you and your customers, increasing the chances that your emails convert. This is also a tip to keep in mind for all of your marketing efforts and client correspondence.

2. Use Sales Funnels

Just like with face to face sales, you don’t want to spring a purchase on a buyer the first chance you get. Timing is everything. If they haven’t reached the right moment in the buying cycle, they could get spooked, lose trust in your brand, and decide not to buy from you. If you want to increase the chances that your customers will purchase what you’re selling, then you need to incorporate your marketing emails into a well thought out sales funnel.

Rather than taking your customer straight to your store’s page, for example, it’s a better idea to send them to a page where you’re offering them some sort of freebie with an opt-in instead. You might start with a landing page full of useful information about the product and then create a few steps between your marketing email and the store page to lure customers further down the sales funnel in a way that flows naturally for the buyer’s experience. This will increase the odds that they’ll purchase the product when they reach the end of it.

Speaking of sales funnels, if your complicated funnel is stressing you out and you need help writing your emails, you’ll definitely want to check out this service. You’re welcome.

3. Include Just One Clear Call to Action

Make your readers’ job really easy. You’ve already started down that path by using simplified language and by creating a sales funnel that flows smoothly, but it’s also critical that you give your readers just one job: to click on a single call to action.

If there’s too much going on in your emails with a lot of different talking points and links to a variety of places, it’s going to get confusing for your audience. It might seem like you’re adding value but honestly, it just gets confusing. You need to make the next step crystal clear with just one easy-to-follow call to action.

As the Email Empress herself reminds us “One email. One job.”

4. Place the Important Information “Above the Fold”

The success of your email marketing efforts can depend a lot on what you put “above the fold.” (The section displayed on screen without scrolling).

Most people who open marketing emails, even from businesses that they like and trust, are only going to look at the information right at the top. The best marketing practice? You need a hook. Give your readers a reason to scroll down. An email is not a website and shouldn’t be treated like one.

So how do you hook them? Tell a story or make a compelling statement and make sure your subject and pre-header text is attention-grabbing. Entice your audience to scroll down and soak it all in! Here are some great examples of hooks that work:

5. Give Split Testing a Try

Have you ever done a blind taste test? They can be a little spooky! You try two options and say which one you like the best, without knowing anything else about the product. Blind taste tests are how food companies refine their recipes and develop products that are more likely to thrill the taste buds of the average consumer. I’m going to suggest that you do something similar with your emails: a split comparison test, also known as an A/B test.

In this case, you’re going to test two different email strategies. Take your next ready-to-go marketing email and make a small change to it. Maybe change the subject line or try a different arrangement of the graphics. Then split your email list in half and send Email A to one group and Email B to another. Then, monitor engagement to find out which email converts the best. That will be the winner!

The results of your A/B testing can really surprise you and teach you a lot about your target customers. You may not realize just how big a difference even a small adjustment can make. After a few rounds of A/B testing, you’ll have accumulated valuable data about what works and what doesn’t. You can then incorporate these lessons into your future email campaigns.

What about you? Do you already incorporate any of these tips into your email campaigns? What else have you done to increase your conversion rate? Tell us about it in the comments below!