There are tons of online marketing tactics being used by businesses to increase their sales; however, email marketing is considered to be one of the most powerful and highly convertible marketing tactics in the industry.

According to a research, consumers who receive email marketing messages spend 83% more while shopping and the average ROI is around $44.25 for every dollar spent by the business, which is huge! Email marketing is believed to be the most preferable choice for many businesses  because; it’s easy, cost- effective, versatile and above all personal.

However, the things being mentioned above will only happen when people would actually open and check these marketing emails and this does not happen in most of the cases. More often than not, the opening rate of email marketing campaigns is normally 10 percent; however, if you are good enough in constructing a message, this number might rise up to 15% to 16%.

In this post, I am going to cover the ways that can be used in creating your email to make it more engaging and attractive, thus improving the email-opening rate.

1. Real Person, Real Interaction

There was a time when having a killer logo was everything that you required to start a business but now people have changed (I must say evolved). They do not want to interact with the logos and brands. Instead, they would want an interaction with real people who are associated with the brand.

While sending marketing emails, you must ensure that it is being sent through an official email ID mentioning the sender’s name instead of a corporate email address where the sender’s name is undefined.

This is an email that I received from SEMRush.com and if you look at it closely, you will find that the address they used for sending an email is a personal one (Sender’s Name: Alexandra) instead of an address that says info@semrush.com  or anything similar.

Pro Tip: It is good to use a name when sending marketing emails but it will be great if that person owns active social profiles as this will give people a feeling that they are real and communication will be more proficient.

2. Segment your Opt-in recipients

If you have been involved in email marketing for quite some time, you must know the importance of segmented and targeted recipients’ list based on their location, behavior and needs. This is very important if you want to increase your email-opening rate.

I use Get Response as my email marketing software, where segmenting an email list is just a click away. If you have a location-based campaign, then make sure you are sending emails to the right kind of audience located in the targeted area. Moreover, designing multiple email templates, that target the audiences’ needs and wants, can also significantly increase the opening rate as well as the conversion rate. According to a research, targeting and segmenting the opt-in list increases the CTR from 3 to 8%.

While sending marketing emails, always make sure that you are sending it to the right kind of audience, then track it to see how it affects the opening rate of your emails.

Pro Tip: It is great to divide your email list in to 3 or may be 4 parts on the basis of their wants and design them accordingly. This will not only help in increasing the opening rate but it will also help boost the conversion rate.

3. Subject Line should be a KILLER!

There is a famous quote that says, “Don’t judge the book by its cover” however, when it comes to email marketing, more than 50% of the people click on an email just by looking at its subject line. A catchy and well-phrased subject line has a direct impact on the opening and conversion rate.

When crafting a subject line for your email, make sure you are keeping your audience’s behavior, sentiments and needs in mind. Technically, make sure that your subject line is 50 characters or less so that the mobile users can read the full subject line accordingly.

If you closely look at the subject lines and opening rates being posted above, you will notice that the shorter the subject line, the better the opening rate will be!

Pro Tip: There is no secret formula for devising a subject line that assures success; however, the best idea is to formulate different subject lines and see what works better for your audience.

4. Where to Put Call to Action

Different researches have shown different results but if I were to sum-up, I can easily say that a corporate American receives 80+ emails a day on an average so it is very important for an email to be conversion-friendly or else they will switch to some other task without even opening it – something that you are not looking for!

On a website service copy, it might be ideal to put call to action at the end but when it comes to an email, it is highly recommended to have call to action above the fold so that the user does not really have to scroll down to see what he really wants to do with the email. When crafting email templates, always try to put call to action in the upper part of email so that user should know where to go to get more information about the product or service you are trying to pitch.

Pro Tip: Email Marketing is quite tricky so I would suggest using multiple calls to actions (maximum 3) throughout the email.

5. Optimized for Mobile Devices

On an average, around 35% or more of the total emails are accessed from the mobile daily and if you specifically ask about the number of people  in United States who access their emails on a cell phone,  this will shoot to somewhere around 70% and plus. This indicates that the mobile usage is becoming more and more popular and by 2015/16, this number will increase significantly, therefore, if you are not optimizing your email marketing campaigns for the mobile devices, you are surely missing a big number.

While constructing an email, here are the following points that you should consider in order to make sure that they are well optimized for mobile devices:

1. The design of the email should be such that it can fit any device size. This will help you make one version for all.

2. Title of the subject line should be crafted in such a way that it can be read on a mobile device.

3. You should be using fonts and color scheme that looks appealing on the mobile screen.

4. Test them locally before you send.

A study reveals that the mobile users are usually more interested in buying a product online as compared to a desktop user; therefore, optimizing emails for mobile devices can ensure more chances of getting a high conversion rate against your email marketing campaign.

6. Personalization is the key

No matter if you are sending an email for a link request, data sharing, to ask for an interview or even if it is a regular email marketing campaign; if you are not personalizing it, then you should not expect a reply or expect someone to perform the action you want them to perform.

When sending emails to people, always consider their time as important and keep this in mind that they might be receiving multiple promotional emails, therefore,  the marketing email that you send should not only feature powerful content, but they should be personalized enough to make them read it. Try to address them with their names in the subject line as well as in the starting of the emails so that they can get a feeling that you or your brand is directly interacting with them.

Pro Tip: When it comes to personalization, try sending them customized emails on their Birthdays, as this will encourage your users to get closer to you and your brand.

There are plenty of ideas that can be shared but these are the quick ones that can be implemented for achieving eye-opening results for your next email marketing campaigns. Are you in to email marketing? What are your secret tips? Please share it in the comments section.