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All PR and marketing teams worth their salt know that email marketing is still in play if a brand wants to improve its conversion rate. Although some experts may suggest that email marketing is somewhat obsolete in an age when social media is at its peak, there’s still much to be said about the power of a bright, engaging email when it comes to capturing a potential lead’s attention.
Stat Check: The Excellence in Email Marketing
Email is not dead. It’s thriving more than ever, as having an email address is always the first step in signing up for just about every app and website in the world. There’s no stopping email as it continues to grow and improve the conversion rate for businesses worldwide.
Consider these:
- There is an expected 4.3 billion email users by 2023, accounting for half of the world’s population.
- In 2019, 293.6 billion emails were sent out every day. And that number is expected to balloon to 347.3 billion by 2022.
- Email still holds one of the most potent ROIs. It’s relatively inexpensive to create or craft an email and send it out. (Pro-tip: Sending emails is free! It’s coming up with the content and something engaging that’s the challenge.) The return is an average of $49 as of 2019.
- There is still widespread use of email. As of 2019, nine out of ten marketers still make use of email marketing. As a means of distributing content, it remains one of the top, if not the top method of getting the material out and improving conversion rate.
- Businesses still trust email marketing to grow their business. Approximately 81% of SMBs rely on email to get more customers and leads, while 80% use email marketing to retain customers.
- It works wonders, especially when personalization is involved. Customized or personalized subject lines have a 50% higher open rate, improving the conversion rate.
Sent! The Future in Email Marketing
The future trends in email marketing are clear: more engagement, personalization, and interaction are the way to go.
Some of the expected trends are automation and the use of better technology for email marketers. Automated email innovation suggests that it will become much more convenient to send personalized emails en-masse, leading to less spam and more value being sent out. There’s more innovation, better strategy, and creativity when it comes to email marketing. And creativity and personalization can improve the conversion rate.
Emails that create interaction or user engagement have shown increased click rates by up to 300%. This statistic shows massive potential in using email to not only gain but also to retain customers. People like to hear from companies when the emails they send out catches their eye through interactive and engaging methods.
Through apps, software, and other new technologies, it becomes simpler for email marketers to create that engaging, personalized email for customers and fit them in with more comprehensive marketing strategies. It creates a seamless customer experience representing the brand and prompts customer trust and loyalty, allowing a business to grow further.
More Than Mail: Ways to Create Interactive, Personalized Experiences
Personalized experiences result in a more human connection between the brand and its customer base, and customers are actively seeking out this connection.
Companies now need to aim for dynamic, behavior-based personalization that gives customers these values and human interaction. This connection pays off tremendously as it improves the conversion rate.
1. Go with the mobile-first approach
Everyone has a smartphone these days, as there are about 3.8 billion smartphone users as of 2020. Consider that number when creating your email marketing campaign. By making the email more comfortable to see and interact with through a mobile interface, subscribers will be more likely to stay on the page and keep reading it instead of a complicated email that can’t even show up on their screen! Make sure subject lines and content are concise, crisp, and optimized, particularly for retina displays. Best of all, make sure those call-to-actions are tappable!
2. Use real-time marketing
Timely, relevant content never goes out of style and improves conversion rates. Real-time marketing that responds to current trends, events, or occasions is more likely to get your subscriber’s attention.
Up-to-date situations and events cropping up in your emails tell your users that you are on the button regarding what is happening in the world around them and creates that all-important human connection. Consider real-time voucher claiming or promos that users can access right from the email.
3. Add some pizzazz to surprise and delight your subscribers
Most emails are a few images with blocks of text. Don’t hesitate to add unique interactive pieces and make the layout a little more creative! Email is more than just correspondence now. If you want to make your email a customer experience, give it an alluring design, as though it were a mini-website. Add memes, GIFs, and more, with plenty of tappable features that users can interact with.
These emails improve the conversion rate by fostering a human and “approachable” image for the brand, allowing them to feel as though they were communicating with a person rather than a bot.
4. Get their opinion through polls, surveys, and reviews
If there’s anything that anyone in customer service knows, customers like to express their opinions. They will make sure they say it, one way or another, even if you don’t ask them to. But with email marketing, you can give them that avenue, easily compelling them to interact and engage with your emails: incorporate polls, surveys, and reviews in the email marketing campaign.
Encourage them to let you know what they want to see next, what they want to be changed, or what their experiences are like. Everyone has an opinion, and letting your customers air it out through this avenue allows them to feel heard. It boosts brand loyalty to improve the conversion rate.
5. Break it down into bite-sized chunks with content blocks
People on the internet have notoriously short attention spans. Most marketing experts will tell you that you only have seconds to get their attention and your message across to them. Because of that, make sure the emails are vivid and eye-catching, straight to the point, and readable.
It makes for much more comfortable reading, is more mobile-friendly, and customers get the gist of what you’re trying to say right away. They’re more likely to read and quickly digest the message. They’ll interact and click through, and thereby increase conversion rates.
6. Add unique experiences like scratch cards
Some software or apps for email marketing can provide you with interactive add-ons for your emails that users can play with. They often bring the human experience into the digital world. Take scratch cards, for example.
People love the surprise of scratch cards to see if they’ve won a prize inside, and brands can incorporate the concept into email marketing through the use of specialized software. The scratch card feature is definitely an automated email innovation that you want to add to your emails to grab your subscribers' attention. It integrates the experience into the email, and it prompts the user to interact with it the same way.
7. Make it fun without the sale as a goal
Although email marketing aims to improve the conversion rate, that doesn’t have to be the only goal. Many users become more interested in the brand or what the company is selling when it isn’t trying to sell. By integrating fun and engaging concepts or features into the email without making the sale the end goal, users have a more genuinely enjoyable user experience.
A fun element like a flash game in the email allows the users to enjoy the email with no strings attached. And at the end, you can lead them back to your site to have them browse around independently.
8. Show them the menu
People are accustomed to seeing menus in just about everything now—on websites, apps, and even emails. Menus make things simpler to navigate and get them to where they want a lot quicker. Throw in a menu in the email to help them quickly scan for anything that interests them and lead them right to it. It’s an instant increase in clickthrough rates and improves the conversion rate as it takes advantage of their short attention span to deliver them straight to what they want. Now, they can get it right away with no fuss.
9. Add in a radio button for interactions
The radio button is the familiar option you might have spotted in plenty of websites or forms online when a user is prompted to select an option. These buttons can be integrated into emails now. They’re perfect for giving customers the option to scroll through various types or options of product, or even just to “flip” through different “pages” and blocks of content. Once again, it’s excellent for promoting interaction. And if the user sees an option they like and wants to buy, it improves the conversion rate.
10. Keep them glued to the screen through videos
Videos are one of the best forms of media when it comes to capturing an audience’s attention. There’s a reason that YouTube, Instagram, Facebook Videos, and other platforms have rocketed to popularity.
Customers love watching videos and often refer to them when trying to get more information. A significant percentage of buyers often look at a video to determine whether a product or a service will have the solution to their needs before making the purchase. This is also why video reviews have experienced a boom since more people watch what others have to say about an item in a video before buying something for themselves.
Integrate videos onto emails to make the most of video marketing. It not only provides a more prominent “stage” for you to showcase a product, an update, or an item, but it will increase clickthrough rates and improve conversion rates.
11. Utilize the Parallax Effect
The parallax effect is the feature in website designs where, no matter how far the users scroll up or down, the image moves along with them, creating the user sensation that the design moves according to their interaction. A static background with a parallax effect on the components tells a story on its own and underscores the point that the email is trying to make even further. Innovative email marketing designs like these improve the chances of customers reading and clicking through the email.
12. Hit them with GIFs
The easiest way to put interactive and exciting elements in an email is by adding moving images or GIFs. Everyone has seen GIFs and may have even used them as reactions or memes. These GIFs can improve the conversion rate by creating a bright and engaging atmosphere in the email. Moving elements make the message more attractive and increase the subscriber's chances of stopping for a moment to see what the mail is all about.
13. Put them on the clock with a countdown timer
Add a little (friendly) pressure to the subscriber by adding a live countdown timer. It reminds them that an offer is limited and how long they have left to make a purchase. This dramatically increases the conversion rate as it adds a sense of urgency to the subscriber, urging them to buy before it disappears. It can even tell them how much time is left before a big promo or event occurs, allowing excitement to build up and further heighten anticipation.
14. Get them shopping with live shopping carts
Live shopping carts prompt your user or subscriber along, reminding them that they have something in their carts that they might have forgotten. The more common method used by retailers is to send an email that reminds users of items in their cart, redirecting them back to the cart on the website.
Still, live shopping cart experiences take the pro-active route by putting the cart page right in the email itself. It shows the user what they had in the cart immediately, bolstering the urge to check them out right away. And with the “checkout” button right in the email, it gets them going in the process and thus improves the conversion rate.
15. Show off your subscribers with user-generated content
Users love being appreciated by brands, and there’s no other more straightforward method than to showcase content that comes from them. Show off photos or videos of users who have made their purchases and add them to the email campaign. Not only will it foster a sense of “FOMO” (or “fear of missing out”) among the other subscribers, but it lets them know that the company appreciates their loyal patrons and will proudly give them a shout out on their platform. It builds brand equity and loyalty.
Grab The Attention of Your Audience With Top-Notch Emails
Engaging, interesting, and human content in emails build a connection unlike any other. It doesn’t just improve conversion rates—it creates an entirely new user experience that utilizes email marketing power at its fullest. Emails are now more than just mail; they’re a means to create a loyal and responsive customer base that will grow the business, no matter the platform.
Addition:
- 6 Steps to Writing a Professional Email Response
- How to Export LinkedIn Contacts With Emails
- GetResponse vs MailChimp – The Guide You Need to Pick the Right Email Marketing Tool
- Phishing as a Way to Check Email Deliverability
- Email Automation for Ecommerce
- Why Protecting Your Emails From Spam Is Crucial to Your Office 365 Email Security
- The Importance of Email Authentication for Marketing Campaigns
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