5 Tips to Boost Email Campaign Conversion Rates

Today, no one gets surprised when they get a promo email in their inbox. In fact, many people have several email addresses today, and there is often a separate inbox for all promotional material. As a result, recipients either delete those emails as spam or hardly ever check their promo folder. Does this all mean email marketing is dead? Of course not.

The trick is to create emails that stand out from the crowd, offer recipients something of value, and hook their interest right from the subject line. Messages like these have what it takes to boost conversion rates, but creating such emails requires both skill and creative muscle. The good news is that you can learn both, and the tips below should point you in the right direction.

#1 Set clear conversion goals first

Before you even start thinking about your email contents, define the conversion goals first. No email campaign is exactly like the other, and all of them serve different purposes. As a result, they call for slightly different marketing approaches. So, the key question is — what is it you want to achieve now? Boost sales? Attract more leads? Drive traffic to your website? Whatever your end conversion goal is, define it and play along.

#2 Create targeted email lists for each conversion goal

Now that you have set your goals, it is time to think about email recipients. Since your leads are on different stages of the marketing funnel, you cannot send one and the same message to everyone on your contact list. After all, attracting a cold lead (someone who literally knows nothing about your company) and engaging a former client calls for different communication approaches; very few promo emails can be equally effective for both lead types.

So, you have to carefully categorize your leads and contacts into comprehensive email lists to make sure your email contents are customized for each lead type. If you feel that your cold email list is not lengthy enough, consider expanding it with specialized software.

#3 Think carefully about your email contents

When you understand the conversion goals and have a list of prospects to contact, crafting an engaging email will be a bit easier. Even more so if you stick to these simple tips:

• Do not bury the lead: conveying the gist of your message as quickly as possible is the key to any successful email marketing campaign. Remember, people are busy, and they want to see exactly what you are offering right from the start.
• Keep your message short and sweet: no one loves a long email, especially if it is a promotional one. So, state your purpose quickly and avoid the ramble.
• Divide the text into small paragraphs: this will give your recipient a chance to quickly skim through the entire message, slowing down on things they find interesting. Such a structure is easy to read and shows respect for the recipients’ time.

Do not abuse visuals: it is great if you can include a picture because visuals catch the recipients’ attention. Still, it is very important not to overdo it because flashy graphics may distract your readers from the actual text stating your offer. Including heavy graphics that take time to load is also not the best idea because such images annoy people and spoil the overall impression. And, of course, do not include too many images — with a short email, one picture is usually quite enough.

#4 Hook recipients with a crafty subject line

When you have your email’s body ready, it’s time to think of a perfect subject line for your message. An intriguing subject line can seriously boost your email open rates. On the other hand, messages with a generic subject line often end up in trash. The trick is to make this line short but informative. Email subject should be in perfect line with your email contents, but it should never disclose too much information — after all, you have the body text for that.

While working on the email campaign in the B2B segment, it is also a nice idea to address the recipient by name. On the other hand, we all know that even promo emails from online stores always have the recipient’s name in the subject. When emailing prospective business partners or job candidates, a good suggestion would be to include their current job title in the subject line. This kills two birds with one stone — hooks the reader and shows that this email is uniquely written for a particular recipient. If it sounds like too much work, remember that professional email finders, SignalHire included, can bulk search for people by current job titles, industries, and any other keywords you have in mind. Remember our tip#2? Create targeted email lists — there are plenty of tools that can help with that.

#5 Do not underestimate your email preview

If you have managed to catch your readers’ attention with a subject line, the next thing they will read is your email preview. On the whole, writing this email snippet follows the same logic as writing a subject. Snippets should be brief, informative, and in line with both the subject and message contents. It should provide just enough information to make the recipient open the email and read more.

Another suggestion while writing your email snippets is to optimize them for different devices. If you really want your email campaign to work, you should test how your subject, preview, and message contents look across different operating systems and devices. Here, it is best to remember the golden ‘mobile-first’ principle. Fewer and fewer emails are opened on a desktop these days. But, to be on the safe side, check the desktop versions as well.

The above tips should be enough to give you some inspiration for the upcoming email campaign. There is only one last point to remember — your emails should offer recipients something of value. You can nail every suggestion on this list, but conversion rates will clearly reflect if your offer is not that good. So, do not forget to emphasize how your product or service can help the recipient and craft every email marketing campaign around this major building block.

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