Picture this, you have an influx of customers attracted to your website, interested in your products and subscribing to your mailing lists. Sounds like the holy grail of any online marketing venture right? It would be if very few of those customers unsubscribe from your email list. Typically, you should aim for an unsubscribe rate of less than 2% (depending on the size of your list), and by composing engaging emails, you are already one step ahead at customer satisfaction.
What is Email Engagement?
Email engagement is the degree to which customers and email recipients interact with what you send them. For example, the amount of opened emails; whether or not the email is read; and the number of clicks on links are all examples of email engagement. Engagement determines how successful you are in communicating with your customer.
“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.” – David Newman
According to HubSpot statistics, “59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.” To ensure that your emails have this influence, it is important to prioritise engagement in your marketing. Engaging emails can do three things for your customer.
- Establish trust between both you and your client.
- Demonstrate your attention to your customer’s needs.
- Offer valuable information that assure customers of your commitment to them.
How do you create engaging emails to accomplish these three goals? We have five tips to help you get started.
5 Tips to Increase Engagement in Your Email Marketing
Your emailing goals might be to promote a product and generate more clicks, but you have to remember balancing what you take with what you give. If you expect a customer to consume your emails – and optimistically purchase your product – prove to them that their time is of value. Demonstrate your email’s worth by:
- Educating
- Celebrating
- Reacting
- Personalizing
- Reminding
Be Their Teacher
When placed on a mailing list, people usually expect something worth their while. That could be a discount code or downloadable content. Afterwards, it becomes easier than ever to click the unsubscribe button and clear up their inbox. You need to show them that your emails will continuously give them things they didn’t know they needed.
One way to do this is by educating them. Become their teacher. Give them insights into their statistics. Send them information that adds value to their experience with your company. For example, music apps like Spotify might send weekly emails to their consumers about their weekly listening habits.
Ever wonder why horoscopes are so popular? People love learning new things about themselves. By teaching them about what their interactions with your company suggest, your emails will experience higher rates of engagement.
(Tip: Adding images and videos in marketing emails leads to an increase in click rates)
Celebrate Good Times
Next to learning new things, users appreciate being celebrated. From happy birthday emails to highlighting their milestones, celebrating customer achievements increases personalization and boosts their desire to engage. Celebrating also calls for gift-giving. By including personal discounts or free trials in a celebratory email, a customer’s appreciation can skyrocket.
Rewarding behaviors is known to push people into repeating such behaviors. Reward your customers when they purchase an item, read through five of your online articles or interact with you digitally for a certain amount of time. In no time you’ll find users purchasing more, reading more or interacting for longer. Give them a goal, and more often than not they’ll try to achieve it.
(Tip: If you give recipients a way to share their milestones with others, you can indirectly prompt word-of-mouth marketing.)
They Act, You React
Do you ever wonder why Netflix found huge success in their streaming platform? Or, have you ever reflected on how well Spotify knows your music taste? It all comes down to targeted or triggered recommendations. By applying this to email marketing, your clients will feel that you sincerely understand their needs and preferences.
Netflix knows to send its consumers targeted messages based on the things that they view. They recommend films and television shows that are similar to what you’ve watched and enjoyed previously. Spotify does the same but with your music taste. If you are in the business of e-commerce, for example, you can recommend items similar to what your customer has purchased or taken a look at.
Enhance your software and implement programs that allow for triggered messages. Prove to your customers that you can provide them with a personalised experience. At Inboxroad, we offer our clients a great software coupled with expert advice on email deliverability. With us, your emails will reach your customers’ inboxes at the highest possible rates. Trigger your recommendations and count on great delivery.
(Tip: Don’t overwhelm the customer with recommendations.)
Get Personal
Educating, celebrating and recommending are all personal touches that you can apply to your email marketing. Another thing you can do is to segment your email lists. Your customers can come from many different backgrounds, with various job titles and distinct interests. By segmenting your lists, you can address your customers according to what concerns them.
“Marketers have found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.” – Campaign Monitor
Naturally, you don’t address a 16-year-old the same way you would address a 60-year-old. Segment your lists and speak to your customers as if they are right in front of you. Address people in ways that they understand the most. You increase the personalized element in your email marketing, and you generate more engagement. It’s a win-win.
(Tip: Everything from demographics to consumer activity on your websites can be helpful in segmenting your lists.)
Refresh Their Memory
It is very easy for customers to forget about your services when there are multitudes of services just like yours. If you send too many promotional emails, your company will drown amongst the number of other promotional emails sent across hundreds of inboxes. Refresh your client’s memory, remind them of what they’ve forgotten, and prove to them your usefulness.
Send out information like scheduled appointments or abandoned cart emails. “Sending 3 abandoned cart emails results in 69% more orders than a single email” (Oberlo). Simply sending promotional emails speaks in less personal tones. Assist your customers by helping them find what they’re looking for.
(Tip: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What kind of emails would you like to receive?)
These five tips can aid in increasing your email engagement. At the end of the day, you have to remember that you are speaking to people and not to a screen. Educate, celebrate, react, personalize and remind.
