Marketing is a tough world. All that hard work designing your email and writing the most engaging content, getting past the dreaded spam filters, getting your prospects to open your emails and then comes to your click-through-rates. It’s a never-ending battle of how to improve your results. Right from successfully delivered, opened to click. There’s a lot that makes up the factors of your clickers. Your sender alias, subject line, time sent, the relevance of content. Let’s take a look at surefire ways you can improve your click-through-rates in your next campaign.
Your content: language, tone and grammar
The starting point for your email campaigns. What are you talking about? Would you engage with the emails you are sending based on the content? Using a conversational, direct tone is always a winner. Personalising your emails to make your readers believe you are talking directly to them and them alone. As well as making your content relevant to your readers, it also needs to be current and fresh. Do your research and ensure you are always talking about topics that are actually happening now. Make sure it’s true and factual and relevant to this day and age.
Colours
Different colours trigger different emotional responses in the human brain. Think about what you are trying to convey in your messaging and the emotions you are trying to connect with to find the right colours to use. Its also important to ensure, if you are using multiple colours in your emails, that they complement each other and don’t clash. Are the colours too aggressive? Are they calming? Are they going to make people engage? Here are some examples we have found:
• Red, orange and yellow (warm colours) are often read as confident, bold and optimistic. Be careful when using these colours as they can be seen as aggressive unless used with a calmer colour
• Cooler colours such as blues and green represent trustworthiness, dependable and calming. Green is often represented as wealth or money
• Purple indicates creativity and luxury
• Bright or contrasting colours are proved to get people to take action. Make your CTA’s as vibrant as possible, but make sure they are still clear and easy to pick out
• Softer colours are interpreted as more professional and serious, brighter colours indicate more fun and creative.
Layout
The aim of the game is to get readers moving through your email towards your CTA. The layout of your emails reflects this movement. Formatting the information, you are trying to portray is key to what your readers will do next. Think about the different types of layout you can use for the different types of email campaigns. Alwats have your end goal in mind – the CTA or conversion.
Consistency
Making sure your emails mirror your website and brand image is key to engaging with familiarity. Your readers will identify who the email is from and, if your reputation is good enough, will engage with what they know. As well as reaching out to your new contacts, making sure your landing page matches your emails will implant trust into your readers.
Relevant images
If you are using design heavy emails, make sure your images represent what you are talking about. People will tend to look at the images rather than the content. If your image is of a tropical island beach, but you are talking about financial reports, readers will ultimately switch off. Although it is about getting your readers attention you need to be using relevant images to reflect your messages. Put a link behind your image too so people can easily access your article from the image.
F-in email
The average attention span is 30 seconds. In the world of email it’s much shorter than that! Make sure you catch the attention of your readers along the right-hand side of your emails. Think of your emails as an F and ensure your hottest topics and CTA’s fall under this F. Think about how quickly you skim read your emails landing in your inbox. What makes you continue reading and engaging and what makes you simply hit delete. Have a look at our guide on the F-in email for more information on this.
CTA
It’s all in the CTA. What is it that you want your readers to do? Make sure you are clear about this and it’s easily accessible in your email i.e. above the fold. People are lazy (or busy so they say) so making your emails as easy as possible is key. If your readers have to work hard to find your CTA then you’re losing the game. Use HTML, colourful buttons as your CTA’s and try and stick to one per email to make it as simple and straightforward as possible.
There’s a lot to think about when building one email campaign. And it’s a lot of pressure to get it right every time. When it comes to email marketing it’s important to test, test and then test some more. Get to know what your audience likes and dislikes and change things up continually, so you are always hitting the spot. Take a look at our ultimate guide to split testing to make sure you are always delivering the best value possible. Always.