Author: David James

Ultimately, the success of any marketing campaign is measured by the response from customers.  Email is certainly no different in that regard than any other form of marketing.  When we first write our content for newsletters, we often pay too little attention to how it is interpreted by the receiver.  As such, we’re often surprised when unsubscribe rates go up and conversion rates plummet.  While there are several ways to improve email response, here are three of the easiest ones for anyone to implement and see immediate results.

1.  Use a Great Subject Title

Mastering the art of creating a subject title isn’t as difficult as one would imagine.  In fact, it really just boils down to creating something interesting while also being honest with the reader.  Perhaps one of the biggest turnoffs for a reader is clicking onto an email and discovering that the content has little to nothing whatsoever to do with the subject title.  So first and foremost, one needs to be honest.  Secondly, however, the title has to be eye-catching and offer some incentive for the buyer to click.  You may, for example, provide them with useful information on how to accomplish a specific task. Or you may be offering discounts or coupons that will make the customers want to click.

2.  Keep the Emails Short (But Not Too Short)

Sending out a short email to touch base is never a good strategy.  These types of emails are universally seen as being a nuisance more than anything else.  In fact, it is a great way to dramatically increase the unsubscribe rate.  Instead, you must deliver something of value to the reader. Help them to solve a pertinent problem, discover a new way of doing something, or purchase something at a dramatically reduced cost.  Regardless of the email’s subject, it must offer something to the customer that is worth the time they have to sacrifice in order to read it.  Include headers so the content is better formatted.  While being too short is bad, creating a verbose 5000+ word email on a particular subject is even worse.  An email should be read in less than five minutes.  If you want to write a book, then consider publishing to the Kindle instead.

3.  Personalize the Email

Customers love to be treated on a personal basis when it comes to communication.  With this in mind, you want to use their real name in the “To” field.  A few email marketing programs even allow for the individual’s name to be dispersed throughout the content.  This is an even better way to ensure that the receiver feels the content is actually directed at them instead of just being emailed out blindly to millions of subscribers. Using a theme which reflects the content is also a nice touch.  HTML hassle-free templates are available through BEM or many email marketing firms which allow for you to do that easily without hiring graphic designers. One cannot overstate just how effective this simple approach can be to receiving a better response from an email campaign.

Using the three simple yet proven techniques listed above will help for you to improve response from your email campaign.   While these are basic suggestions, they’re solid ones which have been used successfully by marketers for years to sell more products and services through email.  Above all else, however, it is important to use a reliable email marketing service with a strong project management system so email can be created, sent, and tracked effortlessly. With such a system, your message appears as you wanted it, not ruined by a software issue or some other problem.

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Publisher and President of Bethesda Emedia Marketing and Bethesda List Center, David James offers many years of experience in direct marketing, eMail marketing and social media marketing.

Both organizations work with business-to-business marketers, medical and life science, associations, publishers and the like. Follow David on Twitter as well! djamesbethesda

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