9. Three (3) Easy Steps to a Better Email Response Rate
Email is both an art and a science. Let me teach you the science part.
Let's talk about email marketing and why you're not getting the best response rate.
You know those videos that show an atom and then a person and then an elephant and then continue to pan out to show the country, the earth, the solar system, the galaxy and the universe - and then at the end of it you feel like your life means nothing? Well, let me give you the email version of that:
269 billion emails are sent every day - on average. That’s billion, with a “b”, and day, with a “d”. 269 BILLION emails every DAY.
There are more than 8.4 TRILLION (with a "T") emails sent in December, the most popular month for email sending.
More than 50 TRILLION spam emails are sent every year (49.7% of all email is spam)
On average, every person has 1.7 email accounts. (To put it in perspective, I have 7 email accounts that I check regularly).
Simply put, your email is like a person in the universe. It’s very easy to get lost.
My Brilliant Sports Analogy About Email Marketing
Sending an email is like a baseball pitcher trying to throw a strike. It involves much more than just tossing the ball in the right direction and hoping you succeed. Instead, you have to understand who you’re pitching to, what they are most likely to respond to, what is happening in the game in general, and what type of action you put on that ball in order to get the right reaction.
(If you’re not a baseball fan, thanks for getting through that. Truth be told, I started with an archery analogy but got off on a tangent and when I ended up writing about Robin Hood - and, hence, Shrek - I decided to pick another sport. Anyhoo….)
Recipients are more picky than ever about what emails they open and even more about what they click. Which means your job is more challenging.
No need to worry, I’m here to help (you can probably see where the Robin Hood analogy was going)
Why Am I Being Lectured To?
First of all, no need to be all aggro about it. I’m not lecturing you, I’m just sharing my thoughts. You can take what you like and ignore the rest.
Secondly, I’ve sent a lot of mass emails at my companies. We have 2m+ members who continually show high responsiveness to our correspondence. Our average email response rate is significantly higher than the industry average. In fact, some large organizations who use us for email marketing have claimed that we provide the highest ROI of any of their marketing initiatives.
So when I see emails from other companies that are…. well…. not so great, I want to help fix them. But since I can’t help rewrite every single email, I figured I’d just put the main pointers in one place and you can read them.
So grab your favorite pencil and let’s discuss.
The 3 Easy Steps To Email Marketing Success
The good news is that there are only three steps that are important to creating a high-performing email. Sure, each of the three steps may have a variety of sub-steps underneath them, but that’s for another conversation.
Step #1: Know the purpose of your message
Step #2: Know the mindset of your recipient
Step #3: Ensure the elements of the email are addressing Steps #1 and #2
Let’s break these down.
Step #1: The Purpose of Your Email Marketing Message
You need to know the sole purpose of your email. This may seem obvious to many of you, but if it does, it’s not being represented in all of your emails.
Your email can have only one purpose. Not two. Not three purposes. Just one.
If you insist that your email has two purposes, you've got two different emails.
There are two basic purposes you can choose from:
Get people to do something (call to action)
Inform participants about something (no call to action)
Whatever it is, determine that single purpose BEFORE you write the email and make sure that purpose is clear. Write it down on your white board. Put it on a post-it-note. Tattoo it on your forearm (temporary tattoo is recommended.) Just remember it.
Step #2: Know The Mindset Of Your Recipient
Sending an effective email is like doing the tango: it takes two. One has to send the email, another has to read it. Both people need a reason to be engaged or else you just trip over each others feet and it gets really annoying until the point where you just don't want to hear from each other anymore.
Assuming you’ve adhered to Step #1 and you know the single purpose for your email, it's time to think about the mindset of your recipient. What’s going on in their life? Why they would want to open your email as opposed to the hundreds of others they've received?
You may have read my piece about being personal, relevant and timely. I've already talked about being personal, but relevant and timely is another thing. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Are you trying to get people to purchase something in the middle of the holidays (when they have the least amount of disposable income)?
Are you reaching out to people who have never purchased from you?
Are you reaching out to people who have never signed up for your newsletter?
Are you trying to send need-to-know information to existing customers?
Readers need to know what’s in it for them. For instance, if you're sending out a "buy now" email between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, unless there is some super special holiday discount that meets the mindset of your consumer, you're not going to get an optimum response rate.
So you need to put your mind in their inbox. You can be 100% clear on your purpose, but if it doesn’t resonant with the recipients, it doesn’t matter. It'll just be deleted.
Step #3: Putting Together The Elements of an Effective Email (and how they relate to Factors #1 and #2)
Ok, you know the purpose of your email and you know the mindset of your recipients. Now it’s time to write that bugger. (If you’ve read this far, this is where the real payoff begins.)
Your Subject Line
The only purpose of your subject line is to get somebody to open your email. That’s it. If you remember nothing else from what I say, remember that. In fact, let me repeat it.
The ONLY purpose of the subject line is to get the recipient to open the email.
Look at your inbox (or, better yet, your spam box). Look at all the subject lines. Which are you most likely to click on? Here are some tips:
Character Count = <70
Keep your subject line to less than 70 characters and, ideally, less than 50 characters. Most mobile email apps don’t show more than 50 characters in a subject.
Type the subject in lower case
When you get a message from somebody you know, the subject is usually in lower case. Whether you recognize it or not, lower case subject lines create more of a personal connection. (Yes, it's ok to capitalize the first word)
Remember, the only purpose is to get them to open the email
Subject lines that get the highest open rates:
How To’s (e.g. how to run the course to get your PR)
Lists (e.g. 3 things you need to know about _______)
Questions (e.g. can you _____?)
Panic (e.g. it's your very last day to _____)
By all means don’t limit yourself to these types of subject lines if they don’t fit. The most important thing is just to remember that your sole goal is to get people to open the email. Try out different subject lines for the same email and see what type of response rate you get.
Your Email Body
Just as the only purpose of your subject line is to get them to open your email, the only purpose of the first line in the email is to get them to the second line. And the only purpose of the rest of the email is for them to click the Call To Action.
Here are a few tips to help you in constructing it:
Pictures speak louder than words... except when they actually have words
Use images in your email. That's good. It delivers emotion. But remember, many email providers don’t automatically display images. That means if you have your words (or your main call to action) on your image, those words won't be seen by many recipients.
Pictures still speak louder than words... but offers speak louder than pictures
People like saving money (see this for more on the subject). If that’s the angle you want to take, make sure they know what the offer is. Be clear. Be direct. Don’t hide it.
Be brief.
You’ve got <5 seconds to get somebody to click. If you’re writing a long paragraph you have less of a chance to succeed with your sole purpose. Write whatever you want to say, then chop it in half. Then chop it in half again.
Make sure your CTA is clear.
Your call to action needs to be very clear. It also needs to be above the fold (top 1/3 of the email). In fact, it should also be at the bottom of the email. And if the email body is long enough, put it in the middle as well. Be very clear on what people need to do and how it benefits them.
When To Send
Yes, there are good and bad times to send your email.
Best day to send: Tuesday (best open + click rate ratio)
Second best day: Thursday
Third best day(s): Monday or Wednesday
Worst day: Saturday
Best time to send emails:(2)
10am (really, 8am - 10am)
8pm
2pm
6am
So when you combine these two, the best days and times to send emails, in order of bestness
Tuesday 10am
Thursday 8pm
Wednesday 2pm
Tuesday 6am
Thursday 10am
Wednesday 8pm
Tuesday 2pm
Thursday 6am
Wednesday 10am
Tuesday 8pm
Thursday 2pm
Wednesday 6am
At this point you should know what to say in your email, how to say it and when to send it.
There's a lot more to say about this, but I've rambled on enough for now so I'm going to shut up.
Give it a shot and, for goodness sakes, leave comments below to let us know what you experience!