It shouldn’t come as a surprise that email is the leading medium for communication in the business world. More than 108.7 billion emails are sent and received per day — and that number is only going to grow over time. Predictions suggest that by 2018, business emails will account for over 139.4 billion messages sent and received per day. What does this mean for MSP and Cloud service email marketers? Your prospects’ inboxes are overloaded — you’ll need to make sure the emails you send stand out from the rest. To help you succeed, we’ve collected the top seven proven ways to help your emails break through the noise. Read on to learn how to increase conversion rate in email marketing.
How to Increase Conversion Rate in Email Marketing
Email marketing may be the most popular communication medium, but just because email marketing is popular doesn’t mean it is good. There is no silver bullet to creating marketing emails that convert, but the following seven rules will help teach you how to increase conversion rates in email marketing for your MSP or Cloud service business.
1. Subject Lines
We all know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover – but it would be a lie to say we didn’t do it anyway. The same premise applies to emails. Your subject line is often your one and only chance to grab your audience’s attention. If it doesn’t persuade your reader to open the email, then say goodbye to any chance of that email converting.
Bad email subject lines:
- Don’t convey any meaning and aren’t interesting
- Trigger junk email filters with spammy language
- Make your audience think “I don’t care about this”
Subject lines like You want to read this, September’s hottest deals, and Your Cloud Update are uninspiring and blend in with the mass of dreary emails infiltrating your audience’s inbox.
On the other hand, good email subject lines:
- Stand out from other emails in your prospect’s inbox
- Use personalization
- Intrigue users with curiosity, humor or big brand names
The subject line is the most important part of your email, so you should be spending just as much time perfecting your 50-character subject line as you do your whole email.
2. Call-To-Action Links above the Fold and No Leaks
Every conversion opportunity needs a call-to-action (CTA), and every email is a conversion opportunity. When crafting your marketing emails, remember to keep CTAs above the fold (the portion of your email that is visible without needing to scroll down). Statistics show that most recipients won’t make it to the end of your message, so it’s critical to give them a chance to convert early on.
To help boost conversions, use multiple CTA links that direct your audience to your single conversion destination. Avoid including several different CTAs in your emails, which can give readers too many options and lower click rates. Instead, focus on one conversion goal per email.
3. No HTML
There is something off-putting about blatant email marketing; no one likes to feel they are being sold to. Improve your email marketing conversion rate by creating authentic emails that simulate a one-to-one email experience. People don’t typically code their emails to friends and coworkers, and effective marketers shouldn’t either. Not only do text CTA links feel more natural, they also stand out more than CTA buttons and images.
4. No Images
There are two major problems with using images in your email marketing. The first is that many email providers now block images from unknown senders, which means that if your conversion message is embedded in the image, your readers need to take an extra step to view it. And chances are that, unless you are already a known and trusted source, they won’t go out of their way to approve viewing your image. The second problem with email images is that they distract from the primary goal. Including a large image above the fold of your message might seem like a good idea in theory, but the result is a distraction from the core content of your email – and most importantly, your conversion proposition.
5. Avoid Spam Filters
Spam filters are becoming increasingly difficult for marketers to bypass and with good reason! An influx of phishing, spoofing, and impersonation attempts through email have forced email providers to up their game to keep their users safe. To avoid spam filters, ensure that your domain has valid DKIM and SPF signatures. Spam filters automatically check your domain to see if those signatures are forged. You can also check your sender score and ensure you’re not on the blacklist.
6. Valuable Content
You can use all the email marketing tricks of the trade, but to increase your email marketing conversion rate, you need to present your audience with valuable content. Make sure the content of your email is purposeful and useful. If it doesn’t contain a benefit to the reader, don’t send it. Period.
7. Send Yourself a Test Email
If you’re anything like me, you get really excited when you’ve finally nailed the perfect email copy. It’s easy to get a little trigger-happy about sending it out — but don’t! There is nothing worse than the sinking feeling in your stomach when you realized you just sent an erroneous email to your entire database. Avoid making this mistake by always sending yourself a test email. If possible, send an email to your personal account and wait at least 24 hours before you review it. Reviewing your email with fresh eyes helps you catch grammatical and spelling errors and gives you insight into how well you are persuading your audience based on their needs. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes when you read the email and ask whether you would take the next step. If not, what would convince you to do so?
Conversions or Bust!
Advances in communication technology and fancy marketing tools have made it even more easy to reach our audience by email. But remember that all of those marketing tools won’t help your email marketing conversion rate if you don’t take the time to do it well. Crafting effective marketing emails requires you to know your audience and step into the reality of their everyday life. Before you send another email, ask yourself “what would make me click this email if I were in my prospect’s shoes?” If you aren’t convinced it will convert, step back and try again before you hit send.
At Total Product Marketing, we specialize in creating and delivering meaningful inbound marketing strategies for Cloud, Hosting, and Technology Companies. Get in touch with us for help improving your MSP and Cloud service email marketing conversion rate today.
