Can you objectively evaluate your email for areas of improvement? Does your company need an email assessment?

1. Don’t disregard proven practices.
Some of the same best practices that apply to other measurable response channels apply to email. As experts in response marketing, J&C knows which levers should be considered when developing an email program. This includes a number of design and layout factors as well as offer and other fundamental direct marketing best practices. While some don’t consider email a direct marketing channel, it qualifies unless your goal is awareness.

If you aren’t positive on how to apply response best practices, talk to J&C. We can help you identify a number of proven techniques to increase your email performance.

2. Leverage limited-time offers or incentives.
One of the core principles of direct marketing is provide a reason to act NOW. Many emails are deployed with no offer or incentive. Many email marketers are not borrowing from the proven principles of direct marketing: utilizing offers that are time-sensitive and provide reasons to act now.

As experts in response marketing, J&C ensures its email assessment reviews all existing email campaigns to determine whether offers are being presented in an optimal manner. Sometimes just including an offer isn’t enough. Attributes of an effective offer include a motivating incentive and either a limited time frame, limited availability or limited quantity of participants.

3. Ensure proper integration of the call-to-action.
The purpose of most emails is to get the user to the next step in the process. Successful email campaigns are often measured based on metrics such as click-through and conversion rates. These metrics are largely impacted by the effectiveness of the call-to-action to get the user to the next step.

Calls-to-action should be delivered in more than one format in email. It is critical to use both links and buttons in email marketing. Don’t rely on only one of these techniques, as users don’t all respond to these devices exactly the same way.

It’s also essential to test different button colors and be sure you’re delivering the optimal way for a user to respond. Having been involved in testing millions of emails, J&C has insights and expertise that we can leverage to help you improve your email marketing campaign performance.

4. Don’t forget expiration dates.
Why would someone act now when procrastinating is so much easier? Many email marketers simply don’t take advantage of expiration dates enough. One of the fundamental proven direct marketing best practices is to provide an expiration date.

Many email marketers have adopted urgency wording but aren’t including a clear and specific expiration date. It appears the lack of an expiration date is especially prevalent in B2B email marketing communications.

5. Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, the average person gets 9,000 emails a year, and that number is conservative for many of us. Digital media has increased the number of messages that inundate prospects and customers, further underscoring the need for relevancy and personalization.

Email relevancy is the only hope email marketers have to get users’ attention and their response. This year, J&C conducted several communication preference research studies. And one of the key findings is that customers prefer and have come to expect personalized communications.

Email is an extremely cost-effective medium for delivering tailored messages. Ensure you aren’t just sending out mass emails; embrace this proven direct marketing best practice, which always demonstrates an improvement in response. Through our assessment process, we are generally able to identify data availability and opportunities for tailoring and personalizing emails. Sign-up today for J&C’s email assessment for ideas on how to leverage data to improve email engagement and conversions.

6. Improve subject lines and friendly froms.
Getting a user to open an email is critical and the first step in optimization. Through testing, we’ve seen significant differences in open rates from applying different techniques. Subject lines is one of the key areas assessed when evaluating emails and looking for ways to increase performance.

For example, in a recent test we conducted, a subject line with personalization increased open rates 34-47% more than a subject line without personalization. Additionally, leveraging the company or brand name can increase open rates anywhere from 10-30%. While mobile requires shorter subject lines, sometimes incorporating the company or brand names into the subject line is an important lever that can be pulled in improving email campaign performance.

7. Don’t underutilize data to improve targeting.
Behavioral data is more accessible than many marketers realize. Behavioral marketing is so powerful because it targets people when they are in the mindset of thinking about your company or products. Behavioral targeting can include targeting a range of user-generated behaviors, including purchasing, searching/visiting and engaging. Huge gains are typically a result of applying behavioral data, as it leads to increased performance and more successful email marketing campaigns.