Determining what changes should be made in your email marketing programs to improve effectiveness

1. Ensure your emails are mobile-optimized.
Today, 74% of mobile users rely on mobile devices to check email, and that percentage is steadily increasing.¹ The first step in assessing your email is to be sure the majority of users are able to view your email. A successful email campaign must be mobile-optimized.

Screen sizes across smartphones and tablets vary from device to device. There are about 18 major devices with 12 different screen sizes ranging from 3.5 inches to 10.6 inches, measured diagonally from corner to corner. If you aren’t mobile-optimizing your emails, look no further for ways to improve your email performance; this is a must.

2. Ensure optimization of subject lines and friendly froms.
If your open rates are in decline, then focus on optimization of friendly froms and subject lines. Getting a user to open an email is critical and the first step in optimization. In other words, someone can’t click through if they don’t open the email.

Through testing, we’ve seen significant differences in open rates from applying different techniques. Subject lines are one of the key areas assessed when evaluating emails and looking for ways to increase performance.

For example, a recent test conducted resulted in a subject line with personalization increasing 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.

3. Ensure you are pushing all the traditional response levers.
Some of the same best practices that apply to other measurable response channels apply to email. This includes a number of design and layout factors as well as offer and other fundamental direct marketing best practices. This can include overall layout and design, use of a right rail, incorporating bullets, color of buttons, use of icons and wording of pre-headers. As experts in response marketing, J&C is familiar with which levers should be considered when developing an email program.

One of the core principles of direct marketing is to provide a reason to act NOW. Many emails are deployed without an 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. 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.

Email marketing is as much science as art. As experts in response marketing, J&C offers an email assessment that reviews all existing email campaigns to determine whether offers are being presented in an optimal manner.

4. Ensure clarity of the desired action.
The purpose of most emails is to get the user to the next step in the process. Clarity in the call-to-action is important to ensuring users understand what action we as marketers hope they take.

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 are delivering in the optimal way for a user to respond.

5. Ensure application of data.
Data equals relevancy, and relevancy is a positive influence on email click-through behavior and conversions. Applying data to email is the difference between sending out mass emails and a communication that is perceived as relevant and useful. If you’re deploying one-size-fits-all email, your email marketing probably isn’t living up to its potential.

Email is an extremely cost-effective medium for delivering tailored messages. Behavioral data is more accessible than many marketers realize. Behavioral targeting can include targeting on a range of user-generated behaviors, including purchasing, searching/visiting and engaging.

If you aren’t sure about the best data applications for your email program, consider a J&C email assessment. Through our assessment process, we are generally able to identify data availability and opportunities for tailoring and personalizing emails.

6. Ensure a testing plan.
Successful email campaigns have ongoing testing as a cornerstone to continually enhance email performance. Email testing has many shapes and sizes. And we’ve found that small nuances in testing can make a big difference in click-through behavior and engagement.

7. Ensure a seamless and strong user experience after the click-through.
Many email marketers don’t scrutinize the user experience after the click. Ensure a smooth transition for the user. Dropping users into a general website page from an email is almost always a sub-optimal user experience. Typically, conversion results will be stronger if you leverage a landing page. Ensure the landing page provides a cohesive user experience and is optimized for maximum effectiveness.