It sounds hard to believe given how overwhelmingly full our inboxes are, but Email Marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach more leads and target consumers. 

However, it can be difficult to stand out to your audience in a sea of emails. And still, even if your target audience notices your email, it can be challenging to engage them. According to Campaign Monitor, the global average email open rate for all industries in 2020 is 17.8%, a decrease from last year’s 17.92%.

Image via Campaign Monitor

5 Efficient Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Getting your target consumer to see your email, open your email, thoroughly read it, and do your call-to-action sounds impossible...but it’s not. Here are five effective methods you can use to optimize your email marketing campaigns and drive customer engagement:

1. Automated email campaigns

Automated emails automatically send emails to your consumers with personalized information at a certain time. This is how it’s used:

An automated email is sent, depending on what actions your consumer completes. Actions including subscribing to your emails, purchasing items, or just coming to your site. Based on those, they will receive an email relevant to their decisions. For example, when a visitor comes to your website and purchases some items, they will automatically receive a confirmation email of their order within minutes.

2. Add a unique call-to-action button

Call-to-actions in your emails act as a lead to increase your conversion rate. It is important that the call-to-action (CTA) is clear, easily seen, and inspiring. If consumers are aware of exactly what they’re getting themselves into, they will be more likely to click it. Engage your consumers by using keywords or phrases specific to them or to the benefit they will receive by using your product or service. For example, phrases such as, “I want to save money now!”, or “Add to cart now!” present CTAs that are not only engaging but also instill a sense of urgency.

3. Optimize for Mobile

According to Hubspot, 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email. It is important to incorporate mobile devices into your email marketing strategy, as the majority of your consumers prefer your content through email. If you’re wondering how to create emails that are also mobile-friendly? Here’s how:

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   • Use a mobile-adaptive template. Be sure that all the content in the email is able to be used and seen on a cell phone. Some email services block images by default, so you should use alt tags to label the images that way they can be identified.

   • Use a short and concise preview header and subheader. You need to engage your audience, and your preview text will help with this. Consumers should be able to recognize your brand the instant they see your email and header.

   • Minimalize pictures. This is important, because if your file is too large it may slow down the loading time and make the consumer exit the email. So, when designing your email, be sure the images are compressed. 

4. A/B Test

You may know who you want your target audience to be, but it may not be clear what will engage them. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different email formats distributed to consumers at a random, to compare their engagement.

Try not to have the versions that are too different as it will be challenging to decipher which elements made the engagements increase. For instance, different fonts, CTA buttons, headlines, etc. would be adequate to compare for different versions.

5. Reassess your Target Audience 

Sending your automated emails to everyone that’s on your email list may sound efficient, but it may not be the best idea. Receiving an email that isn’t relevant to you can be a nuisance. This can cause customers to block, unsubscribe, or worse... never open them. Segmenting your emails by shopping history, age, gender, or location will send them messages customized to their wants and needs.

Hundreds of emails come to consumer’s phones and desktops per day, and they don’t open them all. Consumers will more than likely open emails from businesses if they can benefit from them, such as a coupon included or a preview of new items to purchase. Make your email marketing campaign irresistible to scroll past by incorporating these 5 efficient ways.