Getting people to subscribe to your website can be hard enough, but achieving that is only half the battle. With so many emails flooding inboxes, making it past the filters is a second hurdle. The hardest part is actually having your subscribers open your emails and e-newsletters. Email marketing is not just about crafting valuable content; you're wasting your efforts if people aren't opening and reading what you send. Whether you specialize in consumer-to-business (C2B) or business-to-business (B2B) marketing, taking the time to understand what leads subscribers to click on your emails is paramount.
Email Marketing Basics: Subject Lines
Campaign Monitor stresses that it is never wise to trick subscribers into opening your emails. The messages should be valuable and well worth their time. The mantra you should use is "what is in it for my subscribers?" Let them know that there is something of value to them available, and then provide that for them. You should clearly communicate your message in the subject line and within the body of your email or email newsletter.
Great subject lines encourage subscribers to read email content and make them feel as though they miss out on something if they save the email for later, ignore it, or delete it. MailChimp's two most important tips are keeping the audience in mind and testing a variety of words and phrases before hitting "send." They also share several guidelines for writing effective subject lines.
Excessively long subject lines will not hold most people's interest, so it is usually best to shorten things. MailChimp suggests having more than nine words totaling 60 characters or less. Compare these two:
Terrific Tahoe's New Ski Jackets are Perfectly Designed to Please Every Single Member of Your Family and Come in All Sizes!
Slay the Slopes With Terrific Tahoe's New Family Ski Jackets!
It is just like writing an advertising slogan: think short, specific, unique, and catchy. Punctuation is also important! Research shows that you should not have more than three punctuations marks in a subject line. Excessive punctuation can make legitimate emails look like spam, and they can get filtered out. You can add an emoji for visual pizzazz but only use one at a time. They can supplement words but should not replace them; that can be confusing or look tacky ("Our bakery is having a ∏ sale!").
Testing Your Subject Lines
A new subject line might look great to you and your team members, but the only real way to tell if it gets the message across is to test it. When you are brainstorming ideas, pick the top two best ones. Then, put together a sample group within your email list. Depending on the size of the list, This can be anywhere from 10 to 30 percent. Out of the 30 percent, send half of them the email with the subject line #1, and the other half should receive subject line #2.
Now, you have to track how many subscribers opened the emails and see how many were #1 and #2. You can use the winning subject line for the remainder of your emails. Another testing strategy is to send #1 to 50 percent of your subscribers and #2 to the other 50 percent. After analyzing the results, use what you have learned in your future emails.
Business-to-Business Marketing Emails
B2B marketing companies rely on email newsletters to communicate things to their clients, but why is this so important? Big Commerce explains that B2C companies sell directly to consumers who invest less time making their buying decisions. They aren't usually interested in knowing the specifics of a B2C's supply chain, internal operations or sales projections for the coming year.
B2B is more about developing long-term relationships that grow over time. Companies sell products and services to other companies that those companies often resell to consumers. The sales cycle is longer, but the order value is higher, and there are more recurring purchases. B2B involves more detailed and frequent interactions, and email newsletters are an excellent tool for doing this. Still, B2B customers might not be interested in reading these newsletters if they lack attention-grabbing subject lines. The content should also be engaging and valuable; otherwise, people won't read past the first few headlines and articles.
Holding interest can be even more challenging for B2C newsletters. Consumers are not interested in learning about sales projections; they might want to read about a new product launch, a 20 percent off sale, or new and exciting ways to use your products. Some of this content can also make it into B2B email newsletters, and contests with prizes can also spark reader interest. There are a couple more tips from Entrepreneur that can help you make sure that your subscribers open and read your email newsletters:
Build a database based on potential customer social media and online habits to find your target audience. Then, manage your database by adding and removing subscribers as needed.
The newsletter's content and tonality should be relevant and natural for your brand and audience. Customize it as much as possible, add visual interest, eliminate redundant information and keep things fresh and simple.
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