5 tips to supercharge your email marketing immediately

In today’s digital age, having a well-run, optimized email marketing strategy is a must-have for all businesses. Each morning we check our inboxes and are greeted by a digital dogfight – with businesses all clamoring for that precious two seconds of our attention.

A properly vetted and successful email marketing strategy requires a deep dive into many variables. Those include improving your spam score, developing a mobile-friendly and responsive approach to coding, and honing targeted messaging for the right audience, just to name a few.

For the purposes of this blog post, however, we are going to focus on those easy, and quick-wins and email marketing tips that will give your results an immediate boost.

Quick Fix #1: Boost your open rate by optimizing your send time:

Timing is everything – especially when it comes to open rates.

According to Litmus’s 2020 State of Email Engagement Report, the most popular time for email-opens happens in the morning, anywhere from 9am-12:00pm. They continue to break down their data even further by providing specific times for each time zone:

United States: 10am-11am
UK: 9am-10am
Canada: 10am-11am
Germany: 9am-10am
Spain: 9am-10am
Australia & New Zealand: 10am-11am

Adjust your send times for each time zone to ensure maximum opens.

PRO-TIP: Do some A/B testing and experiment with different times and dates to see which works best for your company.

Quick Fix #2: Increase your deliverability by purging hard bounces from your email list:

It’s time to clean your email list! Bounce rates are one of the key factors internet service providers (ISPs) use to determine an email sender’s reputation. Continuously sending an email to these expired email addresses will result in an overall drop in reputation score and reduce your chances of getting to people’s inbox. Even if you obtained these email addresses legitimately, inactive emails can turn into SPAM traps, so it’s best to keep on top of removing these from your list.

Remove all of the bounce-backs from your list after each email send. Do this on a regular basis to maintain good email hygiene.

PRO TIP: Avoid using a “no-reply” email address as a sender’s name. Isntead use a first name. A major rule of CAN-SPAN, a piece of legislation used to regulate email in the US, views “no-reply” email addresses as impeding a recipient’s right to respond and opt-out of future emails.

Quick Fix #3: Optimize your images by compressing them to decrease file size:

According to a 2015 Litmus article 51% of recipients delete an email within the first 2 seconds. When every second counts, it’s important to make sure that those seconds are not wasted waiting for large images to download.

With email design, there are a number of ways to make sure your images are compressed for your email. With Photoshop, make sure the image’s resolution is set at 72 PPI. Then to export your image, go to File/Export/Save for Web. This brings up a screen where you can select the best compression settings and format.

If you do not have Photoshop, here are some other compression tools available:

PRO TIP: The general rule of thumb for emails is 60% text to 40% images. Having a healthy text to image ratio will lessen your chances of getting picked up by a SPAM filter.

Quick Fix #4: Maximize every opportunity by updating your image ALT tags

This email marketing tip is by far the easiest one on the list. Many email clients block images by default (here’s looking at you Microsoft Outlook). Adding ALT tags ensure that when images are blocked, your reader sees descriptive text in its place. ALT tags also increase accessibility for email users that are visually impaired, allowing their screen reader to read the tags to them.

Most email services like Marketo, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact include an email editor that will allow you to add the ALT tag right when you are adding your image to the email. Have your ALT text be descriptive, but concise. If you have an image that is purely decorative (i.e. a divider or design element) you can skip the ALT tag.

PRO TIP: For email marketers that are familiar with coding, you can add an image style tag to your ALT text so that a background color and your preferred font style is shown. Sample coding here:

<img style=”font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff; text-align: center; background-color: # 1600ff;” src=”nameofimage.jpg ” border=”0″ alt=”Edit your ALT tag to become an email rockstar” width=”650px” height=”200″ />

Quick Fix #5: Ramp up open rates with an optimized subject line

Subject lines are the gatekeeper between your recipient and your message. It sets the tone for both your message and your company. Think about it: If you were going to a friend’s house for the day, wouldn’t it be nicer to be greeted with a warm, personalized welcome, over a person screaming at you with all caps and exclamation points?

Aside from setting the tone, subject lines walk a fine line between intrigue and annoyance. These stats are especially telling: 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject alone, and 69% of recipients report an email as SPAM solely based on their reaction to the subject line. Here are some recommendations to get it right:

Use Incentives: Use incentives in subject lines and improve open rates as much as 50%.

Personalize: If your email sending service allows you to use personalization tokens in your subject lines, go for it! From first name, company name, their city, an event they just attended – all are great options and proven to increase open and conversion rates.

Length: Email clients and mobile devices often cut off any subject lines that go beyond 30-50 characters (including spaces). Make sure you don’t exceed this character count.

Do not use all caps: Using all caps comes off as yelling and can seem spammy. Let’s use our indoor voices for both for the subject line and for the body copy.

Use Emojis (maybe): Emojis wont be right if your company has a more serious tone, but for brands that are fun and playful, emojis can be a great way to get attention. According to Experian, 56% of brands that use emojis in subject lines had higher open rates. Use them in moderation however, and only one at a time rather than multiple.

Ask a question: A great way to engage your recipient is by asking an open-ended question. Some examples:

“What lies ahead for xx company?“

“Want a way to make your job easier?”

“What’s hot in Atlanta this weekend”?

Conclusion

These email marketing tips just barely skim the surface of what should be part of a robust, successful email marketing strategy for your company. What other quick tips have worked for your company? Comment below to let me know!