I attended a seminar recently on the title of this blog that was led by Jay Schwedelson, Worldata, on email marketing.
The following are my notes based on his presentation and you may be surprised by some of his suggestions which is based on recent research in the email marketing sector.
Email Marketing - how much is too much?
- 92% who unsubscribe haven’t opened that email in a year.
- Delivery to the inbox is the key - engagement from a previously sent email!
- Studies say open rates go up if you’re sending at least 5x a month.
- Don’t send emails about your keynotes or registration info.
You Must Be Relevant
- FOMO is the key to email marketing. Fear of missing out!
- Offers that expire have a 62% overall respond rate for BtoC and 55% for BtoB.
- An offer must have urgency to it!
- Subject lines. Go to subject line dot com.
Top Words to Use
- Free, limited, exclusive, tomorrow, today, last chance.
- Free is the number one word for the subject line for emails.
- 38% open rates increase if you use the word urgent.
Quick Tips
- Half sentence subject lines...
- “The most valuable...” - People will open to learn what it’s about.
- “Our keynote is...”
- Title casing - capitalize each word in your subject line...
- Use brackets or parentheses boost open rates by 31%
- Inbox rate is key, not deliverability rate. The difference is showing up in spam filters.
- Subject lines that start with a number “5” has a 21% increase in open rates. Think listicles.
- Pre-headers - the words after the subject line will increase your open rates by 24%.
- Single offer emails work. One email, one offer. Don’t send an email with multiple offers.
- Use light box to get emails - it’s a pop up on your website.
He went on to talk about auto opens and auto clicks being done by companies and associations to protect their networks. Think of it as a different version of your current spam filter.
Tools and Free Stuff
- If you're looking for a great resource on evaluating your email "subject lines" go HERE.
- For a great resource on when to send emails based on days and times go HERE.
Good luck with your email marketing campaigns!
