5 Tips to Significantly Increase the ROI of Your Next Email Campaign Here's why your email-marketing campaign is worth the effort.
By Ross Jenkins Edited by Amanda Breen
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Email marketing has always been one of the most affordable and effective online-marketing strategies, driving revenue with a click of the mouse and allowing you to maintain a strong relationship with your customers and user base.
It's also highly measurable, allowing you to optimize and fine-tune your campaigns to drive ROI that outperforms all other marketing channels. Many businesses put very little effort into their email marketing, and it shows.
We are constantly bombarded with email marketing, and I am sure you have hit "delete" more than your fair share of times. Maybe the subject line didn't intrigue you, or the email just screamed "advertisement."
There are some very simple tips that you can implement, making your email-marketing campaigns more effective and profitable. Let's go over the top five that'll help increase your ROI the next time you send an email campaign.
Related: Why Email Marketing Is Better for Your Business Than Social Media
1. Monitor your email deliverability
While open rates, click-through rates and revenue generated are all important metrics, deliverability rate is one of the most overlooked, yet more important things, to pay close attention to. If nobody is receiving your emails, everything else is irrelevant.
If you are inboxing a low percentage of your list, or you notice that your deliverability rate is dipping, you need to make changes, and quickly. Some email platforms send from IP addresses that get flagged as a result of some users spamming. Eventually, other users are affected because of a "bad neighbor" sending from the same IPs.
Spam filters are also much more advanced now than they were years ago, filtering out what they consider "junk" based on spam-trigger words included in the subject line and email body.
2. Optimize for mobile
When you are writing your email subject lines and copy, assume that all users are going to receive, open and view your message on a mobile device. This means your subject line needs to grab their attention right away, your message needs to be direct and to the point, and your design needs to be eye-catching and flow seamlessly on a small screen.
Mobile email is growing so rapidly that the statistics are all over the place. Some resources claim more than 50% of all emails are opened and read on mobile phones while others claim that number is north of 70%.
The number is only going to continue to increase, so if you create all of your email campaigns with mobile in mind, you will be fine. You might also want to look into having a custom responsive email template designed. Using a branded template is a low-cost way to make your emails stand out.
Related: 8 DIY SEO Tips to Optimize Your Mobile Marketing
3. Include a single CTA
Have you ever opened an email from a brand and been unsure what it was promoting or offering? Some emails are a complete mess, featuring links to blog posts and random sales or promotions.
Zero direction. Zero clarity. This approach is horrible. These emails don't convert, and they cause many consumers to hit the unsubscribe button. If you want to see your emails convert at a higher rate, include a single call to action, and tell your recipient what that action is and what you want them to do.
For example, if an apparel brand is promoting a new limited-edition drop, and the email serves as a pre-sale notification, it needs to make that clear. A little text blurb, an image of the product and then a call to action in the form of a large button that says "Pre-Order Now!" is all it takes to drive results.
4. Segment your email list
If you are sending the same message to your entire email list, you are missing a huge opportunity and leaving a lot of money on the table every time you deploy a message. Divide and break down your list into as many different segments as possible.
From purchase history to order frequency and any other significant piece of data according to your business, you need to segment based on what works for you.
The sooner you realize that all of your email recipients don't want the same thing, the sooner you will be able to send them emails that are catered toward what they do want. This isn't an overnight process, but you can start by segmenting your list into two categories: customers and non-customers, and further segment from there.
Related: 5 Email-Marketing Strategies to Conquer Consumer Inaction
5. Use humor and shock value in your subject lines
Your recipients have to first open the email. You might have the most appealing and incredible offer inside, but if the email is skipped over or sent right to the trash, there is no chance of generating any kind of return.
Your subject line needs to command attention and trigger the recipient to click on it. Your emails need to stand out from the dozens of other emails in your recipients' inboxes. Experiment with humor and shock value.
