Sure, Email Marketing is a quick and easy way to reach a large number of customers, or potential customers. But how and when you do it are two key factors as to its success as a marketing tool.
It is generally accepted that in order for an email marketing message to be considered effective, the delivery rate of a minimum of 80% of your list must be reached and that at least 35% of those receiving it actually open the message.
Some rather interesting facts regarding the actual performance of Email Marketing from just over 300 ecommerce merchants have emerged from a recent study completed by Internet Retailer. Take a look at their mistakes, in order to avoid them yourself.
Delivery Rate
Although we already reviewed the acceptable rate of delivery, only 59% of the survey respondents reported that their message met this criteria.
More than likely, the reason is that these merchants did not take the time to maintain their mailing list. One of the most important things you can do is to honour any unsubscribe requests and to note bounce backs and remove the address each time you send out a mailing. Some autoresponder programs will perform both of these tasks for you.
Another possibility is that your email message did not make it through the recipient’s spam filters. The majority of computer users nowadays utilise some form of filtering system, and often more than one (the ISP and the email program filters are usually independent of each other). You must be careful about how many links you include in the message and the overuse of graphics.
Low Opening Rates
It may be surprising to hear that of the merchants surveyed, only a quarter of them noted an email opening rate of more than 25% and only 17% of them showed 15% of their messages resulting in a click through to their site. Obviously, this is not effective.
This failure is most likely due to the subject line of the email. In just a few words, you have one opportunity to capture someone’s attention and compel them to open the message to read more.
The importance of the subject line cannot be stressed enough. If it sounds like an advertisement, the odds that a recipient will open the message are slim to none. Unless the subject shouts out something of interest or benefit, the email is likely to end up in the trash folder.
Consider, also the first few lines of the email. Many people use a preview pane with their software. Personalise the greeting and include an attention grabbing header.
Timeliness is another factor. Studies have shown that Monday mornings are the worst time to try and reach a potential customer, and by Friday, most employees are already thinking about their weekend. Aim for midweek.
Of course, how often you send out marketing messages can also affect the rate of opening. If you are bombarding your list of subscribers every few days or so, you are risking losing them.
Low Conversion Rate
Even if someone opens your email message, it is ineffective marketing if they do not click through to your site and make a purchase. One way to increase your conversion rate is to target your message to specific demographics. Ensure that what you are selling through your email is something that will be of interest to the people you are sending it to.
In order to target certain demographics it is necessary to segment your market. You may choose to do this based on geographic location, age, gender, etc. Use as much information as you have to do the best job of segmentation.
An Email Marketing campaign is much like any other type of effort you put into promotion and advertising, it is only as good as you make it. Be sure to consider all these common mistakes before you send out your next marketing message via email.
