As a brand, you want to create maximum value for your customers, providing information they require and being present where they are. Email marketing is increasingly becoming popular. Various sources share some interesting statistics about email marketing:
- 89% of marketers use email as the primary channel for generating leads.
- Marketing and advertising emails influence the buying decision of 50.7% of customers.
- 52% of responders said that email is their main communication tool.
Metrics to Measure
Now that we’ve established that email marketing is important, what are some of the important metrics that we should consider as a brand? The answer is: Open rate and click-through rates. Let’s look at this through a formula:
Open-Rate = Unique Open / (Number of Emails Sent – Bounced Emails)
where,
- Number of Emails Sent = Total emails sent
- Unique Open = Distinct number of recipients who have opened your email
- Bounced Emails = Undelivered emails
Click-through Rate is the no. of clicks your links within your email body received. Mathematically, it is calculated as Clicks / Impressions
Most mailing tools that you use will provide these metrics along with metrics such as Unique Opens, Devices Opened On, Browsers Viewed In, Clicks, Bounce Rate etc. so you will not need to do any calculations.
Things to Keep in Mind to Boost Open Rates
Professional Email Address: If you’re a brand that wants to communicate with your customers, it is imperative that you use a professional email service. A business email allows you to have mailing addresses in your company name. For example [email protected] or [email protected]. Why is this important?
- It creates trust among your customers regarding the source of the email
- You’re less likely to be marked as spam
- It increases your open rate
- It is professional
Subject Line: A subject line is probably the first thing your customers notices when he sees your email. Ensure your subject line is crisp, catchy and not click-bait. Your subject line should simply be an indication of what to expect in the email. Avoid short-forms, special characters, difficult to read lines, all caps, and overuse of emojis. Also avoid words like ‘Hurry’ or ‘Click Here’. See the full list here.
Preview Text: The preview text is the text that follows from the subject line. It adds an extra dimension to the subject, while carrying forward the meaning or the messaging. Avoid the temptation to get lazy and leave it blank. It could just be the text that convinces the customer to open the email. Here’s an example.
Responsiveness: According to Hubspot,
- Mobile opens account for 46 percent of all email opens.
- 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device.
Mobile responsiveness is critical for your emails. Lack of it leads to bad user experience and high bounce rates, leaving you with fewer clicks & customers.
Design & Content: Minimal design with clear call-to-action and crisp content are key to great emails and also have high recall value. With your content & design, you can:
- Engage with the customer
- Get him/her to make a purchase
- Convey important brand information
- Provide information he/she is looking for
And much more!
Ensure your messaging is clear, jaron-free and easy to understand.
Email attachment size limit: Although Bluehost.in servers have a 50 MB email attachment size limit for the outgoing emails sent via SMTP and webmail, it is best practice to keep your maximum email attachment size within 35 Megabytes. There are a number of reasons for doing this:
-
- Your email is MIME encoded, which can expand the size of the email by 40%. This means a 35 MB file is the equivalent of 50 MB of space when MIME encoded for sending as an attachment.
- Tackle any limits your email client has on attachments.
- Tackle any limits on the recipient’s server (for example, Yahoo! & Outlook.com all have a 25 MB limit. Gmail has a 50 MB limit.) By default, Microsoft Outlook 2013 and the later versions have an attachment limit of 20MB. Here’s how you can override this Outlook email attachment limit.
- Avoid your message getting rejected due to lack of free space in the recipient’s email box (If their mailbox is full, your message will be rejected).
If you need to send larger files it is recommended that you upload the file to your account and then email a link to the file.
Test your Email: Lastly, test your email by sending it to yourself first. See how it looks in your inbox, on your mobile, if all attachments and links open, if the subject line and preview text appears fine, etc. This may seem like a trivial step but it’s what can make or break an impression customers have of your brand. A great mail might be appreciated but a bad one will surely stick in the minds of your customers.
We hope you use these practices and create beautiful emails for your customers!
1 Comment
Thank you for sharing such an informative article with me