{"id":2401,"date":"2020-04-20T11:19:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T09:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artenio.net\/wp\/2020\/04\/20\/8-effective-email-marketing-strategies-backed-by-science\/"},"modified":"2020-04-20T11:19:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T09:19:58","slug":"8-effective-email-marketing-strategies-backed-by-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artenio.net\/wp\/2020\/04\/20\/8-effective-email-marketing-strategies-backed-by-science\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies, Backed by Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"emailThe cutthroat inbox of your standard consumer roils with marketing messages, competitive subject lines, and scores of attention-seeking emails. With over 144 billion emails sent each and every day, email marketing remains one of the elite channels for business communication. So how does the signal separate itself from the noise?<\/p>\n

To be sure, finding the key to a stand-out message is critical to your bottom line\u2014whether that bottom line is cold, hard cash or community engagement or anything in between. What follows are eight inbox-tested email marketing strategies that successful senders have used to get their emails clicked.<\/p>\n

1. Personalize your email without using the recipient\u2019s name<\/h2>\n

No more \u201cDear [INSERT NAME HERE]\u201d.<\/p>\n

The practice of personalized email greetings is not nearly as effective as it may seem. In fact, research by Temple\u2019s Fox School of Business suggests that\u00a0this particular kind of personalization could be harmful.<\/p>\n

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Given the high level of cyber security concerns about phishing, identity theft, and credit card fraud, many consumers would be wary of emails, particularly those with personal greetings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A significant element of email marketing is relationship. Does a recipient trust you? Does a recipient even know who you are? When an email jumps the gun by forcing familiarity too soon, the personalization comes across as skeevy. Intimacy is earned in real life, and it would appear to be the same way with email. Take this example from my inbox; no one has called me lowercase kevan l lee in years.<\/p>\n

\"Amazon<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Faking familiarity with the subscriber turns many wary email readers off. But this isn\u2019t to say that all forms of personalization are off-limits. In fact,\u00a0a particular brand of personalization\u00a0can pay off big time: Sending email that acknowledges a subscriber\u2019s individuality (e.g., purchase history or demographic).<\/p>\n

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(The study) also found that product personalization, in which customers are directed to products that their past purchasing patterns suggest they will like, triggered positive responses in 98 percent of customers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The takeaway here is that if you are to use personalization as an email strategy, do so in a meaningful way. It takes little knowledge or relationship to place someone\u2019s name in your greeting. It shows far greater care to send personalized email that is specific to a recipient\u2019s needs and history. Again, an example from my inbox, this email from Rdio dispenses with the formalities and simply provides an update on music I actually listen to.<\/p>\n

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2. The long and short of subject lines<\/h2>\n

When it comes to deciding how to craft that perfect subject line, there appears to be really only one area to avoid: the subject line of 60 to 70 characters.\u00a0Marketers refer to this as the \u201cdead zone\u201d of subject length.\u00a0According to\u00a0research by Adestra, which tracked over 900 million emails for its report, there is no increase in either open rate or clickthroughs at this 60-to-70 character length of subject line.<\/p>\n

Conversely, subject lines 70 characters and up tested to be most beneficial to engage readers in clicking through to the content, and subject lines 49 characters and below tested well with open rate.<\/p>\n

In fact, Adestra found that\u00a0subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%.<\/p>\n

Short subjects came in vogue with\u00a0the success of President Barack Obama\u2019s email fundraising. He saw incredible engagement with subjects like \u201cHey\u201d and \u201cWow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"email<\/p>\n

So the question becomes: Do you want to boost clicks (response) or opens (awareness)? Go long for clickthroughs; keep it short for opens.<\/p>\n

Either way, a helpful email strategy is to squeeze out more words or cut back just a bit to avoid that 60 to 70 character dead zone.<\/p>\n

3. 8:00 p.m. to midnight is the prime time to send your email<\/h2>\n

While many a quality email may be built during business hours, the ones with the best open rates aren\u2019t being sent from 9 to 5. The top email strategy is to send at night.<\/p>\n

In their quarterly email report for 2012\u2019s fourth quarter, Experian Marketing Services found that the time of day that received the best open rate was 8:00 p.m. to midnight. This block not only performed better for open rate (a respectable 22 percent) but also for clickthrough and sales.<\/p>\n

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The chart above shows that the 8:00 to midnight window is also the least used\u2014a key factor in helping those late night emails outperform the rest. From Experian:<\/p>\n

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Optimal mailing time often depends upon your customers\u2019 behaviors, inbox crowding, and the deployment times of other marketers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inbox crowding and the deployment times of other marketers go hand-in-hand; if your email goes out when few others do, it stands a greater chance of getting noticed (so quick, start sending between 8:00 and midnight before everyone else catches on).<\/p>\n

Optimal mailing for your customers\u2019 needs will be up to you. Test, test, and test some more to find out how your customer ticks and when he\/she opens email.<\/p>\n

4. The best content is free content: Give something away<\/h2>\n

Consumers love a free lunch\u2014or a free template.<\/p>\n

In a study on their email list of 6,300 subscribers, Bluewire Media tested various types of content to see what led to the highest rates for opens and clicks. The winner was templates and tools, just the kind of freebies that email readers want.<\/p>\n

Here is a freebie example from Help Scout:<\/p>\n

\"email
Many a consumer will ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d When it comes to resources, Bluewire Media\u2019s test results say that templates and tools outweigh ebooks, expert interviews, brain teasers, and even photo albums. You will want to test with your own list, but certainly use Bluewire\u2019s research as a head start.<\/p>\n

5. Mobile opens accounts for 47 percent of all email opens<\/h2>\n

Mobile opens accounted for 47 percent of all email opens in June, according to numbers provided by email marketing firm Litmus. If your email list accounts for $100,000 in sales each month, could you afford to wave bye-bye to $44,000 just because your email looks funky on a mobile phone?<\/p>\n

Design responsively to ensure that your email looks great no matter where it\u2019s read. Here are some quick mobile design tips:<\/p>\n