Top 5 Things You Can Do to Optimize Your Email Marketing

1. Improve overall optimization by spending time on strategy: Based on The New Metrics for Email Marketing by Marketo, companies who perform extremely well in email marketing spend more than 3 times the amount of time per month on strategy than the average company. Review and implement the following tips that are easy to adopt and offer you optimal ROI on your email campaigns.

2. Lower your bounce rates by ensuring your data is clean:

Use real-time email validation to prevent bounces.
Scan list for obvious bad email addresses. Provide a way for customers to update their email addresses.
Using direct mail for those recipients whose email addresses have bounced can provide them a chance to update their email, such as a notification saying: “Oops, there was a problem with your email. Please log in and provide an updated email address.”

Note that bounce rates for the average email campaign are 2.1 – 5% and top performers are < 2%.

3. Increase your open rates by:

Targeting your distribution list: a focused distribution that’s well-targeted will increase open rates as recipients are likely to find value in your email.
Being mindful of the “from name.” Your recipients will most likely open and take action if they recognize who the email is from.
Testing your subject lines: you’ve heard it before but the subject line is really the catalyst as to why someone would open your email. Testing subject lines is the best way to really know what style is best for your campaigns.

Note that open rates for the average email campaign are 10 – 15%, with top performers at 16 – 20%.

4. Improve click rates by focusing on your CTA strategy:

When it comes to calls-to-action (CTA), don’t make your audience work to find out what you want them to do. Make your CTAs easy to see using plain and clear language.
Test your CTA by placing it in multiple places within your email. Use images, buttons, and/or links within copy with different anchor text. Even test the color of the CTA button.

Note that click rates for the average email campaign are 2.1 – 5%, while top performers have an average of 5.1 – 10%.

5. Lower unsubscribes: It’s much better for someone to unsubscribe than mark you as spam. So be sure to include the unsubscribe link at the top and footer of your emails. Offer various options to unsubscribe, as some customers may still want to receive your emails, just less often.

Anderson Marketing Blog