Most professionals spend a good chunk of the day in their inbox, which means it’s a great place for your business to be. That being said, the average office worker receives 121 emails every day, but only opens 16 percent of them. And of the opened emails, the average click-through rate on desktop computers is only 13.3 percent.
So how do you break through the clutter and make sure your email stands out? By optimizing your email marketing efforts to get your recipients to open and convert. Here are 9 ways to improve email conversion rates and make potential clients into happy advisees.
1. Personalize the subject line and body copy
Since 2020, personalization has become standard practice. Your clients are demanding it, and it’s an easy way to increase your open rates. In fact, open rates increase by 17 percent when the subject line is personalized. Most email systems allow you to insert variable tags into emails so the customer’s first name is pulled in automatically. Just be sure your data is clean, so your email doesn’t start with a misspelled name.
2. Use sentence case in your subject lines
When sending messages to your friends or colleagues, do you write the subject line in Title Case? Probably not. Experts have seen higher conversion rates when sentence case is used. Doing so erases necessary formality and makes the email look like it’s coming from a human.
3. Keep it short and succinct
More than 70 percent of adults check their emails on their mobile devices, which elongates the message and requires a bit more scrolling. But that isn’t the only reason to keep your emails short. According to Boomerang, emails that contain 50 to 125 words gained a response rate of about 50 percent.
Not only do you want to keep the content within your emails short, but the subject lines should be succinct as well because certain devices will cut off the subject line somewhere between 30 and 50 characters.
4. Optimize your emails for mobile
Because nearly half of all emails are opened on mobile, you need to ensure your email appears cleanly and quickly on mobile devices. Make certain the formatting is optimized for mobile and that images and links are pulling in correctly.
5. Provide data and case studies
We are living in a data-driven world. It’s no longer enough to claim to be the best—you need to prove it with data and case studies in your emails. People want to know exactly how you’ve helped clients in the past, and how your services will provide results for them in the future.
6. Optimize your signature
When sending personal emails—or automated emails that appear to come from a staff member, the email signature is an often underutilized tool. Catch the reader’s attention with a well-designed signature and a tagline that drives home your message. Or include a link that acts as a secondary CTA to a video or event page. And be sure to include links to your social channels to encourage engagement there as well.
7. A/B test everything
So you think you have a great subject line? Now it’s time to test it. A/B testing should be a routine part of every email campaign. It’s a fast and easy way to understand what resonates with your clients and makes them click through to your site.
You can and should A/B test everything from subject lines, buttons, formats, fonts, headlines, and calls to action. Just be sure to test one thing at a time, so you have an understanding of what’s driving the results.
8. Have a clear call to action
It is crucial to always include a call to action in your sales emails, whether you’re asking for a meeting time, a sale, or for your clients to visit your website. Without a clear and concise call to action, your email has nowhere to go but stay in inbox limbo or straight to the trash bin.
9. Segment your email list
If you’re looking to take your email marketing efforts to the next level and improve your email conversion rates, consider segmenting your client email list and creating unique content that is specific to those audiences. Depending on the goal of your email campaign, you can segment lists by where a client is in the sales funnel, customer demographics, past behaviors or all three.
For instance, a 30-year old investor might not be interested in an email about retirement income, but they will be curious to learn about how much they should be saving in their prime earning years.
Ready to put these ideas into practice, create emails that convert, and get more clients? Contact the experts at Peregrine to learn more about how we can set up your email automation efforts and build emails that convert.
You may also download a pdf copy of our 9 ways to improve email conversion rates for your quick reference. Likewise, visit our Resource Center and join our mailing list to get the latest updates from Peregrine Consulting Group.