Conversion is the ultimate goal of any email marketing campaign. But what makes certain emails convert while others die on the vine? Let’s break it down and look at five variables that affect email conversion rate.
1. Are your emails being delivered?
If your emails aren’t reaching their intended recipient, there’s no hope of boosting your email conversion rate. Metrics to consider here include:
- Email deliverability: Percentage of emails that actually reached a recipient’s inbox.
- Bounce rate: Number of emails that were rejected or “bounced” by the recipient’s server.
To keep deliverability high and bounce rates low, you must perform routine data cleaning and list maintenance. Data cleaning will remove malformed emails, duplicate records and potential spam risk from your database. Opt-outs and hard bounces may need to be removed list manually.
2. Are your emails being opened?
Before you can boost your email conversion rate, you have to get people to open your emails. You can do this by using a sender name and email address that recipients know and trust.
Email subject lines also play a huge role in determining your open rate. If your topics aren’t eye-catching or don’t present a clear, relevant value proposition, recipients will scroll on by. Keep subject lines 30-50 characters and focus on giving recipients and reason to open the email.
3. Is your content relevant?
The perfect subject line means nothing if your content doesn’t deliver. To boost your email conversion rate, you need to send targeted, personalized messages. But before you can do that, you need to segment your email list.
Creating buyer personas to represent each segment of your list is a great place to start. Knowing who your recipients are in terms of demographics, interests and position in the buying cycle makes it easier to create valuable, nurturing content that will increase your email conversion rate.
4. Are you generating click-throughs?
Whether you’re asking recipients to download content or sign up for a demo, your CTA should be a natural continuation of your email conversation – the next logical step.
CTA buttons can help boost your email conversion rate. They’re eye-catching and easier to click than hyperlinked text. Just be sure your CTA is clear in its intention. Don’t just say “click here,” say “download your free white paper.” Let them know exactly what they’re getting into.
5. Are your landing pages effective?
Maybe the question should be, “Are you using landing pages?” If you’re dropping people on to your home page and hoping for the best, your email conversion rate will suffer.
Create dedicated landing pages as a continuation of your email campaigns, keeping branding, voice and message consistent. An effective landing page should let prospects know they’re in the right place and make their next move obvious and easy to execute.
Bonus Tip
Our email lead generation software can help boost your email conversion rate by ensuring that your campaigns are deliverable and CAN-SPAM compliant. To learn more, sign up for a free demo.
