How to Increase the Conversion Rates of Your Email Campaigns in 5 Steps

It's easy to be obsessed with other email marketing metrics such as open rate and clicks. There's no doubt these can help bring sales. But of all metrics, conversion should stay on top of your list simply because it turns your subscribers into profitable customers.

For the record, email has a median ROI of 122%. That’s over 4 times higher than other marketing strategies including direct mail, social media, and paid search. It only makes sense to make your email campaigns conversion-focused to guarantee higher revenues to your business.

If you are struggling to convert your subscribers into paying customers, there may be things you need to work on to refine your strategy. Read on to know the practical ways you do to boost the conversion rates of your email marketing campaigns.

1) Start with Your Landing Page

While your email encourages subscribers to convert, your landing page is crucial to the process. It’s a big turn off when subscribers click on your CTA only to find an irrelevant landing page or a generic homepage.

This is basic but a lot of email marketers tend to forget this. Be sure that you are driving subscribers to a landing page they expect to reduce the friction and avoid driving them away. If your email promotes a certain product (for instance, a pair of shoes), the link in your CTA must take them to a landing page that lets them buy that item.

Your landing page design also matters. Try not to confuse your visitors with too much messages and information. Keep it focused on conversion by encouraging them to take only one action, which is to make a purchase or send an inquiry.

2) Use Double Opt-In

Double opt-in could mean an additional step in the subscription process, but it has its own benefits. First, it makes sure that the email address you add to your list is valid and that a subscriber is a real person. This can reduce the chance of getting high bounces or low deliverability.

Also, asking subscribers to confirm their subscription increases their engagement and commitment. Therefore, you are guaranteed that they are interested in receiving your emails. Using double opt-in is also a great opportunity to introduce your business and make a good impression as you tell subscribers about who you are and what you can offer.

3) Optimize Your Campaigns for Mobile

Almost everyone is on mobile now. In fact, 55% of emails are opened on a mobile device, which means that email campaigns that are not mobile optimized are failing to communicate appropriately with a big chunk of their target audience.

To optimize your email campaigns on mobile in your marketing automation software, start with a short subject line. Ideally, it should have 30 – 35 characters only. Love your white space to break up text and make your content reader-friendly. Improve readability further with large fonts and a single column layout, which makes your email easy to scroll and skim. Lastly, it’s a must to test your email campaigns on various mobile devices before blasting it to your email list.

4) Personalize Across All Channels

Personalization is a thing now. Customers are defined by their individuality and uniqueness. Bombarding them with content and messages that are not relevant to their needs can be annoying.

Begin your personalization with proper customer segmentation. Group subscribers in email lists based on certain similarities such as location, gender, or past purchases.

Since omnichannel marketing has been proven effective, be sure to target audience based on their past online activities. For instance, a subscriber who visited a certain product page on your website should be getting a Facebook ad about the recently visited product and not a generic ad about your business.

Of course, apply the basics in personalization such as using the first name in subject lines and email content.

5) Use Automated Behavioral Triggers

The best thing about behavioral triggers is that it acts according to the online activities of subscribers. Because relevant emails are automatically sent with immediacy while subscribers are most engaged, the chance of them converting is higher.

You can create as many behavioral triggers as you want in your marketing automation software. Your welcome email is an example which should be part of your playbook. You can also set up a trigger that sends an email to recent customers to upsell or cross-sell based on their purchase history. Those who abandoned a shopping cart can receive a reminder about or an alternative to the items they left.

Increasing conversion rates is not based on luck. There’s a formula you can follow for higher conversions and bigger sales revenues. Give time to refine and test your email campaigns to spot the points you should improve on. A short time you dedicate to this is nothing compared to the number of conversions that await you.

Author Bio:

Kimberly Maceda is a Content Writer for ActiveTrail. She writes for some top online marketing sites and blogging advice on email marketing and marketing automation. Activetrail is a leading provider of professional-grade email marketing and automation software for growing businesses.