It’s no longer a secret that small businesses need to leverage email marketing to attract a target audience, build relationships, and sell to them. However, the headache is how to improve email marketing campaigns to boost open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, etc.

270 billion emails are sent daily, and you need to be strategic and creative to make an impact when yours lands in the inbox of your target audience.

Here are six ways you can improve your email marketing campaign as a small business.

1. Write a Short and Compelling Subject Line

People have a shorter attention span than goldfish, so make the subject line of your email short and compelling to get them hooked. For a subscriber to click on your email, the subject line must appeal to them, which impacts your open rate.

Keep your subject line under 50 characters. People hate truncated subject lines because it doesn’t make complete thought.

You can create a sense of urgency by offering a special discount for a limited time, but don’t be too pushy! You need to avoid giving the impression that it’s all about sales all the time. You have to give readers value as well.

2. Test Different Templates

Email marketing software offers different email templates. Test several to determine which one yields the best results.

Some templates may look dull, or be complex and have their call to action (CTA) button where it’s hard to see. This can make your audience hit the back button, which can negatively impact the campaign. 

It’s up to you to monitor and track the performance of the different email templates and decide which moves the needle more.

3. Make Your Emails Mobile Friendly

Many people open their emails on smartphones, and a subscriber who can’t access your emails on their phone may ignore or trash it without batting an eye. That’s a waste of time and resources on your side.

The solution is to leverage email marketing services that are optimized for mobile devices. Some of them allow you to view how your email will appear in your subscriber’s inbox across different devices.

4. Embed Visuals

Visuals like images, emojis, infographics, GIFs, and videos add value to your emails. While some subscribers scan and skip texts, visuals keep them engaged, keep their attention so they get the message of the email, and encourage them to take action.

There are free tools you can use to create visuals for your email marketing campaign. For example, Animaker has a vertical video maker that you can use to create mobile-friendly videos for your email campaigns. 

You also can use Canva to design infographics and photo grids for illustration purposes.

5. Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA)

You defeat the goal of an email campaign if the CTA isn’t clear. Also, you confuse your audience and waste the time and resources you invested in such a campaign. Think of it as reading a convincing review about a product you like, only to spend a lot of time looking for a link to buy it. 

A clear CTA is bold, has a purpose, comes in a clickable button with a bright color, and is positioned towards the end of the email where it can be easily seen. 

6. Ask For Feedback

You won’t know how your campaign impacts your buyer persona until you ask for feedback. After all, email marketing is the communication between a business (email marketer) and a target customer (subscriber).

Sending occasional emails asking for their opinion is a way of inviting them to be part of making your products and services better and more relevant. 

This can be as simple as enabling a one-click poll, which is a feature some email marketing tools support. You also can send a link to a survey form for customers to share their thoughts by ticking the appropriate boxes.

In conclusion, sending thousands of emails doesn’t mean you’re getting value from your campaign. You need to review your email marketing to see where the tips we discussed can help you achieve better results.

Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash