{"id":14621,"date":"2014-06-05T08:30:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crazyeggblog.wpengine.com\/?p=14621"},"modified":"2016-10-23T23:04:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T04:04:29","slug":"high-email-open-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazyegg.com\/blog\/high-email-open-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Tactics You Can Implement Today for Higher Email Open Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budget for email marketing is on the rise. In fact, email marketing is one the top three investments in B2B marketing, according to the\u00a0B2B email marketing trends report by CircleResearch.<\/p>\n

But even with that increased budget, a lot of marketers are leaving conversions on the table.<\/p>\n

How? By not targeting customers.<\/p>\n

One size doesn\u2019t fit all and, as we go through this post, you will learn how to treat each customer in a way that\u00a0elicits love and devotion from them. But to to that, you have to know what they want. And to know what they want, you should know how they behave and what makes them tick.<\/p>\n

By collecting data on customer behaviors, you can find out what they\u2019re interested in. Then, you can use this data to send highly targeted emails, which could ultimately lead to more sales.<\/p>\n

Why Email Personalization Matters<\/h2>\n

We love personalized service. It doesn’t matter what type of business you run, personalization can make a difference.<\/p>\n

For instance, by\u00a0personalizing the service they offer, waiters can fetch 23% higher tips<\/a>. And in business, personalization can yield 2% increased revenue<\/a>. (source: Monetate)<\/p>\n

The same applies to email marketing. This report by Experian Marketing Services<\/a> reveals that including personalized product recommendations into transactional emails can generate a 20% increase in revenues.<\/p>\n

\"Email<\/p>\n

In Hubspot\u2019s survey<\/a>, 38% of the survey takers said that they signed up for a company newsletter hoping to receive information that is relevant to them.<\/p>\n

\"Pie<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re worried about data collection for personalization, don’t be.\u00a0A study by Accenture revealed that almost half of the people surveyed were open to data tracking by trusted brands if it meant they would get a personalized shopping experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to get relevant and personal. Let\u2019s dive in to see how personalization can get you more email opens and conversions. In particular, we\u2019re going to look at list segmentation, behavioral targeting and triggered emails.<\/p>\n

How to Personalize Email Marketing<\/h2>\n

Start with the email subject lines<\/h3>\n

The Experian study revealed that personalized mails had a 29% higher open rate and 41% unique click-through rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonalization is much like a matchmaking exercise with the ultimate goal of pinpointing the best product or service from your catalog that best satisfies your customers\u2019 needs,” says Scott Brave of Baynote in his whitepaper, “The Human Need for Personalization: Psychology, Technology and Science.”<\/p>\n

However, according to Scott, that doesn\u2019t mean every individual should be sent unique content. There are smart little ways by which you can send personalized emails with the touch of a few keys.<\/p>\n

When Feedback loop tested two different subject lines, one with the first name of the customer and a friendly tone and another with a generic one here\u2019s what they found.<\/p>\n

\"feedback<\/a><\/p>\n

Mailchimp\u2019s report, based on sending 24 billion emails and studying subject lines with over 20,000 distinct words, reveals some startling findings.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Even though the most common approach in sending mails is using the first name, mails with the last name had a slightly better open rate.<\/li>\n
  2. Mail subject lines with the first and last names had the highest open rates.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Name<\/a>
    \n

    Image Source<\/a><\/center><\/i><\/p>\n

    To send first-name or last-name personalized emails, you can use merge tags like the ones shown below.<\/p>\n

    \"Subject<\/a><\/p>\n

    But that\u2019s not the only way to personalize emails. If you\u2019re using a CRM system, there could be plenty of data that could be there in the database: the date they signed up, conversion event, the phone number, and more. You could potentially use all that data.<\/p>\n

    A few more personalization ideas<\/h3>\n

    Subscribers can see who sent the mail, and that influences them in a huge way. Often, emails have the name of the company as the sender.<\/p>\n

    Including the name of a real person is one way to\u00a0personalize the\u00a0email. But an even better\u00a0way to\u00a0do that would\u00a0be to\u00a0include a\u00a0personal name along with the company name.<\/p>\n

    Hubspot carried out a test to see if emails sent by a real person work better. While the control generated a .73% CTR the treatment got a .96% CTR.<\/p>\n

    \"Sender<\/a>
    \n

    Image Source<\/a><\/center><\/i><\/p>\n

    Now let\u2019s dive into list segmentation.<\/p>\n

    Segmenting Lists<\/h2>\n

    You may have already heard of campaigns where segmenting the lists led to sporadic rise in conversions. If not here\u2019s one which brought in 141% additonal revenue<\/a> per campaign. If you need further proof of the value of list segmentation, here\u2019s what a Hubspot study says:<\/p>\n

    \"List<\/a>
    \n

    Image Source<\/center><\/i><\/p>\n

    BustedTees<\/a> used to send all its emails at the same time of the day, but changing it be delivered at 10 a.m. local time\u00a0with\u00a0respect to\u00a0subscriber\u00a0geography\u00a0boosted revenues by 8%. (Here\u2019s a resource that will help you send emails based on customer\u2019s local time.)<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s see one specific example. In the case of Doggyloot<\/a>, email personalization led to a 759% higher CTR. They make use of \u201cdog data\u201d in the CRM system to send personalized emails to dog owners. A new visitor cannot use the site without signing up, and right at that page itself, the list segmentation begins.<\/p>\n

    \"Doggy<\/a><\/p>\n

    Doggyloot has two fields: one that asks about the size of the dog and the other that asks for the email address. Why is this important?<\/p>\n

    In the case of large\u00a0dogs like German Shepherds, a 3-foot duck chew mailer\u00a0would make sense, but it would be insanity sending the same mail to the owner of a\u00a0Chihuahua. The email targeting done for large dog owners works so well, they get a 410% higher CTR than average. It also accounts for 13% of overall revenue.<\/p>\n

    However, it wasn\u2019t always that way. To get the existing database of users submitting information about their dogs, Doggyloot added a new section to customer accounts\u00a0called \u201cMy Dogs,\u201d\u00a0which asked for dog name, breed, size, etc. They even offered a $5 credit to get the owners share the birthdays of their favorite pets.<\/p>\n

    While you can always segment subscribers based on their gender, demographics, sex, job, etc., there are more levels which you can add to segmentation. For example,<\/p>\n

    Segmenting Idea #1: Past Purchases<\/h3>\n

    Send emails to customers based on their past repurchase times. Does it work? It did for one jewelry-making retailer.<\/p>\n

    ArtBeads saw a 208%<\/a> increase in conversion rates for targeted emails. They segmented their lists based on\u00a0what percent of the customers were the large spenders. Emails were sent\u00a0to customers who had made at least one big\u00a0purchase in the last six months. Here\u2019s how they did it.<\/p>\n

    \"email<\/a>
    \n

    Image Source<\/a><\/center><\/i><\/p>\n
      \n
    1. The email was sent by the CEO of the company. That gives the impression that he cares about his customers.<\/li>\n
    2. It includes a picture of him, reinforcing the one-on-one feeling of this email.<\/li>\n
    3. It mentions the customer\u2019s purchase history, making it feel like he\u2019s paying attention to them.<\/li>\n
    4. Wording that adds to the personalization: \u201cthank you personally,\u201d \u201cwe\u2019ve noticed,\u201d and \u201cyour are among a very few select clients.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      To make it more appealing, a 20% discount was added. The result? This campaign had a .71% conversion rate compared to the average of .04%.<\/p>\n

      It seems that people hugely appreciate the gesture of a CEO speaking to them on a first-name basis. And it\u2019s a good example of segmenting and targeting\u00a0based on past purchases.<\/p>\n

      There are two good reasons for targeting customers this way.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. You can send offers to a section of subscribers who are more interested in that offer.<\/li>\n
      2. The email disengagement rates, compared to sending batch and blast emails, are lower.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Segmenting Idea #2: Content topic<\/h3>\n

        Sites like Copyblogger offer eBooks on variety of categories like copywriting, email marketing, marketing, etc. You can always offer different free products to see what makes your customers tick.<\/p>\n

        Segmenting Idea #3: Usage<\/h3>\n

        Some of your readers will be power users who try everything on your site and try all the features of your software.\u00a0 There are others who don\u2019t catch up to the software and tools that easily. Tracking each visitor\u2019s behavior and usage can help you segment them into separate lists.<\/p>\n

        The power users can be sent advanced mailing, while the ones who are struggling can be helped with educational mails. You can further send personalized tracking: which emails were opened by which customers, which ones received higher click through rates, etc. The key is to keep on testing.<\/p>\n

        Now, what services can you use to send segmented emails?<\/p>\n