10 Ways To Get Customers to Actually Read your Emails

You can send out all the emails you want, but how do you ensure that the email marketing inspires the customer to open, read and act?

1. Know your Audience

Who makes up your email contact list? Do they share a common age group, race, hobby or interest? You know your business best; who are you successfully targeting? Customize your emails to your target market.

For example, if your target market consists of people over the age of 50, you might consider using classic, nostalgic images instead of flashy, sometimes overwhelming images that millennials gravitate to.

2. Observe Competitors

Sign up for some of your competitor’s email lists. See what they are doing to draw in their customers. Observe what they could do differently.

Analyze your initial reactions to the emails. Note what causes you to open up and read the emails and what causes you to delete them without reading them.

3. Develop Your Marketing Strategy

Take the information you have learned from applying the 2 tips above and create a marketing strategy. Remember, you can’t please everyone at once; focus on your target market.

To develop a marketing strategy, focus on the current situation of your company, and your goals and your objectives to improve your current situation. Your goals and objectives could be to increase revenue, strengthen customer relations, create awareness, etc. Come up with marketing tactics you will use based on your goals.

4. Create Your Message

The key is to think like your customer. Keep the tone to your email personal and casual. Write in a conversational tone. Your customers want to see humanity behind the corporate face.

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Keep it simple. Customers don’t want to read long emails. The frequency of your emails should negatively correlate with the length of your emails. In other words, if you want to contact your customers daily, keep it short to avoid the risk of the customer unsubscribing from future emails. If you only email your customers weekly, or even monthly, you can get away with adding more content to your emails.

5. Build a Relationship with your Customers

Customers respond positively to messages sent from the same customer service representative overtime. Customers will feel more comfortable asking questions and even purchasing through a representative they have come to know.

6. Create Intriguing Subject Lines

Customers will only open emails that are relevant to them. Intrigue your customers by providing a clear benefit in your email subject line. Avoid ambiguous phrases that can be easily skimmed over. Create a specific line that will catch your customer’s attention.

Cautions:

Avoid using the word “FREE” in your subject line. This word (especially in all caps) has been overused by many spammers and can arouse suspicion in your customers.

Be Honest. Do not use misleading lines to simply get customers to open your emails or click on links. This is an immediate turn off to your customers and will undoubtedly cause a number of unsubscribers.

7. Personalize Your Emails

Include the customer’s first name in your emails. This not only draws your customer’s attention, but it also helps to avoid spam filters.

Ensure that your emails appeal to your customers’ interests. Consider asking your customers what they want to hear about: for example, daily tips, deals and offers, new services, etc.

8. Inspire your Customers to Share

Encourage your customers to forward your emails to friends and colleagues. It can nearly double your message circulation and create new subscribers!

Of course, customers aren’t going to share emails that are ordinary or irrelevant, so apply the tips above to create eye-catching emails!

9. Looks are Everything

Make your emails look appealing to read. Any customer who receives an email with long paragraphs and no visuals is likely to not read it and delete it. Use bullet points if necessary and write very short paragraphs.

Use a simple font that is easy to read and does not distract from your message. Don’t use CAPS or italics; they can be difficult to read.

Include visuals that help your message stand out, not distract from your message. Keep the visual style consistent throughout your emails.

Make sure your email looks good on a test email. And don’t forget to test the looks of the email on a mobile device! 53% of emails are opened on a mobile device. Send and resend test emails to ensure that your emails are appealing to the eye.

10. Measure Your Results

There are many email campaign websites that will send out your emails and track your results. You will be able to see how many people opened the email and how many people clicked on links through the email.

These reports will help you to know whether your message is working or not. For example, If you send out the email and the reports say that there were very little opens, then you know that you should change the message of your subject line.

Analyze the reports. Experiment with your emails. Find out what works and what doesn’t. You will soon find the best email marketing technique for your target market.