The purpose of this article is to look at the how we can create emails that convert whilst on the go, in the bathroom or in bed. Sometimes it is easy to forget an email which you spent days creating can be simply ignored or deleted because of a football match or the constant message notifications being delivered.
Before we look at strategies to get the conversion on a mobile device it would be beneficial to state some facts on email marketing.
Facts on email marketing:
- Email remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media—nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined (McKinsey).
- Email has an average ROI of $44 for each $1 spent (CampaignMonitor)
- 75% of all Gmail users access their emails from a mobile device (TechCrunch).
- About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices. (Campaign Monitor)
- One out of every three clicks within an email occurs on a mobile device. (Campaign Monitor)
- 57% save the email for later and 48% bear the information in mind for later. 47% go to the website via another route (#EMD17)
Adobe surveyed more than 400 US-based white collar workers, 18 and older, about their use of email and this is what they discovered:
70% of those surveyed checked emails whilst in front of the TV, 18% whilst driving and 42% whilst in the bathroom; it would be fair to say customers may not be fully focused on your emails.
How to Create Emails that Generate Attention
Attention grabbing subject lines
Did you know that just under half of email recipients open emails based only on the subject line ? This shows the power a subject line can have, it can make or break your email marketing campaign.
Some simple tricks to get someone to open your email.
- Keep it short and sweet. Make it easier for your customer to understand what they will receive if they open your email.
- Ask a question. Questions create curiosity, and curiosity can lead to engagement.
- Make it personal. If the subject is relevant to the person reading the email it will grab their attention.
- Surprise. A surprise grabs a person attention and interest.
- Avoid spam words where possible. Spam words include buy, save, help, % off. To learn about spam word I recommend reading this article.
- Test subject lines. Your customers are the best judge of what works and what does not. Test different subject and measure which results in the highest open rate.
Attention grabbing content
Once you got someone to open your email the next step is to ensure that they engage with your content. Here are some tips on achieving this.
- Headings should contain two to more of the following characteristics: be unique, specific, useful and convey a sense of urgency. With being unique it should stand out from the other emails in their Inbox. With urgency, It should include something that compels the reader to continue reading. The sense of the possibility of losing out can be sufficient to keep the reader engaged.
- Useful: if your content is identifiable as relevant it will read, kept and even forwarded or shared. To understand what is useful survey your readers.
- Personalise. Personalisation from a user perspective includes giving the user the choice on how often they receive your emails and what the email should contain. From m-commerce perspective, it means delivering content based upon the reader interaction with your m-commerce platform. Using your mobile/web analytics and ERP you can develop an understanding of their order history, what categories and products they have looked at, what items are in their basket. With this information, you can develop emails which relevant and personal to the user.
- Be brief and concise, less is more.
- Use white space to focus attention.
- Use colour to draw attention to what is important.
- Have a clear call to action and ensure it is above the fold. Repeat the call to action before the footer of the email.
- Communicate your value proposition. What makes your offer unique?
Getting the timing right
Sending an email at the right time can lead to a higher probability of a sale. The opposite is also true. Should you send an email before work? At lunch time? In the evening? During the weekends? Below is a tongue in cheek response to the question by Silverpop know known as IBM Watson Campaign Automation.
To answer the question to boils down to two elements. What does your data tell you? And what have you tried? Using your analytics what day and when do you have the highest sales volume? When do you have the most visitors to your app/website? This will give you a picture of when customers are most likely to purchase.
Have you tried sending at different times of day and different days of the week? If not set up a test. If you have tested in the past, test again.
Remember every industry is different and every website is different.
Tying email to m-commerce
An email will grab someone attention and if it relevant they are likely to visit your landing/product page.
Here are some tips to take someone from the click on the email to the final purchase.
- Loading times is king, especially on a mobile network. Look at the speed at which the landing page loads and the time it takes to take payment. To improve the speed performance look at using a CDNs, ensure images sizes are optimal, removing unnecessary images and code, try minification of HTML on live servers and reduce the number of steps it takes to make a purchase.
- Be consistent. Use the same images, same facts between email and landing page. Confusion leads to doubt and doubts lowers the chance of a sale.
- Make sure your value proposition is not only consistent with the email it is clear and visible on your product page/landing page.
- Where possible ensure all relevant information (such as sizes, colour, warranties, guarantees, FAQs or any USPs) are easily accessible on or from the product page. If a customer has a doubt or a question that is not answered it will impact the likelihood of a sale.
- Provide credibility, be that customer feedback, independent reviews or guarantees of security/data protection.
- Create a sense of urgency or scarcity. If an offer is limited by time or quantity this may induce a person to make a decision to buy and not delay any further.
- If are there any special offers make sure they work and it is clear and simple for the customer to use. Consider auto applying the discount so that is one less thing the customer has to remember to do.
- Allow guest logins, Paypal or Amazon Pay to speed up the checkout process.
- Can you find a way to allow the customer to save the item to buy later?
- If it the item is out of stock offer an alternative.
- Offer an upsell and a down sell of the product but ensure the decision is easy to make. If someone cannot distinguish and decide which version of the product to buy you may lose the sale.
Email and Retargeting
If you already using retracking on your website have you ever considered incorporating your email offers into your retargeting banners?
A simple update could see your email offer follow your customers over the Internet and Social Media.
Email and Facebook Marketing
Have you considered using custom audiences on Facebook to amplify your email campaign? Facebook gives you the ability to import your email database which then matches the email addresses against its own database. In my experience, I have seen Facebook identify over 65% of the email addresses you import. You can then use Facebook advertising to target these customers with your email offer.
I hope you found this article useful if you could share it that would be fantastic. Every tweet, every post and every link helps 🙂
