The following is a blog post originally published by EIM Senior Copywriter Mike Phillips, on his own blog. We loved his email marketing tips and now share them with you, our Envisoinit community.
“How do I increase my email open rates and click rates?” That’s a common question of marketers and business owners. As a professional copywriter and marketer, I have some ideas I can share that might help.
I’m also the owner and writer of Windy City Weekly, a weekly email newsletter with Chicago news, restaurant recommendations, things to do for the week, and a few other weekly highlights. To date, my open rate hovers around 42%, and my click rate is about 58%—far above the media/publishing industry standards of about 19% and 22%, according to Constant Contact.
How do I do it?
Outside of standard advice (write compelling headlines and content, and provide value), here are five ways I’m getting big open and click rates with email:
- Write clearly, and concisely. It’s a privilege to be invited to the user’s inbox. Everyone is busy and distracted online, so it’s important to be direct and clear, and to not waste the user’s time. Get the message across that you need to, while removing everything that’s not absolutely necessary. Over time, your subscribers will be conditioned to know that they can open, read, and click within your email without a big time commitment.
- Remove distractions. It’s a fairly simple formula. The less distractions, the more likely a recipient will click on what you want them to click. Images are a good way to draw attention to a particular link but too many of them, and the recipient will lose focus. Gaudy banners? Forget about it. Varying fonts and type sizes are distracting, too. Keep your content as clean, simple, and consistent as you can so that users can quickly hone in on what you want them to click.
