Have you noticed you’re not getting a very high click-through rate on the links inside your emails?
Or maybe you’re not even getting a very high open rate.
We’ve all been there…
Here’s a list of things to troubleshoot:
1. Poor Subject Line
The subject line is the very first thing a reader will see as they’re scrolling through their crowded inbox.
You have 3-4 seconds to grab the reader’s attention because that is how quickly they scan through their inbox and decide what looks interesting to them.
If it is not eye-catching, if it does not speak to a pain point, if it does not make sense, or even if it is too long, they will not bother to open it.
The subject line should seize their attention, it must say, “Hey, I can benefit you!”
Be careful using unnecessary punctuation or all caps, this can get your work of art thrown in the spam box.
2. Audience Confusion
Think about who your target audience is, who are you speaking to?
Be sure to segment your email list accordingly and take a look at how their behavioral patterns play out.
Once you find the behavioral pattern, you can then figure out which tone works best with each audience.
3. Lack of Testing
If you have a pretty good sized email list, you should use “A/B Testing”.
This is where you take one email with one subject, and you take the same email except with an optimized subject line, and divide your email list.
Sending one version of the email to half of your list, and the optimized version to the other half of your list.
You then wait a good amount of time (depending on email list size) and see which subject line received more opens.
However, you should be careful when testing, do not stop testing when you first see results.
Always plan out and schedule a test, do not end the test until a set date, otherwise, you may get false results.
4. Confusing Content
Once you’ve gotten past fixing the subject line, it’s time to talk about the actual email itself.
The very first few sentences, or paragraph, is going to either keep the reader’s attention… or lose it.
Make sure you are clear as to what is in the email, while also appealing to emotion.
For example, show the reader that you are human too, let the email flow as if you were having a conversation with an old friend.
A good way to be sure your email looks friendly is to read it aloud to yourself.
Ask yourself, “does this flow?”, “would I speak this way if I were talking to a friend?”.
5. Bad Links
There’s nothing worse than catching the readers attention, getting them excited about what knowledge they’re going to gain or what problem they’re going to solve, only to send them to a 404 page.
Bad links are very bad news, and what’s worse is that the reader not only loses interest in the topic that quickly, but they also lose some trust in your brand.
Always send yourself a test copy of the email before it is broadcasted, make sure all the links are in tip-top shape, and click through to the correct landing page.
6. Too much text
To be frank… attention spans are growing smaller.
No one wants to open an email and find a 10-page essay for them to read.
Your readers should be able to digest an email quickly and smoothly.
Avoid big paragraphs, break up the text into short and precise sentences.
Bold the keywords and important points to make it a more enjoyable read.
Troubleshoot these tips and let me know which ones work for you in the comments below!