6 Hot Tips To Increase Your Email Open Rates

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach people. Why? It’s less intrusive than an unannounced text or call, is easy to scale, and allows you to be more thoughtful and informative with the content you provide. However, email marketing doesn’t automatically just work because people sign up for it or somehow made it on your email list. No, no no…you actually need to put a lot of thought into a content strategy to make sure that your message gets delivered, read and is actionable. Here’s a handful of tips for you to get the most out of your email strategy.

1. Ensure Your Emails Hit Primary Inboxes

One way to ensure email delivery is by using a tool to see if it’s probable that your emails will make it into people’s primary inbox, and not a secondary filter or SPAM folder. Something as simple as putting the word “Free” or “cash” in your subject line could trigger a spam filter which will dramatically decrease the chances that people will actually see your email at all. Use tools like Mail Tester to check deliverability before sending out any campaign. This tool will flag the things that might be red flags for you so that you can change them before your email goes out.

2. Check to Make Sure Your Domain isn’t Blacklisted

If you’ve been sending a lot of unsolicited emails or people are telling you that your emails have been going into their spam folder, you may have been blacklisted. A blacklist is basically a list of blocked website domains, email addresses or IP addresses. This can happen if your email is being marked as SPAM by many people, and subsequently, your whole domain can get pretty screwed. Meaning, not just your email address, but your entire team’s and anyone else who has a company domain email. Because when a domain gets on one of these lists, email servers that use these blacklists (the major ones do, like Microsoft’s Outlook, Gmail, etc.) will block emails being delivered from the blacklisted domain. So if you’re on one of these lists, that’s a no go. You’ll need to work to try and get yourself removed from the blacklists ASAP!

Check to see if you’ve been blacklisted by any servers with MXtoolbox. They can also help you try and remove your domain from a blacklist if you find that you have managed to get on one or two. But warning, getting off of these lists is NOT an easy feat.

3. Segment Your Lists

One of the biggest email marketing mistakes people make is not segmenting their email lists. This can be really problematic because it means that you might not be reaching the right people with the right message, which can hurt both engagement and deliverability rates! One way around this problem is by segmenting lists into groups based on interests or behaviors, industries, product interest, etc. and customizing emails for each segment. This gives you a better chance of reaching all your subscribers with the perfect message that will resonate and make a better impact on conversions.

There are a lot of super sophisticated ways to automate this list segmentation, but to get you started at the most basic level, you can have your customers or prospective customers self-select into these segments with a drop down in and of your website form-fills. Asking something as simple as what are you most interested in? And having them select which categories resonate with them best. With many of the most popular email platforms such as Mailchimp, Active Campaign, Constant Contact, Hubspot, etc., you’ll be able to create a workflow that funnels your contacts into the right audience segment automatically.

4. Incorporate Plain-Text Emails Into Your Strategy

Many companies are now moving away from heavily designed campaigns in favor of ones based purely in text format (a trend called “text only” or “plain-text”). The idea behind this simplicity-first movement is that we’ve reached an era where most devices support email reading without images – phones, tablets, desktops and laptops alike. So they don’t always load images. By focusing less on always having every email have graphics and imagery and more on punchy text that gets your point across, many are seeing this improves deliverability and are getting positive feedback that the emails seem more authentic! Plain-text, or plainly designed emails, can help you establish a better, more genuine connection with your contacts. So try to mix this in a bit!

5. Write the Right Subject Line

Choose a meaningful subject line which reflects the content of the email in a succinct enough way so people will know what’s inside without having to open it up… or don’t. Actually, there is data that says being pretty vague COULD also be helpful for open rates. In fact, subject lines such as simply “Hey.” have proven to perform strangely well! The bottom line, you’re going to want to try a variety of things; from descriptive to vague and catchy. You’ll want something that will pique their interest enough to take that initial step of opening your email. 

One thing to be aware of, there are certain character limits for subject lines depending upon one’s device or app they are reading the email from, and ideally you want to have less characters so the subject lines do not get cut off. The subject line is the most critical component of an email because if it isn’t catchy and relevant to your segment, then hello trash can! Make people WANT to open your emails.

6. Choose the Correct Time of Day

Choose the time of day that your contacts are most likely to read emails, even if it might be different during work hours and after work. Select a time when they’re more likely to have downtime or not be as busy so there’s a higher chance they’ll open it up in those instances.

Consider the persona and what their day-to-day looks like. Is this email hitting first time moms, dentists, or CEOs? Each will have very different average patterns for when they will most likely be reading their emails. You can even leverage many native tools that come with email platforms like HubSpot and Mailchimp that you can enable to only send to your contacts at the optimal days of times based on their past open patterns.

Nailing Email Marketing Sounds Easy…But it Aint!

Email marketing can be far more nuanced than what most people believe it to be. There are so many things to consider in order to get the most out of your email campaigns, but being equipped with the right information and advice can go a long way to increasing your overall performance. If you need a helping hand, or just want to scale your marketing efforts, you know who to call 😉 – Hint: It’s us. Call Axle Eight.

What is Content Marketing?

The Gist: From blogs and case studies to videos and infographics, content marketing is a unique way to help boost traffic to your site, improve brand awareness, and convert your leads into customers. 

In a nutshell, content marketing is a differentiated approach to marketing that strictly focuses on attracting a clearly identified audience through content that’s valuable, relevant, and consistent in a variety of forms (like videos, blogs, social media posts, etc.). Rather than continually pushing a product or service onto your audience, like you might do with bottom of the funnel advertising, content marketing aims to provide valuable information that your audience could benefit from.

If you are looking to increase sales, save on costs, and bring in more loyal customers, content marketing is the answer. Here’s what you need to know about content marketing and the value it could bring to your business.

Content Marketing Comes in Many Different Forms

The beauty of content marketing is that it can be executed in so many different ways. The playing field is wide open, leaving quite a bit of room for creative freedom! Sometimes the best way to convey information is through video, while other times it’s best portrayed through something like an infographic. 

Here’s a look at some of the different types of content marketing that exist and their uses.

Blogs and Articles

One of the most well-known and popular forms of content marketing are blog articles. Starting a business blog as a part of your content marketing strategy can help to draw organic traffic to your website, convert that traffic into leads, and help you to establish authority with your audience. Creating effective blogs that ultimately lead to increased searchability involves using SEO best practices (like accurate keyword placement, internal/external linking, etc.) while also covering topics that your audience will actually find useful.

Pro Tip: Create a content calendar and stick to it! According to Hubspot, sites that post 16 or more blog posts a month see 3.5x more traffic than those that publish less frequently. (I know, this sounds daunting, but you don’t need to start with that many. It’s feasible to start small with 1/Mo. and continue to build momentum with the right resources!)

Case Studies

A case study is a document or a webpage that allows you to illustrate and explain how you achieved success with one of your customers. Essentially, it gives you the opportunity to showcase the value of your product or service by showing actual proof of its effectiveness with others. There’s nothing like hard-hitting facts to turn cold leads into hot ones! 

A successful case study usually includes:

• An explanation of your customer’s history and the challenges they faced
• The goals your customer wanted to meet
• A step-by-step process of how your company helped the customer
• A detailed analysis of the results (complete with metrics)
• An explanation of the outcome of the case study and how it helped your customer

Pro Tip: Send out surveys to all of your customers. You can use the data collected from these surveys to learn more about your customer base and find the right case study candidate.

White Papers

In addition to blogs and case studies, white papers are also a valuable type of content marketing to consider looking into. A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that represents a problem and provides a solution. It presents an opportunity to educate your audience on a specific issue or topic and explain how your business can help. 

The best white papers typically include a:

• Minimum of six pages that includes graphs, charts, and references
• PDF file format
• Title page, table of contents, executive summary, introduction, education for readers, the solution, how your company used the solution, summary
• Professional design and format

Pro Tip: Use a white paper to highlight the ways in which your product or service is the solution to your customer’s problems. Make it easy for them to get to the bottom of the sales funnel.

Infographics

Infographics are the visual and graphic portrayals of information — think graphs, charts, and flyers. When there is a lot of or more complicated information to digest, an infographic visualizes it,  making it easier to understand. In fact, according to research from the Search Engine Journal, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making infographics an invaluable resource. 

Pro Tip: The more your infographic is shared, the higher the chance it has to gain traffic. So, give your audience a simple way to share it themselves! You can do this by including shareable links to different social media platforms. 

If you need help brainstorming and designing a compelling infographic, Axle Eight can help. With experience in creating infographics and an eye for design, they can ensure that you get your message across in a visually-pleasing way.

Video

Videos are a form of content marketing that have risen in popularity over the years and have no signs of slowing down. In fact, Cisco Visual Networking Index predicted that video traffic will account for 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2022. And boy were they right. This means that if you’re not using video in your content marketing strategy, you may be missing out on crucial opportunities. 

 

Pro Tip: Instead of focusing so much on your brand or sales, tell a story with your videos. Viewers will better understand what your business has to offer them through relatable storytelling.

Landing Pages

A landing page is a standalone web page created for a promotion or marketing strategy. It’s where visitors will be sent if they click on a link in an email or an ad. Unlike a homepage, your landing page is near the bottom of the sales funnel, it’s the place to drive a hard sell and get your audience to commit. With a clear goal to increase conversions, landing pages are designed with a clear call-to-action (CTA).

There are generally two types of landing pages:

1. Lead generation: this landing page uses a form as a CTA. It is used to collect data (i.e. names, email addresses) of potential customers that can be used to build a lead list.  
2. Clickthrough: this landing page is typically used by e-commerce or SaaS businesses that present a button as a CTA and will take potential customers straight to a sales or subscription page. 

 

Pro Tip: Fewer links on your landing page increases conversions, so provide as little as one link on your landing page so as not to divert attention from the CTA.  

Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is a valuable incentive that businesses offer to potential customers in exchange for their contact information. The incentive could be anything from a discount to an ebook. This gives companies the opportunity to further promote their products or services by adding prospect customers to their mailing lists. 

Typically, lead magnets are created, posted to a website to collect contact information from interested individuals, and those people are then added to a distribution list to receive any future communication from the business.

 

Pro Tip: Consider making the incentive for your lead magnet free, such as an eBook, tutorial, or even a credit to be used on your site. This is referred to as the Zero-Price Effect, as more people are likely willing to hand over their information for something free.

How Axle Eight Can Help

Content marketing is an imperative piece to any marketing strategy. With so many different directions you can go in, it may be difficult to figure out where to even start! Let alone, how to ensure it’s executed efficiently and is results-driven. With years of experience in content marketing of all kinds, Axle Eight can lend a hand!…or a lot of hands…

Axle Eight is a boutique digital marketing agency that offers a custom experience to every client, without requiring a long-term contract. Whether you are looking to get the most out of your blog, need an infographic, or want to completely overhaul your paid advertising efforts, we’ve got you covered. 

 

Ready to bring in more business with content marketing that performs?

 

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