5 Secrets to Saving Your Insurance Marketing Email From the "Delete" Bin
Secret 1: Don't hide your identity
Many novice email marketers make the mistake of thinking that they can get higher open rates by personalizing an email with the recipient's name in the subject line. They're half right and totally wrong. That tactic is widely recognized as a spammer's trick. However, personalization does help - but from a different angle. You need to personalize your marketing emails with your identity.
To improve your open rates, make sure that you clearly identity yourself and/or your company in the header: Your "From" line should be from a person. If you're sending emails from your http://www.videlligencereview.com email account, you might as well be sending it from trying-to-steal-your-money @ flybynight.com. By clearly identifying yourself in your email address, you help build trust. Your "Subject" line should start with your company name. Identify your company or business name in your subject line. If you have a long company name, use your acronym or main name. When you hide your identity, most email recipients instinctively get suspicious. But the reverse is true when you're up front with your identity. So, if you aren't doing it already, set up a full-name email address (such as http://www.videlligencereview.com) and use it as your email marketing persona.
Secret 2: Have an offer
People are on your list because they want to buy your product. One of the main goals of email marketing is to get them to pull the trigger on that purchase. Your challenge is to get them off the fence and to finally make a buying decision. So how do you that? The answer is centuries-old and simple. You need to make them an offer.
Before we go any further, however, I should clarify what I mean by "offer" because we may have two different ideas of what constitutes an offer.
From an email marketing point of view, an "offer" is a proposal to enter into an arrangement - with an expectation of acceptance.
Yes, you can offer a discounted price. But there are other things you can offer:
Free demo - a software tool
Free trial - give them the chance to try it out
Free subscription - to your informative newsletter
Free gift - for taking a poll that will help you better understand your prospects
Whatever offer you decide to use, it has to be loud and proud at the front of your subject line. And by the way, subject length doesn't matter. Your subject line can be 35 or 95 characters long. What matters is whether or not you put that offer at the front of your subject.
Secret 3: Focus on relevancy
Successful email marketing is built on a foundation of relevancy. You'll always get higher open and conversion rates when your email message is relevant to your audience. If you're selling apples and the people who signed up for your mailing list love apples, they probably don't want to hear you talking about mortgage loans or used cars. They want to read about apples.
Similarly, if you're emailing to a list that consists of health insurance leads you received, your prospects probably won't find emails about car insurance or business liability very relevant. They want to learn how to choose the best health insurance coverage, get the lowest health insurance premiums and avoid potential coverage pitfalls. To increase open rates, your subject line must offer this relevancy. And to increase your click-through and conversion rates, your email message must then deliver it.
Secret 4: Test before you blast
"If your mother tells you she 'loves you,' verify it." That's an old motto among investigative reporters. It's a funny way of saying that you need to avoid assuming too many things in business. That same principle holds true for email marketing. Top email marketers have discovered that one of the best ways to quickly increase results is by testing the email before you send out the full email blast. Email testing requires setting aside a small percentage of your mailing list. Depending on the size of your email database, you may want to set aside two percent (2%) to ten percent (10%) of your list.
Next, you further divide that test sample into two groups: test group A and test group B. With the most basic email test, you then prepare two (2) versions of your email and send one to group A and the other to group B. Then you track the results. Whichever email produces better results is the one that you send to the large group. But you need to have clear and simple goals when you do your tests. For example, you can test two different subject lines to see which ones produce better open rates. Or you can have the same subject line, but use it for two slightly different email copies. You can then see which email produces more click-throughs and closings. Advanced email marketers actually use enterprise email systems that automatically segment mailing lists and run multi-variable tests. If you're just starting out, however, it's best to keep it simple. You also need to have a large-enough mailing list to make this work. If your mailing list is under 1,000, your test samples will probably be too small to generate reliable results.
Secret 5: Don't get hung up on open rates
Open rates are important, but they don't matter as much as click-through and conversion rates. You can have an email with high open rates but very poor click-through rates. But you're often better off with an email with lower open rates but very high click-through rates.
High open rates mean that they'll take a look at your email. High click-through rates means that they're now ready to take the next step toward a purchase. The bottom line is that you need a good subject line to get prospects to open your email. But you need a well-crafted marketing message to get your prospects moving toward a purchase. A good email marketing system will track both open rates and click-through rates. Successful email marketers understand that your focus needs to be on click-throughs... because those are your serious prospects.
Many novice email marketers make the mistake of thinking that they can get higher open rates by personalizing an email with the recipient's name in the subject line. They're half right and totally wrong. That tactic is widely recognized as a spammer's trick. However, personalization does help - but from a different angle. You need to personalize your marketing emails with your identity.
To improve your open rates, make sure that you clearly identity yourself and/or your company in the header: Your "From" line should be from a person. If you're sending emails from your http://www.videlligencereview.com email account, you might as well be sending it from trying-to-steal-your-money @ flybynight.com. By clearly identifying yourself in your email address, you help build trust. Your "Subject" line should start with your company name. Identify your company or business name in your subject line. If you have a long company name, use your acronym or main name. When you hide your identity, most email recipients instinctively get suspicious. But the reverse is true when you're up front with your identity. So, if you aren't doing it already, set up a full-name email address (such as http://www.videlligencereview.com) and use it as your email marketing persona.
Secret 2: Have an offer
People are on your list because they want to buy your product. One of the main goals of email marketing is to get them to pull the trigger on that purchase. Your challenge is to get them off the fence and to finally make a buying decision. So how do you that? The answer is centuries-old and simple. You need to make them an offer.
Before we go any further, however, I should clarify what I mean by "offer" because we may have two different ideas of what constitutes an offer.
From an email marketing point of view, an "offer" is a proposal to enter into an arrangement - with an expectation of acceptance.
Yes, you can offer a discounted price. But there are other things you can offer:
Free demo - a software tool
Free trial - give them the chance to try it out
Free subscription - to your informative newsletter
Free gift - for taking a poll that will help you better understand your prospects
Whatever offer you decide to use, it has to be loud and proud at the front of your subject line. And by the way, subject length doesn't matter. Your subject line can be 35 or 95 characters long. What matters is whether or not you put that offer at the front of your subject.
Secret 3: Focus on relevancy
Successful email marketing is built on a foundation of relevancy. You'll always get higher open and conversion rates when your email message is relevant to your audience. If you're selling apples and the people who signed up for your mailing list love apples, they probably don't want to hear you talking about mortgage loans or used cars. They want to read about apples.
Similarly, if you're emailing to a list that consists of health insurance leads you received, your prospects probably won't find emails about car insurance or business liability very relevant. They want to learn how to choose the best health insurance coverage, get the lowest health insurance premiums and avoid potential coverage pitfalls. To increase open rates, your subject line must offer this relevancy. And to increase your click-through and conversion rates, your email message must then deliver it.
Secret 4: Test before you blast
"If your mother tells you she 'loves you,' verify it." That's an old motto among investigative reporters. It's a funny way of saying that you need to avoid assuming too many things in business. That same principle holds true for email marketing. Top email marketers have discovered that one of the best ways to quickly increase results is by testing the email before you send out the full email blast. Email testing requires setting aside a small percentage of your mailing list. Depending on the size of your email database, you may want to set aside two percent (2%) to ten percent (10%) of your list.
Next, you further divide that test sample into two groups: test group A and test group B. With the most basic email test, you then prepare two (2) versions of your email and send one to group A and the other to group B. Then you track the results. Whichever email produces better results is the one that you send to the large group. But you need to have clear and simple goals when you do your tests. For example, you can test two different subject lines to see which ones produce better open rates. Or you can have the same subject line, but use it for two slightly different email copies. You can then see which email produces more click-throughs and closings. Advanced email marketers actually use enterprise email systems that automatically segment mailing lists and run multi-variable tests. If you're just starting out, however, it's best to keep it simple. You also need to have a large-enough mailing list to make this work. If your mailing list is under 1,000, your test samples will probably be too small to generate reliable results.
Secret 5: Don't get hung up on open rates
Open rates are important, but they don't matter as much as click-through and conversion rates. You can have an email with high open rates but very poor click-through rates. But you're often better off with an email with lower open rates but very high click-through rates.
High open rates mean that they'll take a look at your email. High click-through rates means that they're now ready to take the next step toward a purchase. The bottom line is that you need a good subject line to get prospects to open your email. But you need a well-crafted marketing message to get your prospects moving toward a purchase. A good email marketing system will track both open rates and click-through rates. Successful email marketers understand that your focus needs to be on click-throughs... because those are your serious prospects.
This article will be really helpful for me being a newbie. Thanks for your sharing information.
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