Eye-catching title
If the title cannot convince customers that the email has a certain value within 1.54 seconds, then the customer may look down to another email or other page. Therefore, whether it is on TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, search results, web pages, or in your emails, the title is particularly important. In newspapers and websites, it is called a title, and in emails it is called a subject line. The subject line should allow customers to decide whether the email is worth spending time reading within 1.5 seconds. This is the meaning of the first part of WIFM (What’s In It For Me).
If a title catches the customer’s eye, the customer subconsciously invests time in the next part. How much time will the customer spend before deciding to continue reading or turning the page? The answer is 5 seconds. In email marketing, this part is the first line of your email. In the first line of reading, your email should convey a strong WIIFM message to attract the customer’s interest. This should be done in 5 seconds or less. If you succeed in these two parts of IFM transactions, customers will continue to read your emails to fully understand your value proposition and buy your products.
Then there is the issue of conversion. If you have successfully convinced your customers that they can really benefit from it, they will act as the email calls for. In most cases, the main purpose of email is to convert email information into web page clicks, of course, conversion can also be defined as forwarding, registration or simply providing information to customers. Your emails should always maintain or build your trusted network by providing WIIFM. Even if you define conversion as simply providing information, make sure that the value of the information is at least equivalent to the time it takes for customers to obtain it.
2. Segmentation maximizes conversion rate
Since you don’t have much time to attract customers, you can use segmentation. Segmentation is actually dividing the email list into several parts and testing the success of each component of the email through customers. One way is to divide the list into several parts evenly; another way is to randomly sample from the list.
Dividing the list into several equal groups allows you to test your emails more evenly. Consider the following scenario: Let’s say you have a total of 5,000 customers on your email list, and you split them into 5 groups of 1,000 people each. For each group, you carefully craft 5 different subject lines. Now, send your email to all 5 groups of customers. The most important thing is to make sure that the rest of the email is exactly the same. Don’t make any changes. This way you can test the effectiveness of the 5 different subject lines. Wait a week or more (depending on how quickly your customers respond to your email) and then observe the statistics. Whichever subject line has a significantly higher conversion rate, continue to use it; whichever subject line has the lowest conversion rate, stop using it.
The next email list segment should test your first sentence, this time keeping the subject line and the rest of the email the same. Wait for a while and observe the statistics. If you follow these steps, it will take about 6 months to test and perfect your email subject lines, first sentences, calls to action, images, layout, color schemes, and even HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) formatted emails compared to plain text emails.
3. Time targeting maximizes marketing effects
Another important component of email marketing is “time targeting”. Every media must use time targeting to maximize marketing effects. For example, there are prime-time news and nightly news in the news; radio stations have driving time, which is the time when most listeners drive to and from get off work. These two time periods are usually 7:00-9:00 and 16:00-19:00 from Monday to Friday, which are the two time periods with the highest listening rates. The cost of advertising broadcast during driving time is much higher. Can time targeting be performed every month? Do your customers have more savings at the beginning or the end of the month? Can time targeting be applied to certain time periods of the year? Time periods of the year are usually called seasonal cycles. Every company has seasonal cycles. For a construction company, its off-season happens to be the peak season for ski resorts.