8 Ideas to Follow to Create High Converting Email Marketing Campaign

With an average of 121 emails received every day, most users don’t click through every email they get. Email subscribers simply skim through their inboxes and delete emails altogether or mark them as spam.

So, how can you come up with a way to stand out from a crowd of competitors? How do you create an email sequence that customers cannot but open? Standing out from the competition is the first step towards a successful email marketing campaign, but it’s really easy to fall behind and end up with another email that goes to junk.

To help you create an email campaign that will bring you a high click-through-rate (CTR) and conversion rate, we’ve gathered a list of the best ideas. If you’re not sure where to start, this article will help you optimize email content for higher conversions.

Optimizing Emails to Increase Conversions

Your website alone can rarely engage leads enough for them to convert into paying customers. Often you'll have an additional channel to re-engage your previous customers and convert new ones. And email is the perfect medium for that.

Continue reading to uncover the top eight ideas for email marketing campaigns that convert. You will learn about the most effective ideas and tips you can implement in your campaign that will help you increase conversions.

1. Use your CTA to guide subscribers

CTAs prove to be very effective in increasing conversion rates. In fact, studies show that emails with a single CTA can increase sales by 371% and sales by 1617%.

Strategic placement of call-to-action (CTA) is paramount for increasing conversions. After all, if you fail to place a CTA, your leads simply won’t know how to convert.  

If you want email subscribers to do something, just ask them with a relevant CTA. The golden rule is to keep your CTA simple and start with an action verb. Words like “Register”, “Buy”, “Order”, and “Start” are standard as they tell your subscribers what they need to do. Alternatively, you can use a less generic phrase, like “Give us a try” instead of “Sign up” and “Get me XYZ” instead of “Buy”.

If you’re aiming to increase engagement and encourage communication between you and email subscribers, avoid using general CTAs, like “Comment”, “Reply”, or “Post”. Instead, use something more encouraging and personal, like “Talk to Us”.

Here is a great example of a relevant CTA by HBO Now.

2. Consider the timing and messaging

A conversion requires you to make subscribers read the email and click on the call-to-action. To achieve this, you need to send your emails at the right time with the right messaging concerning the current stage of a customer journey.

The secret ingredient to finding the right messaging at the right time is to know what triggers are relevant and what information is relevant. After all, 70% of millennials are frustrated with brands sending irrelevant information. So, it’s important that you share information relevant and interesting to your audience members.

Send out email campaigns to your customers and prospects based on pre-defined triggers. These triggers can be identified according to different attributes, including:

• The average order value
• The recipient’s location
• The past open rate and click-through rate
• The time passed since a subscriber signed up for your mailing list
• The time passed since the last purchase

With welcome emails like this, the trigger is the time passed since a subscriber signed up for the mailing list.

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The golden rule is to avoid excessive emailing as it runs the risk of your campaign being too spammy.

3. Create highly personalized content

Customers want personalized experiences. In fact, studies show that 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences. Another research suggests that as many as 71% of consumers believe a personalized experience would influence their decision to open and read brand emails. The numbers prove that, when employed correctly, personalization is extremely effective in influencing purchase decisions. Therefore, if you want to get your subscribers to purchase from you, you should master the power of personalization.

If you want to create a high converting email marketing campaign, personalization is paramount. Here are some personalization ideas that will help you improve customer experiences and get more conversions:

• Personalize subject line with subscriber’s name
• Include the name of a real service representative instead of the company name in the “from” field
• Include a customer name in the email copy
• Dynamically change visuals in emails to appeal to different customers
• Use demographic and geographic data to create more personalized content
• Personalize recommendation emails concerning the previous buying decisions

A common personalization method is personalizing email content based on subscribers’ gender. This Adidas Originals’ campaign is a great example of how you can dynamically change content based on the gender of a subscriber (showing menswear to male subscribers, showing womenswear to female subscribers.)

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4. Implement persuasion techniques

Understanding human psychology is vital to improve your email campaign and ultimately increase conversions. These persuasion techniques will help you craft your messaging in a way that cognitively appeals to your email subscribers.

Simple solutions

The simple solution persuasion technique is based on the idea of offering easy solutions to more complex problems. This principle is used a lot in digital marketing when marketers offer a magic product that solves all customer’s problems. For example, when you see that a company promotes a product as the only relief to your problem, you can be sure that marketers used simple solutions to persuade you.

Bribery

Bribery is based on the idea of offering extra perks and benefits to email subscribers. Discounts, coupons, saving programs, special offers, and promo codes are all forms of bribery. For example, the bribery principle works when a brand offers users extra discounts for subscribing to the newsletter or sharing content with their friends and family.  

A foot-in-the-door technique

A foot-in-the-door technique is a popular persuasion technique typically used by sales representatives. It includes asking your email subscribers to complete a small action, and if they agree, starting to make gradually more demanding requests. For example, you can first ask your customers to vote on which product they prefer better, then continue asking to complete relatively small actions until they agree to make a purchase.

5. Use user-generated content

User-generated content (or UGC) is any type of brand-related content (like pictures, videos, posts, testimonials, reviews, etc.) created by UGC creators.

UGC is an incredibly effective form of social proof. In fact, UGC drives a 73% increase in email click-through-rate while 82% of consumers say user-generated reviews are extremely valuable.  

Sharing UGC via email is a great way to build social proof, increase customer trust, and prompt more prospects to buy your products. So, you can use other channels, like social media, to collect user-generated pieces and share them as a part of your email sequence.

Here’s an example of well-implemented UGC in email marketing. Notice how the brand uses testimonials to build trust and credibility. This strategic decision illustrates how convincing UGC is.  

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6. Highlight your brand’s social mission

Leveraging real-time social issues and stating your social mission is another smart way to convert more prospects. After all, 70% of consumers say they want to know what the brands they support are doing to address social and environmental issues.

When creating your social responsibility focused email sequence, make sure to include the following information:

• Introduce the social issue you’ve chosen. Explain why it’s crucial and urgent to address it.
• Share the steps your company is taking to battle the issue.
• Link to additional resources, like your blog content and other organizations addressing the issue.

Use this example by Lush as an inspiration when creating an email campaign with a focus on social responsibility. Look at how they emphasize the connection between their products and values.

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7. Tell your brand’s story

Storytelling has been a part of the global culture for thousands of years. Our desire to hear and tell stories reflects the fundamental human need to understand complex life patterns. Did you know that people have a particular physiological response to hearing an interesting story?

Research shows that when people listen to a fascinating story, their attention shifts, they tend to retain more information and understand the information more deeply. And the good news is that telling your brand’s story can have the same result on your email subscribers’ brains.

Use email as a medium to build a story around your brand and products. To create an authentic brand’s story, search for inspiration in your corporate spirit, values, and social mission. Choose a real person, such as a company founder, to narrate the story. Focus on creating an emotional and engaging story that will resonate with your target audience.

When it comes to writing your brand’s story, the quality of writing is everything. The piece must be engaging, focused, and grammatically correct. It’s useful to services like Pro Essay Writer or Grammarly to ensure the top quality of your brand’s story.

Here’s a great example of how The Hustle included a brand story in their welcome email. Notice that the email copy is very personal and uses simple language to communicate with the audience. Also, the email is purposefully sent from and signed by the company's SEO. This adds credibility and helps to develop more personal relations with the audience.  

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8. A/B test your emails

As a marketer, you want to know certainly which elements of your email perform well and which impact conversions negatively. A/B testing is a great way to identify which email elements cause more conversions.

So, what exactly is A/B testing? A/B testing, or split testing, is a method of evaluating user experiences by comparing two versions of content.

To conduct A/B testing, you have to send different versions of your email to your email subscribers’ different halves. Then, you compare the numbers to see which element resonates better with your audience.

You can A/B test different email elements, including subject line, body, visuals, personalization, wording, fonts, CTAs, etc. Note that to get unbiased results, you must A/B test one email element at a time. For example, if you A/B test emails with different fonts and visuals, you won’t get the objective results.

The Bottom Line

Email is the perfect medium for engaging customers and helping them to convert at different stages of the sales funnel. That’s why by optimizing email content, you can ultimately increase your conversions.

Before you go on to create your email marketing campaign, let’s quickly wrap up what you’ve learned today.

• Using relevant CTAs will help you guide your subscribers to convert into paying customers.
• Consider timing and messaging when creating your email copies.
• The best way to engage and convert subscribers is to send relevant and personalized emails.
• By incorporating persuasion techniques into your email pieces, you can win the trust of your audience and persuade them to convert into paying customers.
• Use user-generated content to build trust and ultimately increase conversions.
• Highlighting your brand’s social mission is a great way to market to a socially responsible audience.
• Stories carry an immense power of persuasion. That’s why telling your brand’s story can help you win subscribers’ trust and loyalty.
• A/B testing is a must-do testing method for any email marketing campaign. By A/B testing your copies, you can identify which elements resonate best with your subscribers and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Now, as you’ve learned the best high converting ideas, you can stop sending out emails and hoping for the best. By implementing these ideas and tips, you can create an email marketing campaign that will drive conversions to your online store.