How to Land Your Email in Customers’ Inboxes
Email marketing continues to outperform other forms of digital marketing content.
More than 2.6 billion people worldwide use email, and 91% of them use it on a daily basis. Click through and engagement rates are dramatically higher than with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
All said, email is unquestionably an essential component of a good marketing strategy, regardless of what industry you’re in.
There’s one catch, though. An email campaign (or even a single email) is only useful if you execute it correctly.
Landing in the inbox is a challenge
There are a number of things to take into account when it comes to effective email marketing:
- the content of your emails
- its subject line
- the landing page that customers click through to from the email itself
- proper list segmentation
- timing (days of the week, times of day, and times of year), and so on.
The list is almost endless. And, the more you’re able to account for when executing your strategy, the better your return on investment will be.
That said, however, there’s one thing that’s absolutely fundamental when it comes to email marketing: landing your email in your customers’ inboxes.
How to avoid the Spam folder and see ROI on your campaigns
If you’re ending up in a customer’s spam folder, you’re toast. You may as well not have even sent anything in the first place. And while landing in the Gmail’s “promotions” tab isn’t as bad as a spam folder, it can still dramatically reduce your open and click through rates.
So, how do you land your newsletter in a customer’s inbox? We have two tips that’ll put you on the path to success. Read on to learn more.
Write quality subject lines
There’s much to be said for what makes a good subject line. It’s something you could dedicate an entire, lengthy blog post to. When your focus is on increasing open rates, crafting the perfect subject line is an art and a science, and deserves serious attention.
However, when your primary concern is landing in your customers’ inboxes, there are a few basic things to keep in mind when it comes to a subject.
Essentially, you want your subject line to look legit. Don’t write a subject in all caps, or with a string of exclamation points. You know what spammy subjects look like: make sure your subjects look professional and personalized.
The more legit an subject looks, the less likely it is to end up in a spam folder, and the higher the chances of landing in your customers’ inboxes.
Email validation: key to reaching the inbox
Some people who are new to email marketing operate under the false assumption that the bigger your list is, the better. After all, more email addresses mean more potential customers, right?
If you can send out a blast to 10,000 prospects and pre-existing customers, that’s automatically better than an email sent to, say, 1,000 customers or leads.
Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Why?
Because not all email addresses are created equal.
If your list of 10,000 leads is populated with 5,000 invalid addresses, you’ll get a hard bounce rate of 50%. When that happens, two more things will likely follow.
Firstly, you’ll probably have your account suspended by your email marketing platform provider. And, even if you don’t, other ISPs will mark your IP address as spam.
The end result?
Your future emails are far less likely to end up in your customers’ inboxes, and way more likely to land in their spam folders.
The solution is simple: you need to clean your list.
Don’t try to do this manually: use a reputable email validation service to ensure that your list is squeaky clean and up to date. Your emails will be far more likely to end up in your prospects’ inboxes as a result.
By focusing on writing quality subjects and ensuring that your list is clean, your email deliverability will improve dramatically.
When you land in customers’ inboxes, your open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates will skyrocket: and so will your return on investment.