Email is a cost-effective way to communicate with your audience. When it comes to selling your products and services, the higher your response rate, the more sales you make. Here are six ways to increase your email response rates.
Strategy 1: Send Emails to Your Target Audience
The most important thing you can do to increase your response rate is to send to the right audience: the people most likely to want your products and services.
Would you respond to an email about a product you had no interest in? Probably not, and neither will the people who aren't your target audience.
The more you know about your contacts, the better you can segment your database and decide who should receive a given email. If your company has 10,000 prospects but only 2,000 fit your target audience, does it make sense to email all 10,000?
Say those 2,000 well-matched contacts produce 200 orders. Email all 10,000 and your response rate is 2%; email only the right 2,000 and it's 10%. That's five times the response rate at one-fifth the cost, and a much higher ROI. Segmenting like this consistently outperforms "batch and blast" emails to your entire list.
Strategy 2: Send from a Branded, Authenticated Domain
One big reason people don't open emails is that they look like spam, especially when the sender's address isn't recognizable. Sending from a free public domain like Gmail or Yahoo lowers your odds of getting opened, since anyone in the world can create one of those addresses.
A better approach is a branded domain email address. If your company is "Scrumptious Cookies," send from yourname@scrumptiouscookies.com. A branded address looks authentic, signals that a real company (not a bulk email house) sent the message, and earns more trust, which matters even more in B2B, where strong spam filters may block public-domain or bulk senders while letting your branded email through.
But a branded address isn't enough on its own. You also need to authenticate your email so mailbox providers can verify it really comes from you. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your sending domain, behind-the-scenes records that confirm your identity and dramatically improve deliverability. These aren't optional anymore: as of February 2024, Google and Yahoo require bulk senders (5,000+ messages a day to Gmail) to authenticate with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe, and keep spam complaints under 0.3%. Even if you send less than that, following these rules keeps you out of the spam folder, and an email no one sees can't get a response. Your email platform and web team can help you set this up.
Strategy 3: Create an Intriguing Subject Line
Subject lines are the gateway to your message. An intriguing one builds curiosity and gets the email opened; a flat one means your message never gets seen. A few approaches that work:
- Personalize it with the reader's name. Few things grab attention like their own name, and it signals the message is meant just for them.
- Ask a question. It makes readers curious to find or confirm the answer, and the only way to do that is to open the email.
- Use a symbol or emoji. The right one makes your subject line stand out in a crowded inbox, when it genuinely fits the message. A travel brand, for example, might add an airplane emoji.
Strategy 4: Include Persuasive Copy
Once your audience opens the email, you have to get them to actually read it, which is a challenge given how little time people have.
The answer is persuasive copy: a strong headline, an emotionally compelling lead, and body copy that focuses on the benefits to the reader. This matters most when you're promoting a product or service: the more persuasive your copy, the higher your conversion rate.
Strategy 5: Have a Strong Call to Action
A strong call to action moves your reader to do what you want, whether that's heading to your cart to place an order or clicking through to a landing page.
One way to boost response is to create a sense of urgency, like a firm deadline on your offer. Another is to offer a free gift for responding, and make that gift feel as valuable as the product itself. You can also limit the offer to the first "x" people who respond to prompt faster action.
Strategy 6: Follow Up
The last strategy is to follow up. You'd be surprised how many prospects respond on the second, third, or fourth try. Some never opened your earlier emails, some opened but didn't read them, and some are interested but just need a nudge.
Today this is easy to automate. Set up an email sequence (a drip campaign) so your follow-ups send themselves at the right intervals, without you remembering to do it manually.
In short, email marketing is a great way to reach and persuade your audience, and these six strategies will help more of them respond. For more on the metrics behind your campaigns and modern sender rules, see our guide to email open rates, or get in touch and we'll help you get more from your email.
Email marketing is one of the keys to marketing your small business online. Explore the full guide.
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