Conversion Is Key: How To Convert Sales Via Email
Updated: Aug 1, 2022
Email marketing is an inexpensive way to target customers with communications that address their needs, interests and phase in your sales cycle. But, email campaigns that convert prospects into paying customers requires strategy. Here is how to convert sales via email.
State your business
MarketingProfs estimates that more than 122,500,453,020 emails are sent daily. While convincing email users to open your email is a victory unto itself, you need to get to the point quickly: Tell customers exactly who you are, and exactly why you’re contacting them — upfront. A 2015 study revealed that just 1 percent of customers want to receive longer emails than they currently receive.
Design with the recipient in mind
Product images and clever conceptual campaigns aren’t effective if they make your email slow to load or hard to read. Email templates typically shouldn’t exceed 650 pixels. Test any campaign on mobile and desktop devices, using a variety of email clients such as Outlook and Gmail to ensure your email arrives in the inbox in a format each prospect can read.
Time your emails to your customers
Though the aforementioned study says 75 percent of consumers consider email their preferred means of communication with a business, the frequency with which they want to receive your emails isn’t as cut and dried. While 28 percent of respondents to the survey said they wanted to receive more promotional emails, 20 percent would like to receive fewer.
To arrive at the “right’ number of emails it will take to convert your customers, monitor your campaigns for key metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, and “opt out” requests. Develop marketing funnels that place email recipients into the appropriate “buckets” to ensure you continue to talk to those most likely to buy, based on their engagement, and solicit those who aren’t engaging with reduced frequency. Your email list may become shorter with this approach, but you can better predict which customers are most likely to convert, and replicate the tactics that led to their interest in future campaigns.
Test what you say and how you say it
Subject lines, email headlines, email copy and calls to action (CTA) all impact how effective your email marketing efforts are, and the degree to which they convince customers to buy.
Split your prospect lists in half to conduct A/B tests to experiment with one aspect of email (such as copy, subject lines, etc.); measure which approach is more effective for that specific variable. The more you learn about your audience and what approach it prefers, the better you can craft emails that convert.
Make it easy to buy
The time and money you invest designing and measuring the perfect email campaign is for naught if your message doesn’t include tactics that lead to conversion. Make CTA buttons in email functional: When users click on a call to action, direct them to an appropriate product page on your website that makes it simple for them buy on a desktop or mobile device. Likewise, if your email offers a promotional price, direct users to a targeted landing page that reflects that information automatically and allows them to purchase with ease.
Email marketing can be a cost-effective way to connect with customers, but you must understand who they are, what they want and what your product or service offers to craft a campaign that converts. Use these simple tips to send emails that get read, and ultimately, convince customers to buy.
Kendall Reed is a key contributor in planning and executing marketing initiatives for NCR Counterpoint POS’s Retail SMB solutions. NCR provides solutions for several industries including sporting goods, hardware, and wine and liquor.