One of the most valuable parts of your business is your email list. Here is where the gold is; you have a list of people who have told you by handing over their email address that they trust you with it. They’re invested in your brand to the point where they’re more than willing to receive emails from you. That says a lot.
Email is a great way to get in touch with your customers because it offers a personal touch that your website and other forms of communication can’t. The open rate for email increases year by year. In 2018, the open rate for email reached 25 percent and will continue to rise.
So how can you boost the email conversions on your site? Here are three tips to get you started.
1. Implement A/B Split Tests
Also known as A/B testing, this allows you to test out two different variations of the same template. This could be a landing page, the button color of a call to action, website copy, and more. This lets you see what brings users closer to opting into your email list and what grabs their attention.
SimCity is a video game company that implemented A/B testing to figure out how they could increase online sales. In the first version, they implemented a huge banner at the top with a $20 discount for the customer’s next purchase. In the second, they got rid of the banner entirely and the discount no longer appeared.
Here’s their shopping page with variant A:
And here’s variant B:
Now, if you didn’t know this particular gaming audience, you’d think the version with the discount would bring in more conversions. However, it was the version with the deleted offer that brought in 40 percent more conversions in online sales. This is because this audience wasn’t looking to make another purchase; they just wanted their video game.
So, by doing research on your audience and knowing what they’re looking for, it’s easier to create content that turns email conversions into paying customers. A/B tests are a great way to figure this out.
2. Give ‘Em What They Want
You can’t expect visitors to come to your site, see your email optin form, and sign up right away. That’s just not how it works. It takes time, trust, and interest. If you’re lucky, it’ll take less time while building more trust.
To gain your audience’s trust, you have to show them that the relationship you have with them is sincere; you’re not just in it for the profit. You want to build a list of reliable, faithful customers because they’re the milk and honey of your business. They keep everything flowing and prosperous.
A great way to do this is to create a lead magnet, or a free piece of content in exchange for an email address. This could be anything, really: ebooks, landing pages, checklists, resource lists, and more. The possibilities are endless for things you can offer your customers.
Ask yourself what your target audience is in need of or what they could use help with. What questions are they asking? What else would they like to know? Ask them. Anything that benefits them and makes them feel welcome by your brand is sure to get you email conversions.
A lead magnet is the first thing you see when you visit Neil Patel’s blog. He tells his audience what benefit they’ll receive by opting in (knowledge on how to generate 1,702,148 visitors a month) and the freebie they’ll receive by doing so (a cheat sheet on ranking #1 for “online marketing”).
3. Go Mobile Friendly
If you’re looking to boost your conversions, you have to optimize your emails for mobile users. 61 percent of emails are read and opened on mobile phones today, so if your content isn’t mobile friendly by now, you’re missing out on a lot of potential traffic and customers.
In this example by jewelry company John Madeiros, you can see the difference between their email on a desktop versus mobile. They made a lot of changes in their optimized mobile layout, such as getting rid of the image and formatting the text, making it easier for mobile users to consume.
A report by Super Office found that only about 20 percent of email campaigns are mobile friendly. That’s a lot of wasted potential and you don’t want to be mixed in with that group.
So what can you do? A few options are:
- Removing obnoxious text, images, and colors.
- Having a clear subject line and purpose.
- Making text big and clear.
Use a tool like Litmus to help you see what looks good with email on mobile and what doesn’t. You can test your emails on over 90 apps and across multiple devices to ensure that only the mobile-friendly versions of your emails go to your subscribers.
Moving Forward
So, if you’re looking to boost email conversions on your site, you have to remember what’s important to your audience. You’ll want to test different variations of your copy, offer something of value for free, and optimize for mobile. There are tons of different aspects of your email list to play around with, and with the right tools, you’ll see a huge amount of growth in loyal consumers.
