How to improve engagement from your email marketing campaigns

Do you know what happens to your marketing emails when they land in someone’s inbox? We always hope that the recipient is going to read through the entire message from start to finish and then take the action that we’ve directed them to at the end of it. However, research indicates that you may have just 10 seconds of reading time to capture the attention of your email recipient and after that they could actually have completely disengaged from what you’re saying and moved on. Not an ideal outcome after all the effort and time these campaigns can take to produce. If you want to improve engagement with your email marketing campaigns then this is a reality you’re going to need to learn to overcome.

Does the format matter?

This is a very individual question and will largely depend on your audience. For example, one study found that using the Outlook format produces higher levels of engagement with executive recipients while those who work in marketing were hardly engaged at all. Those who had the least engagement were interns because they’d had very little previous exposure to the Outlook format. The key is familiarity – if you’re sending emails in a format that the recipient is familiar with they are much more likely to engage with what you’re trying to say.

Designing the right message

When it comes to improving engagement from your email marketing campaigns the impact that your email has on the recipient is going to be important. Designing your message so that it has the least stressful impact possible will make it much easier to generate engagement. When you’re thinking about what might make something stressful, consider the kind of emails that you find low stress and easy to read – for most people, crowded text and overly-busy content could quickly make them switch off.

Keeping it concise

The length of your email is likely to be a big factor in whether email marketing campaigns are going to be effective. According to one survey, long paragraphs of text produced almost 5% less engagement. However, very short paragraphs can also be problematic, as some people find those as stressful to cope with as longer formats. Two thirds of respondents to one study said that the shorter format emails provided more of an incentive to complete the call to action at the end while a third identified that the longer formats were more motivating. If you don’t have the resources to do testing in terms of the email length that is going to be more incentivising for your audience then it can be useful to try a mix of the two.

Small changes in the way that emails are constructed can have a big difference in terms of whether recipients are more likely to engage with them. If you’re keen to see more results from your investment in email marketing campaigns then something as simple as format changes, or looking into what your audience feels is a less stressful email type to read, could make all the difference.

To find out how Iconic Digital can help your email marketing strategy, get in touch today and call us on 020 7100 0726. Find out more about our Email Marketing Automation Agency in London.