7 Ways to Improve Email Campaigns and Stay Heart-Centered
Someone told me recently that she noticed engagement in email campaigns is down for her and a lot of her fellow spiritual entrepreneur friends. She asked if I might write a blog post exploring why deliverability rates and click-through rates seem to be on a downward trend.
I’ve put together 7 ways to increase engagement on your email campaigns. Keep in mind that as a copywriter for spiritual businesses, my aim is always to keep service, authenticity, and integrity at the forefront of my writing.
You can stick to your values in your business and also elevate the results of your mailing list. Let’s get into it!
1: Make Sure Your Messages Don’t Look Like Spam
When it comes to deliverability rates, there are a few factors to consider. Email platforms are doing their best to keep people safe and free of spam messages. If your emails look too much like spam, the system will flag it and send it to a folder where it won’t be seen.
Here are some easy tips to decrease the chances of your messages going to spam or being blocked:
💌Use a trusted email platform and don’t use a personal email address to send messages to your mailing list. Email addresses that end in your business’ website tend to perform best. (Get rid of that @gmail.com email and set up something official.)
💌Don’t use spammy language or repeat yourself. Make it clear at the top of the email — especially if it’s the first one a new subscriber receives — who you are and why you’re contacting them. Remember that your list is for building relationships with your audience, not for behaving like a used car salesman.
💌Create buttons or links like this. Pasting complicated URLs can trigger a spam filter.
💌Limit your use of large image files. If you’re having a big problem with deliverability, you might want to consider removing images altogether.
💌Only email people you have permission to email. This should go without saying.
2: Write for Two Audiences
I always say, “Write for the 🏃Skimmer and the 🤿Diver.” Some readers want to get to the main points as fast as possible and move on. Others want to soak in every word and love all the details. Both are 100% valid and one might be different than your style of reading. With a little finesse, you can write your emails for both groups.
For the Skimmers, make sure you have clear headings with the most important information. Break things up with emojis or bolding. If there’s something you really want them to take away from the message, be sure it’s at the top.
For the Divers, expand on the structure you built for the Skimmers. Add in juicy details and interesting information that keeps them engaged. Divers want meat and they want to take some time with your email. As you get to know your audience, you’ll know what they respond to the most. Give them more of that.
3: Remove People Who Aren’t Engaging
If you have too many people on your mailing list who don’t engage with your content, it could start to trigger those pesky spam filters. It will also affect your click-through rates and may not give you a good representation of whether or not your email campaigns are working.
Some email software does this for you automatically if people are not engaged for a certain length of time. Others will require you to do it manually so be sure to check with your provider.
4: Grab Them with Your Subject Line
A great subject line is the easiest way to increase open rates. Be sure you’re also using the preview text to your advantage. Preview text is what a person sees as a little hint of what the email contains. You can get really creative with this! 🎨
There are plenty of tools on the internet that help with attention-grabbing subject lines. I recommend CoSchedule Headline Analyzer.
A great subject line has a few things:
💌Personalization (include their name)
💌Short and sweet
💌Piques Interest — Ask a question, make a bold statement, reference something relevant
5: Analyze Data and Act Accordingly
When was the last time you looked at your mailing list analytics? Without data, you’re going in blind. If you look at your deliverability, open, and click-through rates, you can start to see patterns.
Ask yourself:
🤔Which emails performed the best and what do they have in common?
🤔Which emails could use improvement and can you find anything similar about them?
🤔Did any messages trigger a lot of unsubscribes?
🤔Which links get clicked on the most?
You can learn so much just by looking at how your audience behaves and you can begin tailoring your messages to what resonates with them the most.
6: Be Genuinely Helpful
Our goal as spiritual entrepreneurs and conscious business owners is to make the world a better place through our services and products. We must keep this goal in mind when we create our emails for our mailing list.
Mailing lists are meant as a conversation, a way to build connection and community with your followers. They aren’t meant to be a place where we list off our accomplishments or write like it’s a diary about whatever we feel like talking about today.
Our sense of purpose must be present in our emails. How do you serve your audience and how is your mailing list an extension of that?
Many people on your list haven’t purchased from you yet but this is a way for them to get some free support and build trust with you so they can take that next step someday. Nurture your people and they will nurture you back.
7: Include a Clear Call to Action
This is the most important tip and is the one I see most overlooked.
So, you sent out a fantastic email and it gave them great information and it was witty and cute and fabulous…but it didn’t ask them to do anything.
There is no point in sending out a message if you don’t give them a next step. Please, PLEASE don’t forget your call to action. This goes back to knowing your purpose. Why are you sending the message in the first place? Make sure your people know.
BONUS: Don’t Overwhelm with Too Much Info
We live in a fast-paced world. Chances are that your engagement is down because people have a lot on their plate. Unless you know your audience likes long-form content and is looking for that from you, try your best to keep it short, sweet, and clear. Most people want to be able to scroll through an email and get the gist quickly so they can decide if they’re going to take the next step.