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Customer communication during COVID-19 is critical. Important information about changes to the customer experience, policy changes, and safety tips are often best communicated to customers in email. Today people are home, and they are connected on their desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices more than ever. More than half of Americans check their personal email more than 10 times a day. Email marketing has also been linked to a high ROI, increased sales and improved customer retention.
But at the same time, email across all industries has just a 17.8% open rate - and that is even high in some industries. By 2021 nearly 320 billion emails will be sent each day, and an overabundance of marketing emails can be frustrating and overwhelming. The most common reason customers unsubscribe from or delete brand emails is that they are sent too many, they didn’t purposefully subscribe or the brand sends irrelevant content.
How can brands craft an email that customers will actually open and read? Here are five tips.
- Have A Voice. What makes your company unique? How do you communicate that message? Find a voice for your brand emails that stands out from the competition. It could be the voice of a snarky friend, a subject matter expert or the person who always has the best deals. Make it something your customers want to read and be consistent with the voice across all emails. Streamline your emails and optimize them for mobile. Mobile opens account for 46% of all email opens.
- Focus On Quality Over Quantity. The most common reason consumers unsubscribe from brand emails is because they receive too many. Instead of inundating customers with multiple emails a day, make fewer emails count more. One email a week that connects with customers is better than three emails a day that are repetitive and irrelevant. Be strategic with your emails and use them to make customers’ lives better, not more complicated.
- Segment And Personalize. Not everyone on your mailing list needs to (or should) receive the same email. Leverage data to understand customers and segment them based on demographics, purchase history and preferences. Personalization is more than just plugging a customer’s name into an empty field—it’s crafting a message that is useful and meaningful to them. An email targeted to a certain demographic of repeat female customers is more likely to be opened than a mass message because it connects to the customer and is personalized. Marketers who use segmented campaigns have seen as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
- Make It Timely. Some of the most opened emails are tied to actions and have behavioral triggers, especially abandoned carts. A staggering 45% of cart abandonment emails are opened, far above any other type of email. Customers are much more likely to open emails that are beneficial for them, such as an offer for that day only or a deal they can’t get anywhere else. Tie in emails to current events, seasonal activities, holidays and birthdays.
- Get Feedback. Customers have opinions about what they want to see in their email, so ask them. Get their feedback of what they are looking for in brand communication, how often they want to be contacted and what would improve the experience. Many companies allow their customers to personalize their email preferences so they only receive certain types of messages. Simple forms or surveys can help brands continually improve their email strategy to best connect with customers.
During this difficult time, communication with customers is key. Important information can be emailed about COVID-19, but without a well-written and thoughtful email, your customers might miss important information. Even with advances in technology, email is still the best way to communicate with customers. But in a sea of messages, brands have to take proactive measures to stand out and craft a message people actually want to read. These five tips are just the beginning to building an attention-grabbing email strategy.
Blake Morgan is a keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. Listen to her podcast The Be Your Own Boss Podcast, here.
