Writing emails that get responses is an incredibly valuable skill – and what makes an email likely to get a response is hard to determine. Harder than that is making people to open your emails. The subject line plays a vital role in this. The best email campaigns draw a 20% open rate; but 2% click the action button in the email.
If you have tried email marketing, you might have sent thousands of emails, just to get a response from one or two. We have all been there, but as frustrating as it can be, the answer to eliciting more email replies is simple. I am stating this from lessons learnt from my email marketing experience.
1. Keep it Short and Simple
How many of you have seen the TV show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader”? If you have not seen it, I would suggest you to see the show. The reason why I hinted about the show is because, researches reveal that “Emails written at a third-grade reading level have high chances of getting replies”. I am not joking here. Boomerang’s research reveal that “Fifty-three percent of emails written at a third-grade reading level receive replies, compared to just 39 percent of college-level compositions.” This shows that short and brief emails have high chances of getting opened and responded to. So the first rule in Email Marketing is “Keep it Short and Simple”
2. Emotionally connect with the reader
The right usage of positive and negative words also play a major role in improved response rates. Positive words (great, wonderful, delighted, pleased) and negative words (bad, hate, furious, terrible) have to be placed at appropriate places in the content to yield responses.
Emails that are moderately positive or moderately negative elicit 10-15% more responses than emails that were completely neutral. A moderately negative email is your best bet for a complaint, working better than similar content expressed in a neutral tone. So make sure to connect with the reader with the right mix of words. Unless you connect with the reader on an emotional level, you will not get a response from them
3. Optimal length of Emails
The above report finding stated that the sweet spot for email length is between 50-125 words, all of which yielded response rates above 50%. Response rates declined slowly from 50% for 125-word messages to about 44% for 500-word messages. So if you are an email marketer, try to master the art of telling stories in less words. If you are an active Twitter user, you may master this art soon.
4. Subject line matters
Subject lines should hook the reader to open the mail. Every C-suite executive will receive at least 100 emails in a day. Your email should stand out from the rest. The best subject lines have a maximum of four words. Your subject line should not be more than 50 characters. Usage of special characters and UPPER CASES might send your email to the spam folder automatically. You would not want that to happen especially when you have compelling content. So use a compelling subject line that makes the reader curious
5. Call to Action
Emails that have 1-3 questions are 50% more likely to get a response than emails asking no questions. Questions make the reader to think. Also have a proper call to action for the reader to respond to the Email. Do not forget to follow up. But do not overdo follow ups.
6. Timing is important
When you have a catchy subject line and good content, you should make sure that the email is sent at the right time. Avoid sending emails on weekends. Emails that land up in the mail box in early in the morning and at a lunch time are more likely to be read immediately.
Try these six steps; post your feedback and if you think that is useful for others, do share them.
