The ROI from Email Marketing: Tips to Increase Email Open Rates and Click-Through Rates

Email marketing has an average ROI of $38 for each $1 spent, suggests research by DMA.

When we talk about the most efficient and affordable form of marketing strategies, email marketing pops right up. For decades, email marketing strategies have been helping businesses and marketers to stay connected with their present and potential customers, and at the same time generating more revenue. That is why it is important to focus on increasing ROI from Email Marketing. 

If your email marketing is working, you'll begin to notice increased website traffic, more engagement with your brand, and higher revenues as you establish relationships with your customers.

When customers are offered quality content, they are likely to spend more time and money with your company. The goal of email marketing should be to deliver most relevant information to customers before, during, and after the purchases. 

But how can you ensure that your email campaigns are working as anticipated?

Several email automation tools help you to measure the key performance indicators of your own email programs. You can then benchmark your email marketing performance with other comparable businesses and discover how you stack against them. The data from such analytics of the email marketing campaign will help you identify the areas of focus and improvement for your brand.

Is your email marketing yielding the desired results? Well, when it comes to calculating ROI, the open rate and click-through rates are often considered the key indicators of ROI from email marketing.

Let’s first understand what open rate and click-through rates are.

• The open rate of your email tells you a lot about the quality of your list and how you can improve your subject lines.
• The efficacy of your material in general, and especially your calls-to-action, may be seen in click-through rates (CTAs).

What is Email Open Rate?

Email open rate represents the percentage of people in your email list, who checked, opened, or viewed the email you have shared. Whenever an email is opened, the open rate is updated. 

A study conducted by MailChimp states that the average open rate is 20.81% across all industries. So first, you need to calculate your email open rate and formulate a strategy based on the numbers that will help you in meeting your marketing objectives.

If your result is above the score, you are doing great with your campaigns, on the other hand, if your result is low, no need to worry, there are several fixes to help you meet the target.

Measures to Take for Declining Open Rate

Nothing stays the same in the field of marketing. Sometimes, you can see growth in your open rates, while other times there can be a decline. So, when you start noticing any kind of decline in the open rates, you assume that there is something wrong with the content.

Well, before you take a step to improve the content, you need to take a firm look at the email list.

• Check the average of spam complaints you get
• Check for the email bounce rate
• Analyze whether or not you are following everything that you need to gather proper email addresses

Factors such as invalid email address, spam mails, and excessive emails can immediately put a drastic impact on your bounce rate, which also somehow impacts the  ROI from your email marketing campaigns. Apart from this, using a cluttered list blots your sender reputation, making your email campaigns just another mail in the spam folder. 

And who wants to land there, right?

Moreover, your emails might not even get into the spam folder if your bounce rate is too high or you hit too many spam traps. You're not going to reach your subscribers. No wonder you start sinking your open rates.

The decline of data is the result of all email marketers. You are continually decreasing the quality of your email list. People give up email addresses or move employment and move to another account. Bots and readable emails may also ruin your database, which will damage your reputation and open rates. This makes a huge difference for an email checker.

When you decide you remove the unnecessary information or data from your email campaigns, it will help you to:

• Improve your sender reputation
• Maintain the characteristics of emails
• Contact and reconnect with your subscribers
• Improve open rates
• Increase in conversions

Read More: Ecommerce Email Marketing: 18 Must-Have Emails

What is Email Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

The click-through rate, also known as the email click rate, is calculated by the number of individuals that clicked on a link, call to action, or picture sent within an email. The total number of clicks that an email receives may be determined by dividing it by the total number of messages sent.

CTR shows the engagement through email, by providing you insights on the total number of users that interacted with your content. One of the biggest challenges that marketers are facing with ROI from email marketing is click-through rate. The challenge is to persuade them to take action as soon as they open the email.

Measures to Increase Click-Through Rates

A high click-through rate indicates that your email campaign is relevant and that your subscribers are responding. A low click-through rate indicates that there is still space for improvement.

But what constitutes a good email click-through rate?

According to the campaign monitor, the average CTR is 2.6%.

Comparing your derived data with the industry average will help you with the right estimation of your click-through rate. Based on the analysis you can evaluate your strategies.

Let’s go through some tips to increase the CTR.

• Conduct A/B testing of the subject line
• Create crisp and concise emails to avoid monotony
• Add social sharing options to increase CTR
• Opt for email segmentation for more targeted results
• Personalize the email content
• Create intriguing CTA (Call to Action)
• Make your email mobile responsive as well

Remember, when you are sending an email, it is important to stick to the main goal by removing any kind of distractions from your email. When the users are provided with so many options, where they have to navigate through the entire website, the likelihood of them getting distracted is high. Before you head forward with your email campaigns, make sure that you are sticking to the main objective of your email.

For instance, if your goal is to increase the website traffic, then you need to create a copy that will make sure the receiver will click on the website. Don’t let your readers get distracted by your social media pages or backlinks when the goal is to get them to the website.

The ROI from Email Marketing

The goal to increase ROI from email marketing is not only limited to constructing emails, it includes more than that.

It takes time to develop an effective strategy to increase ROI from email marketing programs. Above all, you must maintain consistency in both the quality of your material and the frequency with which you deliver it.

Inbox providers, once again, are the ones who decide whether your emails get to the Inbox, the spam bin, or nowhere. Unpredictable sending behavior is a warning sign that your deliverability and open rates may suffer.

The benefit of Email Marketing

1. Cost-Effective

You don't have to worry about printing or shipping costs with email. And executing great email marketing doesn't need a lot of people on board.

2. Increase Awareness

Email marketing helps you to reach your present and potential customers right to their inboxes.

3. Delivering Targeted Messages

You can create personalized messages and share them with your targeted email list based on their purchasing activity. This will help you and your customers to get the desired results.

Final Words

Of course, each campaign is unique, as are your email marketing objectives. However, try to include the tips in this blog post the next time you execute an email campaign and compare it to the ones in the past. If you see an improvement in your performance, you know what to do.

The true value of email campaigns for many companies is established when they take time to figure out what their subscribers want and need from them. Furthermore, you are not alone if you feel overwhelmed by the number of things you have to do to improve the ROI from email marketing. This is how most marketers feel. They put forth a lot of effort to generate engaging material, engage their subscribers, and boost open rates.