These days, many advertisers put a great deal of accentuation on Instagram influencers, chat bots, and other innovative chances to arrive at their intended audience. Notwithstanding, these advanced and trending techniques shouldn’t distract you from one of the most seasoned yet most helpful messaging channels — the good old email.

However, with the online channels and social media network on the rise, we often asked ourselves: Is email marketing still effective? 

To make it simple, yes it is. In fact in 2020, 78% of marketers saw an increase in email engagement over the last year. Many consumers still prefer communicating with their merchants through email and there is no possibility that it will slow down. In other words, email marketing is also evolving without abandoning its core goal that is to reach out to their audience and engage with them in personal way.

If you want to leverage email marketing, here are a few tips you can utilize to optimize your email and boost engagement.

Personalize Your Email

In email marketing, email pesonalization is the main key when targeting specific subscribers and by leveraging information and data about them. Details like first name, last name, their address, the product they are interested and other data points.

Basic email tactics include using the subscriber’s name in the subject line, other techniques include changing email content with subscriber’s gender, location or purchasing habit.

Personalizing emails are proven effective strategy when it comes to increasing open and click-through rates. Studies show that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened compared to generic emails This is because placing names directly on the subject line, you immediately establish an engagement compared to a nameless customer.

Striking Subject Lines

Subscribers often check emails base on subject lines, so make your email subject count. Try to keep your email’s subject within 40 to 50 characters or else it gets truncated. That way, it can be read entirely regardless of the device used.

Your subject lines should be encouraging enough for recipients to open your email. Here are a few tips to:

• Ask a question– this allows you to engage with your prospect on a more personal level
• Check out their curiosity– give recipients some clues about the your email without giving away full details
• Be straightforward– if the campaign is an announcement or anything else, make it straight to the point.
• Be humorous– you can use tricks or play around with words to amuse your subscribers.

Moreover, avoid using terms like, “Free,” “Cash,” “Save,” “Only $,” These will be filtered as spam by email service providers. For your reference, Hubspot has a comprehensive list of words you should never use in your subject lines.

Schedule your emails

When’s the perfect time to send emails? Simply follow the rule of thumb of not flooding your subscribers with your email. Starting an A/B Testing will definitely give you an idea on how to schedule your emails for your subscribers. You will see that automation of emails like scheduling for instance, really helps

Segment your list

Filter your contact base on specific conditions so people on every list can receive newsletters about the topic they are interested with. There are various ways how to segment your list. Group them by age, location, purchasing behavior, interest and more. And once you do this right, the price is huge.

Constantly update and add your list

Subscribers who aren’t engaging with your emails or doesn’t interest the way you do your email campaign, it is time to check on them. Some may have change email addresses or completely not interested with your service or product. For whatever reason, don’t forget to remove them and clean your list. This will reduce your bounce rate of your email marketing campaign and you end up sending active recipients who will open and check your email.

Always Include Visuals

A newsletter’s design needs to complement your brand so that you can effectively convey your message and delight your subscribers. You don’t have to be a great designer to create stunning designs, you just need to weigh over your layout, color scheme, and graphics to include. To craft an attractive and engaging email, go for a simple, intuitive layout that highlights your CTA. Make sure it looks great and responsive on different devices, and minimize using too many images or videos.

Check Everything If It Works!

The advantage of email marketing is that you can continuously change and innovate base on your past emails. This allows you to refine your approach until you’ll be able to achieve results you are aiming. And it doesn’t need to be complicated! Simply pay close attention to your content composition and timing, and you’ll see an increase on the open and engagement rates.

Remember, engagement is crucial in email marketing to see the results you want. Without engagement and audience interest, it doesn’t matter how awesome your content is or how big your list is. If you want your campaign to be effective in bringing in leads and increase your conversions, your audience must open and engage with your emails.Use the tips above and you’re ready to see your best conversion coming in.