How to Make Email Awesome in a World That Hates Email as Presented by @mparkerbyrd #DDSUM14

Does your recruiting department or search firm send out a weekly or monthly newsletter to subscribers? If so, you probably track how many emails are opened and the click through rate for each campaign. Today, at Dallas Digital Summit, I attended a session called Making Email Work in a World That Hates Email. The session, led by Matt Byrd, outlined techniques that will allow email marketers to increase open and click through rates while providing a more engaging experience for readers.

Below are some of the highlights from the presentation.

Subscribers to your email newsletter expect three things.

1) Seamless, Cross-device experiences

2) Hyper relevant experiences

3) Engaging Experiences

Seamless, Cross-device experiences

49% of email opens are mobile
400% growth in 3 years

The most popular email client iOS mail on iPhone (28% of all opens) per emailclientmarketshare.com.

Know your audience: Every company has a different demographic… MapMyRun, which is a business to consumer application, has 70% of their readership using mobile devices. Litmus, which is business to consumer service, has only 15% of their emails opened on mobile.

Marketers should use an “any inbox, any device” email marketing strategy which requires a responsive design. For those of you who don’t already know, responsive design responds to the type of screen it is being viewed on to allow all readers to have a positive experience regardless of the device they are using. Get 7 free responsive templates here.

Why is responsive design important?

80% of subscribers delete emails that look bad on their phones
31% of email marketers aren’t sending responsive emails

How to Look good on mobile devices.

There should be strong visual hierarchy
Marketers should “embrace the scroll.” Scrolling is very intuitive for readers.
Emails should include big buttons with clear calls to action.

Why is responsive so important?

You’re meeting readers where they are.

Optimize the preview header text.

Pre-header text. This should be more clear. Preview text is pulled into the inbox automatically.
75% of emails get displayed with preview text.
optimized preheater text improved Matt’s click through rate by 30%

Subscribers are also expecting hyper relevant experiences

Personalization isn’t just throwing in a first name. Emails needs to be more personalized.
Consider your subscriber behavior as a trigger for emails (videos watched, tool usage, logged-in to a tool, attended event, downloaded something, etc.)
Your audience is always 1!! Your list may be large but each is an individual. Segment your marketing lists in a way that allows you to be as personalized as possible.

Subscribers expect engaging experiences.

Animated gifs are engaging. Netflix recently sent a really creepy email with a GIF of Kevin Spacey. The online reaction to the email was very positive.
Push boundaries.

Email in the future…..

Gmail recently introduced inbox app which puts more control into the hands of subscribers.
Wearables is a very important topic for email marketers to watch. We’re not sure how it’ll effect mobile but we assume this will be important in the future.
Technology will change

Good emails make people OPEN and CLICK. Great emails get people to think, feel, laugh, act.