How To Increase Email Engagement: the Most Powerful Tips and Awesome Tactics

1. What Email Engagement Is?
2. Tips and Hacks to Increase Engagement
3. Use Different Email Engagement Strategies and Tactics

Useful tools:
1. Newoldstamp - Email signature marketing
2. Mailstrom - Tool for cleaning your inbox
3. Reply.io - Personal email outreach, calls, and tasks
4. Mailtrack - Email link opens tracking
5. Shift - Desktop app for streamlining all of your email and app accounts.

“There’s nothing better than email marketing.” A particularly popular thought you probably have heard a million times. Whatever popular it is, this statement is actually 100% true in a world of digital marketing. The cost-efficiency and total effectiveness of using email to promote your services are the best among all the channels. And email marketing engagement is one of the most definitive marks of how well you perform. So, how do you increase it? Let’s get to the point!

What Email Engagement Is?

Before we begin throwing tips here and there, let us shortly describe what engagement based email marketing is and how you benefit from it.

Why is it so important?

Are you doing any good? How efficiently your money is spent? As email marketing is the biggest channel regarding the possible income it can grant, you should carefully and precisely track every dollar you spend on it. If you go too far with some ideas that have no value, you might end up losing thousands in vain.

As much as you track your incomes and expenses, do track the email engagement. Not only does it show how good you are doing, but also definitively describes what direction to choose in any disputable situation. But be sure you use essential metrics.

Email Engagement Metrics

According to Litmus research, click, open, and conversion rates are the most important email engagement metrics for marketers.

litmus research

source: Litmus

Our best advice is to look at every stat from time to time. And here’s why:

Click rate. Do recipients click your CTAs and links in emails? This is a powerful stat to check if your emails are overall engaging.
Open rate. It is an essential metric to see if your subject lines are engaging enough. If people don’t open your emails, consider changing it; as well as your email address.
Conversion rate. The goal of most email campaigns is to convert as many leads as possible. So, this one shows how good you are in this, and how efficiently you spend the money.
Deliverability. If your emails are not delivered to recipients, what’s the point of everything described? Deliverability shows if your messages are not blocked by email clients at the receiving end or not flagged as spam automatically.
Bounce rate. It shows how many emails are sent back by the recipient’s email servers. The reasons for that may vary, but if this rate is high, reconsider the whole content of your email. Perhaps the images are just too large.
Email revenue. The income is a more pragmatic metric similar to conversion rate.
Email list size. Although the other metrics are much more important, it is sometimes a good idea to check this one as well. Make sure you don’t overdo with enlarging your email list. Better keep it moderate but quality-oriented.
Spam complaint rate. It’s a big deal if your emails get to spam automatically. This could mean, for example, that your domain name is in a black list. But if people flag your messages themselves, you are in even bigger trouble. Make sure you always track this metric and make changes as soon as problems occur.
Average read time. If you send awesome infographics or ebooks, but nobody spends more than 5 seconds reading the email, it’s time to add more interesting content or create a better template.
Return on investment. There’s no better way to see if your money is spent well than with ROI metric. Keep track of it, and you will be able to tune your email marketing campaign at any times to spend the budget efficiently.
Value per subscriber. Keeping track of each subscriber’s relative value helps define how painful unsubscriptions are and how much money you lose by one person not opening your emails.
Acquisition cost per subscriber. This stat describes the value of each subscriber more precisely, taking into account the whole business process and the importance of what you do.
Subscriber lifetime value. Even if your subscriber eventually converts, the time spent on acquisition might not be worth it. So, the lifetime value is more descriptive here.
Production time. How much time you spend on creating emails is really important as it directly affects your ROI.

All of these metrics are useful together. They can let you know everything about the subscribers without ever having to ask them anything. So, what are the best email engagement campaigns to perfect your customer acquisition?

Tips and Hacks to Increase Engagement

So, you are probably wondering how to make an email get the highest engagement possible, and you have been, even before reading all the bunch of text from up there. Let’s get to the point then!

Segment and Target your Lists

Whatever you decide to add to your emails, make sure it is relevant. Marketers will be interested in, well, marketing insights and case studies, while designers are much more likely to look through an email with some visual content examples. It is only a rough example, as your audience might be a lot different. The point is, learn what personalized content makes your recipients the most interested and engaged.

Here is how you can segment your recipients:

Demographically
Psychographically
By behavior (how many times they open, click, reply, etc.)
By knowledge (are they aware of their problems and looking for a solution, or you need to introduce your services)
By acquisition stage (are they your customers already or new subscribers)
By needs (are they looking for a certain tool or just want interesting content).

Email segmentation can increase the Return-on-Investment by far. Here’s the example of how Amazon lets subscribers point out their interests. The point of this is to show that there are lots of different people, and those like watches do not necessarily enjoy software.

Amazon email marketing

source: Neilpatel

Trigger your Messaging

Every email marketing campaign should be well-thought-out and result-oriented. For example, instead of sending mindless invites to visit your website, work on re-engagement tactics. You can add an automatic guide email if some customer has downloaded your app and then uninstalled it shortly.

The most popular and efficient email triggers are:

Welcome email for new subscribers
Thanks for creating an account
Re-engagement emails if your subscribers stop reading emails or using your service
Unsubscribe emails to say sorry about it and notify of successful unsubscription
Event triggers (for example, if your customer didn’t complete a purchase)
Confirmation emails (e.g., successful order placement)
Shipping emails with all the delivery data
Time triggers for follow-ups.

You can use some automation tools to work with all these triggers. There are plenty of them you can use to follow-up or reengage subscribers effectively. Just make sure you set them up according to all of your (your recipients’) needs.

automation tool for messaging

source: Neilpatel

Take Advantage of your Data

Apart from checking your metrics from time to time, you should gather all the important data. In the future, it will help you make difficult decisions. After all, your actions should be based on statistical feedback and not contrariwise.

Remember About Subject Line

You wouldn’t take seriously an envelop that has a giant inscription on it saying “50% LIMITED OFFER TODAY ONLY IF YOU OPEN NOW.” The same implies for subject lines. A powerful email engagement strategy requires an interesting yet professional subject line.

subject line statistic

Data from Optinmonster

Here are some ideas to make it best:

Personalize the subject line with the recipient’s name
Keep it short
Make the most important part goes in the beginning
Make it easily noticeable
Avoid using CAPS

More on creating a perfect subject line here: “10 Tips For Writing An Excellent Email Subject Line”

Start From a Warm Welcome

Once people are in your email list, make it comfortable for them and assure you are on the same page. Like starting your speech with a joke, start your email with a funny GIF. Or make the first sentence less serious and more friendly. People will decide if they want to keep reading your email by this very first phrase. And even if they don’t read everything, a warm welcome will be remembered.

Choose the Right Time to Send Emails

As we have started on follow-ups, make a good schedule for them. Sending five follow-ups per week is certainly a bad idea. However, many people still seem to neglect the time of their subscribers desperately looking for some feedback. This will only result in an unsubscription.

It is better to follow-up in two days, then three, five, seven, and so on. In fact, many people open your email or answer only after a few messages sent. So, stay persistent and respectful.

In addition to follow-ups, make sure you send your emails at the right time of the day and week. If somebody gets hundreds of emails daily, messages sent in the night have almost zero chance of getting noticed or taken seriously enough.

Do not Spam your Recipients

Data from Propellercrm

You might not see your email as a spammy one, but double-check everything as some people might find it a bit too much. Make sure your emails avoid spam filters too. Here are some tips to stay safe:

Make sure your email are protected from CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL laws.
Directly ask permission to send emails.
Use reputable email marketing service providers.
Keep the right balance of text to image ratio.
Avoid spam words.
Keep your email short and to-the-point.
Test your emails for spam protection.

More about how to protect your emails from spam filters here: “Detailed Guide: How to Protect Your Email Newsletters From The Dreaded Spam Folder”

Keep It Personal and Short

Skip all the long texts and complicated language. The more simple and concise you are in your emails, the better. As it is really easy to tell if your message is automated or written by a human being. Also, use a personalized email instead of info@something. This way more recipients will find it important.

So, you can make your emails more personalized by:

Using a ‘human’ email address
Adding recipient’s name in the email body or even subject line
Having a real photo of yourself in your GSuite or any other email client profile
Using simple formatting instead of sophisticated templates
Writing in simple and friendly words
Adding a personalized email signature with a photo to every email

Use High-Quality Content and Be Relevant

Modern digital marketing is all about content quality. No matter how many techniques you implement, if there is no value in your emails, recipients will hit ‘Unsubscribe’ soon enough. Therefore, spend some extra time to do research and find something useful to tell your addressees.

High-quality content is mostly defined by the value you bring. You should not directly sell your features. Instead, identify the pains your customers have and show them the benefits they can get from your services. Never forget to educate subscribers as well. The more interesting content you deliver, the more frequently will people open and engage with your emails.

Also, keep people updated about your recent news with newsletters; send welcome emails to new subscribers and follow-up old ones. The trick is to let people see your emails are not just some automated spam, but a professionally crafted correspondence.

Include Gifts

People like receiving noticeable benefits. Give something useful to your recipients but don’t concentrate on selling only. You may use a unique promo code, for example. It’s not much for you, but it always adds up to engagement increase.

discount email promocode

source: Istockphoto

Add Professional Email Signature

It is proven that an email signature works outstandingly well to increase engagement. There are multiple benefits it brings, which in short go like this:

Adding up to your professional look. No matter what your email is about, a signature that shows your photo, phone numbers, and above all looks professional makes people percept your message as something you have spent time for.
Calls-to-actions work madly well in email signatures. In fact, one appropriate offer to schedule a meeting or even simply visit a blog can increase the engagement a hundred times (this is not an amplification). And email signature, as it goes at the end, is the best place for CTA.
Social media links help you increase the number of followers, as well as build up brand awareness.
Using a professional email signature generator like Newoldstamp allows tracking impressions and CTR, which is another awesome opportunity to see how good your emails are doing regarding engagement.

Newoldstamp

Find more here: “The Ultimate Guide: How to Make the Most of Your Business Email Signatures”

Add CTA & Buttons

By the way, you should use CTAs in the email body as well. In fact, it is a good idea to include a CTA button or link right at the beginning of your email. With the right call-to-action, you show your recipient what the message is about in the first place. And then you can proceed to the text part.

Also, you should use CTAs as a finishing part of any text block. For example, if you have been talking about a new product of yours, add a button saying ‘Visit Online Store.’

Don't Forget to Follow up

We have mentioned the importance of follow-ups before, as you should always choose the right time to send them. In addition to that, make sure your follow-up emails are relevant and interesting. If you want somebody to come back to using your services or reading your newsletters, give them some value and assure them they need you.

Use Different Email Engagement Strategies and Tactics

Now that you know what you should do to increase your email engagement, let’s dig deeper into how you can utilize this knowledge.

Build a Relationship With your Customers

Nothing makes you look better in the eyes of a customer than beneficial relationships. Be friendly and welcome, offer some value, and people will always look forward to receiving emails from you. For instance, you can send emails from the same person all the time to make your content recognizable.

Learn more here: “Business Development Relationship Ladder: How to Build a Close Connection With Your Client”

A/B Test Your Emails

If you want to try some new stuff or just don’t know which way to go, use A/B testing. The thing is really simple. You just launch two different campaigns at the same time and track which one does better. Sometimes you have to compromise not to spend too much resources on something irrelevant. So, A/B tests can help you decide where to turn.

a and b testing

source: Splitmetrics

Learn more here: “How To A/B Test Your Email Newsletters To Blow Up Your Conversions”

Try to Share Benefit Immediately

No matter what you offer, people want to get an advantage as soon as possible. Therefore, try to make it clear what benefits your addressee will get from reading your email (learn something new) or clicking a certain link (finding a beneficial service).

Offer Value in First Sentences

Show what it’s all about as soon as possible. People will judge how relevant your email is to them by the first glance. So, add a CTA there, as we have mentioned, and describe your unique offer.

Avoid Self-Promoting your Product or Service

Don’t be all about selling. Sometimes it is better just to send a useful article or case study in your message to keep email activity high. Let people come to the idea of buying your product by themselves.

Use Social Proof

Add testimonials and reviews to your engagement email examples. Show your recipients your most popular tweets or YouTube videos. The fact that one million people bought your product or service might be crucial for many addressees.

social proof by NEWOLDSTAMP

Send Customers Achievements

Always directly mention what exactly people will get from being your customer/subscriber. Show them their pains and push hard on those. Then present a relief that recipients can get from your emails only.

Once your customers achieve trackable results, show it to them to encourage further relationships with your brand.

Final Thoughts

Keeping the email engagement high is not really difficult if you know what you’re doing. There are some tips you should always use though. At least, they will help you keep the engagement metrics from decreasing. These are:

Segment your lists
Trigger messaging
Use the data you have
Keep the subject line professionally good
Be friendly
Use automation
Send emails in the right time
Do not spam
Keep emails personal and short
Use high-quality content
Be relevant
Include some gifts and promos
Add a professional email signature
Add CTAs
Track results
Always follow up

After all, it’s all about being true to your customers and following your brand book. If you do so, there will be no problem at all to keep people interested and engaged.