Businesses both large and small use email marketing to build relationships with their customers. Emails are an incredibly powerful tool for communicating directly with your clients and prospects as long as you are not mindlessly spamming them. Effective email communication does more than promote products and services. It also helps educate consumers and retain them for the long run.

According to studies, 81% of SMBs still rely on email as their primary marketing channel. Nevertheless, people are receiving an increasing number of emails every day; so standing out in the full inboxes can be tough.

To deliver highly engaging emails, build strong relationships, and optimize marketing ROI, you must check out these proven email marketing tips:

1. Verify, Segment, and Update your database

In order for content to remain relevant, marketers must make sure their database is current and accurate. Email lists that are not updated regularly will begin to deteriorate in value over time. Maintaining a valid and regularly refreshed database will ensure higher open and click-through rates, and minimize failed deliveries.

First things first: Remove incorrect or outdated email addresses. These can lead to high bounce rates and your domain getting blocked. Making sure your database is refreshed regularly will minimize these inconsistencies. Next, don't limit yourself to just your name and email address. In creating more targeted and personalized emails, data that goes beyond the names and addresses to include the location, designation, and sector information will prove more efficient.

Use segments to tailor your database based on audience needs, designations, and sectors so that the right message reaches the right individual at the right time. Set up and run opt-in campaigns to update old email lists. By doing this, you can re-engage interested prospects and disengage non-responders. In this manner, emails with fewer inactive subscribers will see a higher open and click rate, than one with many inactive subscribers.

• Promoting deals on brands and stores for customers basis their locality.

• Approaching the customers, who have shown interest in Bajaj Finserv Credit Card on website.

2. Encourage subscribers to take action

Speak directly to your subscribers' potential needs. A great way to get started is to trigger a response through your subject lines itself. Strong subject lines can pique the curiosity of your readers enough to open the email. Including action words in your subject lines such as “Claim your discount,” “Try it out for free” or “Reserve your spot” can drive them to take action quite often without a second thought.

Subject lines with emojis are another trend that is attracting eyeballs. Companies that use emojis in their email subject lines see an open rate of as much as 56% higher than those that do not employ them. Using Hashtags is another useful trend, especially when the email is part of a larger theme or series.

3. Make it Personal as much as possiblection

72% of consumers will only respond to personalized marketing messages. Most email tools allow you to enter short codes that will be replaced with the recipient's name when the email is sent. In spite of automating your emails, you should make sure your recipients experience there's a real person on the other end.

Consider using a human name instead of only the name of a company or brand in the Sender bar (such as Ashqa from Boutique Naturals). Providing personal information makes you seem more approachable and helps you to establish a connection.

In the battle for Open and Click Through Rates, Personalised content is your conversion weapon. With the data you have about your customers, craft content that is beneficial to them, evaluate their purchase or transaction behaviors, customize your offers to their preference, and speak from a place of knowledge and influence, yet like an intimate well-wisher. 1 to 1 Marketing with targetted and personalised communication can give up to 101% Click Through Rates, fewer bounces, and fewer unsubscribes.

• Create a personalised Know your Card mailer, to make customers aware of Credit Card benefits they are missing out on.

4. Track and Study Performance

Email tools often come with A/B testing modules that allow you to compare the results of different versions of your emails. You can also experiment with sending your emails on different days of the week or at different times of the day to see when you get the best response.

Google Analytics on your website lets you track how your emails drive traffic to your landing pages and how these visitors behave once they arrive on the respective landing pages. This enables you to tailor your marketing campaigns based on your audience interests and preferences to optimize ROI.

5. Ensure it’s Mobile-friendly

More than 70% of people read their email through mobile apps. The average mobile user checks her email three times more frequently than desktop users, making them more likely to convert. While most email campaigns can be optimized for multiple screen sizes, it's a good idea to test it first across a range of devices to ensure it's responsive.

Emails that are mobile-ready, i.e. those with a single column layout, work best for mobile devices since sidebar distractions are reduced. Focus on having a concise and sharp email copy since 'less is more' works for mobile and your customers are more likely to be engaged.

6. Develop a consistent delivery pace

Employing regular email marketing campaigns allows your customers to get to know your brand. Your ability to make them like you depends on the quality of your emails, but consistency can lead to earning their trust for the long haul. A consistent email schedule allows you to reach the right audience at the right time as if you had envisioned their needs. Globally, Fridays see the highest email open rates (nearly 19%), compared to the lowest open rates (17%) on Saturdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays are also seen to perform well.

To understand the average email open rates across industries here’s a breakup from some renowned email marketing providers.

Source: Kinsta

Take into account the time zones of your subscribers when scheduling emails. Digital marketing specialist Paul Counts recommends sending out emails at a time when users have the opportunity to consume new content - that is in the morning or before shutting down for the night.

7. Make sure your emails look Clean and Crisp

Once you have enticed your readers enough to open your email, it’s important to hold their attention with stellar design and copy. You can include bullet points to make the content easier to skim and understand. Insert pictures sparingly. Images should illustrate your message rather than replace it. Some email providers block images or consider them indicators of spam. So reconsidering your imagery usage levels is worth it.

8. Make it easy to unsubscribe

Allowing users to opt-out may appear to cut off the "conversation," but if users find it difficult to remove their names, they may mark your emails as spam in the future, causing even more trouble.

The key to effective email marketing is providing your subscribers with something they will remember and value. This could be rich thought-leadership content or offers and promotions or messages about how your organization is driving change. Savvy players are already reaping the rewards of this incredibly cost-effective marketing approach. Now that you know how to emulate the most defining email marketing tactics it’s about time to put them into action.

For over two decades now, we've been helping industry leaders devise, test and refine their email marketing campaigns all afresh. We help organizations drive consistent customer engagement and retention through our suite of email marketing solutions. To know how we can help your business, contact us.