In order to create stronger email campaigns, it’s important to understand how email has evolved into the powerful marketing tool it is today. Remember when email campaigns were the newest, freshest thing in the world of marketing?

Neither do we! That’s because email has been around for what seems like forever and has become the number one way to market to customers and communicate directly with your audience.

Email Marketing Today

Today, a tremendous amount of marketing is done via email, so the measure of success is more about which companies can connect with their audience, inspire users to open emails, and create conversions than it is about having the technology to send mass email campaigns. It’s also important to have the strategy to actually accomplish specific goals through email, like improving open and click-through rate percentages and increasing website conversions.

This can be accomplished by developing new and exciting content that you can serve to your audience, involving them in your company’s experience through storytelling and fun company narrative, and sending series emails that capture their attention for longer periods of time.

To help you better understand your audience and what really interests them, try implementing links to forms on your website somewhere within the emails. The information collected can be used to gauge what type of customer segments your audiences fall into.

Create a CTA

What’s the call-to- action you are trying to accomplish? Make it known, and be obvious about it. Calls-to- action are what email marketing is all about and can help direct users over to your site and increase traffic to your landing pages.

There is so much technological clutter these days; it’s important to make your message loud and clear. The proof is the proof! Check out these fascinating statistics on email marketing to help you better understand the right ways to approach your audience.

Open Rates

Be a person, not just a company. People hate spam, and people really hate feeling like they’re just some sardine in your can of sales targets. Sending your email campaigns from a real person, rather than a basic company email address can directly improve open rates. This is because it provides a more personal experience for your audience and deep down people want to feel connected to the brands they support.

Create clear and engaging subject lines — after all, this is your first impression and you want to make this point of contact really count. This encourages at least an open from the reader, and if you’ve got the info to back yourself up, maybe even a full read (as long as they don’t have to read a novel worth of text.)

Higher open rates can help influence higher click-through rates. If you’re getting a high bounce rate and low click-throughs, it probably means your list is old and out of date. Do a clean sweep and remove older emails that no longer open your emails, this way you’re only focusing on receptive email users.

Click-Through Rates

A click-through rate (CTR) is important because it’s an indicator of who took the time to actually go through and engage with your email. Your open rate may be high but it doesn’t necessarily mean someone is retaining or acknowledging any of the information in the email.

On average, a good click-through rate is 10-20% of your open rate, and a good open rate tends to be between 20% and 40%, but it depends on your list size and how many email campaigns you send a month.

Here’s the good news: you do have some control over your CTR. Segmenting your emails or serving the right content to the right people, can improve the probability that the viewer is going to actually read what you send them. Study your unique audience and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

For example, let’s say you purchase some men’s apparel from Target online. The next emails you get from them will feature similar men’s clothing items as they’ve determined those are the items of interest to you. A little Big Brother? Yes, but also fascinating and very effective.

Mobile Email

A Pew Study in 2015 showed that 64% of all American adults owned a smartphone, and Litmus found that 54% of all email is first opened on a mobile device. This means tailoring not just information, but formatting too, for a mobile device.

• Make sure that the text fits into a mobile-sized frame and is clear and readable, that photos aren’t cut off and that any links in the email point to a landing page that is optimized for mobile as well.

• Include social media buttons so the reader can easily share the information they’ve just read.

• Keep photos and attachments under 25 MB. Slow download speeds discourage the viewer from actually paying attention to your content.

Video Communication

The real true game changer for email marketing in 2016 is video. According to HubSpot, video in an email leads to a 200-300% increase in click-through rates. Company executives are 59% more likely to watch your video than read your text, and 50% of executives are likely to look for more information after viewing a video. The statistics speak for themselves, and they’re saying that if you aren’t including videos in your email campaigns, you’re losing out on the numbers.

Keep in mind that two-thirds of email users cannot view a video in their email provider, but don’t be discouraged. This can be a fantastic opportunity to drive traffic to your website. House the video on your landing page, and simply hyperlink the email content to that landing page. Not only have you improved your CTR but you’re also encouraging the viewer to browse the rest of your website.

Be Creative

Today’s email marketing landscape is all about being creative, understanding who your audience is, and catering to their interests and needs. It can help you achieve goals with your email marketing that goes way beyond just putting a bunch of text and photos in front of an audience.

Design a strategy that speaks to your consumers about who you are as a company and as a brand. Pay attention to these tips and implement them in a way that makes the most sense for your marketing plan. Your readers are there, so it’s up to you to keep them engaged.