The art of a subject line and improving email campaign open and click-through rates.
Project Objectives
HomeSpun Co. is a small, handmade, artisan shop. Their best-sellers include flawless crochet dolls and animals, professionally made minky blankets, and a shop original, toddler toy called the “Minkle.”
They’ve done an exceptional job building an email list over the years, but have struggled to build a consistent and successful email marketing campaign. This project focused on developing the three following elements:
Build a Custom Email Template
Part of empowering small business owners to keep a consistent email strategy is through the development of an email template that fits the goal of the businesses email campaign(s).
Adjusting Email Subject Lines
Subject lines are the main factor in enticing viewers to open an email. In this project, I adjusted and tested new subject lines catered to the target audience.
Improve Email Metrics
I placed a special emphasis on improving Open Rates and Click-Through Rates across the campaign in specific comparison to all previous HomeSpun Co. emails .
The Project
The Email Template that gets Viewers to Click
Below are 4 of the 8 emails designed for this project. The template is designed to loosely follow a “marketing funnel” type design strategy.
- Draw the attention of the reader (Awareness)
- Tell them what it is and show them why they need it (Consideration)
- Invite them to take action (Conversion)
Each email follows the same template while adjusting to the individual email topic.
The adjustment to the email layout led to a notable increase in click-through rates: 0.4% click-through rate on the old campaign vs. a 5.8% click-through rate on the new campaign. The industry standard is between 2-5%.
The Art of Email Subject Lines
Next time you open an email, go back and look at the subject line. What about it made you decide to open the email? Then look around at others you passed by- why did you skip them?
There is so much more to a subject line than slapping together a few words that describe the email. This is where you have the opportunity to grab a viewer’s attention by telling them WHY they should open your email. Appeal to their emotions and their interests- and then deliver on your promise.
For example, on of the original campaign subject lines read, “Mother’s Day Gift Guide.” It describes exactly what they were going to get inside the email, however, it says nothing about WHY the viewer should open the email. On the other hand, one of the top performing emails from the new campaign (67% open rate) had a subject line that read, “Trying to center Easter on Christ? Look what we have for you.”
I had been listening to HomeSpun Co.’s audience/ideal customers, and this was a common theme among them this year. As a result, I catered to a need they had and then delivered on it (view the “Easter” email template above) with toys and decor that helped center Easter on Jesus Christ.
This research and adjustments led to a 100% increase in open rates (31.4% in the old campaign to 63% in the new campaign).
Increasing Metrics Across the Board
By implementing these two new tactics into the HomeSpun Co. email campaign, I was able to notably increase both open and click-through rates. In addition, I’ve provided a solid and realistic foundation for HomeSpun Co. to continue this campaign.
Additionally, I was able to gather other valuable insights through the email metrics from this campaign. Bounce rates improved as the email list was cleaned up email, as did spam complaints.
I also discovered that a majority of email recipients are viewing the emails on a mobile device (79.2% throughout both campaigns). This insight played a major role in the way the email template was built because I now knew how important it was for the emails to be optimized for mobile viewing.
Lastly, I’ve been able to provide a solid and realistic foundation for HomeSpun Co. to continue this campaign. They now have the tools (template, clean list, understanding of email host) and the tactics (subject line brainstorming tactics) to bring valuable information directly to their audience’s inbox, leading to better relationships with customers and increased sales for the company.
Project Challenges
I encountered two main challenges throughout this project:
- Cleaning up the email list
- Low sale volume
Cleaning the Email List
Due to bounce rates, it was necessary to clean up the email list. However, another main reason for a clean-up was to get HomeSpun Co.’s email list below 500 subscribers. Why? My mentor and I agreed that moving HomeSpun Co.’s email platform to MailChimp would allow for more emails to be sent than was allowed on their current platform. However, in order to build them a free account, they needed fewer than 500 subscribers.
Initially, removing bounces, spam complaints, and those who had been inactive for a long period of time made the clean easy. However, I still had a ways to go to reach 499 subscribers. Going through and finding the most active vs. the least active was tedious, but did allow for further segmentation that will be beneficial in future campaigns.
Low Sales Volume
When I say low, there was 1 order made on the site from the campaign. I’d hoped for this campaign to drive a much higher percentage of viewers to the site and then to the checkout.
After addressing this concern with my mentor, we agreed that the best course of action at this point is to encourage the owners of HomeSpun Co. to put a big focus on growing their list. As more people see it, there will be a higher number of visits to the website, and then a higher number of conversions.
Project Processes
Brain Dump
I realized early on that there was a need for improving the email campaign at HomeSpun Co. With that as my goal, the first step I took was a brain dump session with my mentor. WHO was HomeSpun Co.’s audience and WHAT would they like to see, learn, or know about the business?
With that in mind, we built a list of topics and ideas for content. Holiday products dumps are a form of social media content that was performing well, so I pulled that over into the email campaigns- including links to both the website and the social media pages/posts that were associated with the products/content. I also built emails that highlighted their most popular products. Both performed well in regard to open rates; however, the product highlight emails performed better in click-through rates.
Google Sheets
One of the most beneficial elements of this project was the use of Google sheets to track and test data. The use of analytics in this process was essential for understanding how successful the changed really were.
I was able to compare data from the new campaign to the old campaign, which provided a starting point for determining improvement.
The Template
The gem of this project was building a template that increased click-through rates.
This template was not random or made simply to be pretty: this template is built to walk the viewer through a decision and to do that quickly. Attention spans are short, and this template shows exactly what we want them to do right from the start.
Experience Overview
This project allowed me hands on experience applying skills and knowledge I’ve gained over the past few years. I’ve been taught how to build emails, what the metrics mean, and the importance of the spam-act. But, being able to apply what I learned, make sense of the data, and then make changes that worked was an incredible learning opportunity.
I’m aware that there is much to improve on still, but this project gave me tangible experience and evidence of what does and doesn’t work in an email campaign.
I also learned elements regarding processes that go beyond just email. There are elements of building an email list (which has to happen before an email campaign can begin). There are factors on the website that can be improved in order to see conversions, even if the email is great. Some sales won’t be attributed to the email campaign because the person saw the email and then went and purchased in-store.
I know I’ve just scraped the top of email marketing; but instead of feeling completely overwhelmed and daunted, I feel excited and ready to take on the challenges that will be required to learn more.
Key Insights and Takeaways
I have two main takeaways from this project:
- Subject lines should be catered to the audience
- Avoid click-bait, deliver on your promises
Subject Lines Should be Catered to the Audience
As I said before, subject lines should be less about describing what’s in the email, and more about showing the audience WHY they want to open the email. By researching subject line strategies and analyzing my own email habits, I gained valuable insight into what makes viewers stop and open and email.
Like most humans, we enjoy hearing good things about ourselves and being validated. Products are made to solve problems for certain types or groups of people. When you understand your audience, you can create content that resonates with them. Utilizing that same tactic in an email subject line allows you to improve consumer relations as well as build your business.
Deliver on Your Promises
Along the same lines, don’t use click-bait. Being genuine in your content AND delivering on what you said you’d deliver will help you build relationships with customers that turn them into loyal supporters.
Overall, be truthful in your business dealings; help your customers/clients with the services/products that you offer; and on a slightly different note, use the data. Intuition only goes so far if you don’t have some logic to back it up.