Response rates are critical in sales. After all, if you can’t get a buyer to respond to a call or an email…you can’t start a relationship let alone close a sale.
Smart sellers know that email marketing to a warm list of buyers is a profitable way to both keep in touch with your current customers as well as attracting new buyers.
That being said, you must pay attention to a few rules to ensuring your emails are responded to positively.
- I’ll start with the obvious one. Don’t send email to buyers who have’t opted into your lists! I can’t tell you how many marketing emails I receive each week from companies I have never heard of or have visited. Each one, I tag as junk and block the sender. You can bet that if I am dong this, your buyers are too. This goes with your existing customers too. Make sure everyone has agreed to received email campaigns from you before you start sending them.
- Keep the emails short. No one wants to scroll down reading pages and pages of information. Don’t make your buyers work to find what they are seeking.
- Optimize the emails for all mobile devices. This also applies to the websites and links you are including.
- Educate, don’t sell. 70% of the email should be content and thought leadership. 30% can be advertising and offers.
- Tailor. As much as possible, send customized emails to each type of buyers. For example, you can personalize for industry segment, product category and or job function. The more tailored your email is, the more likely it will be opened.
Remember as well that email is only one type of contact. You must also call, connect on social media, and meet in person with current and penitential customers.
[bctt tweet=”Sellers that use an omni-media approach close 20% more business and do it 41% faster.” username=”EngageColleen”]
In general, when done correctly, email response rates are good, -ranging from 25-47% across all industries. How do yours compare?
Hubspot has just released a new tool that will show your response rate measure up against your industry average. I suggest you take a look at it to compare your results. If your response rates are lower than your industry average, take a look at the content and cadence of your emails to find improvements.
If you are not measuring your response rates, get cracking! How can you know what to improve if you are not measuring your results?