How Your Customers Actually Read Your Emails

This is a guest post by Chris Hexton from Vero.

Have you ever thought about how your customers actually read your emails? As in, how they approach them… mentally?

How important is the subject line? Do headings in emails matter? Which links are customers most likely to click? Are links in body content distracting? Are images important?

By considering questions like these and really investigating how customers actually read emails we naturally put ourselves in a better place to write emails that convert. No matter whether you run a blog, a SaaS business, an eCommerce store or any other company that sends emails you will be able to learn something from the tips below and apply them to your own email marketing strategies!

Setting the scene

It’s always good to be think about email marketing in context. A common campaign that can be used by all online businesses in one form or another is the retention email.

In the case of online stores this often manifests itself as cart abandonment. For lead generation businesses (affiliates, etc.) this is often a follow-up or reminder. For SaaS businesses this generally involves targeting inactive users (users that have gone cold) and for enterprise or service-based businesses this might involve targeting previous customers with a drip marketing campaign.

In all likelihood, this is a campaign you can use in your own online business.

As an example, here’s a new variation of a re-activation campaign I’m about to start testing. I’ve highlighted a few things you should pay attention to.

I haven’t got the results from this test yet (I’ll be blogging about them as soon as I do!) but it’s important to note that I didn’t just come up with the content and format from nowhere…

Instead I went looking for what others are doing, dug into what some of our customers are doing and reviewed what has worked for me in the past.

Here are four interesting points that will help you understand what to do and what to test when considering elements of your emails.

These should give you at least one thing you can take away and apply to your business immediately.

1. Subject line like it’s 1999!

Here’s what an email looks like when it arrives in a Gmail inbox

Not much to go on really, is it? The average business email user receives 72 email per day, which is quite a lot of email.

Given that we’re all trying to get to inbox zero more likely than not your emails are going to be pushed aside.

…unless you grab your customers attention!

You hear it all the time: The subject line is the most important line in your entire email.

Turns out, that ain’t no bull ;).

It’s common sense really: if you don’t write something that gets the customer in then how are the going to read the rest of it?

Knowing what to write depends on the siutation and what you are trying to achieve. This great case study from MarketingSherpa reveals how important it is to ensure your emails are clear. Don’t be overly cryptic.

…that doesn’t mean you should give everything away in the subject line though . You do need to entice the reader a little. The results of this case study suggest that it’s important you let your customers know what they email is about, though the copy itself should leave a little to the imagination.

The examples in the case study include cryptic subjects like Getting Earth-Friendly Beyond Email (ah…) and Email Timing: A Look At 6 Masters.

The results (below) show that clear subject lines dramatically outperformed all other subject lines in all forms of interaction and response.

MarketingSherpa break down the three key aims of marketing emails and I think they’re pretty spot on:

1. Brand awareness
2. To get the email opened
3. Failing an open, to convey a message

Essentially, number one is achieved as long as you get your message in your customers inbox. Number two is influenced heavily by a range of factors, not just the subject line. These factors could include the customer’s willingness to receive the email, the time they have available, previous emails you’ve sent, etc.

Number three, however, is much more likely to be achieved if you use a clear subject line.

To be cryptic or not to be cryptic: I’ve made it sound as though writing a good subject line is like walking along the edge of a cliff!

Here’s two subject lines I’ve seen lately that I believe fulfil the three goals outlined above:

Neil Patel – 5 SEO Mistakes That Even Experts Miss. This works for me because I can clearly see that this email is about SEO mistakes and yet it entices my curiosity – I want to know what the experts miss. They’re experts, for crying out loud, they shouldn’t miss anything ;)!

Ruben at BidSketch – The secret to getting larger clients. Again this is clearly an email containing tips that will help me win larger contracts but I have to get into the email and read the content if I’m to learn what practical tips I need to actually follow to do this myself.

In summary, I think few rules to remember when crafting your next subject line are:

1. Keep the subject line relevant: If you are sending a password reset email you probably don’t have to make the headline mysterious or catchy…then again, you’re probably not trying to convert customers in your password reset email (hot tip, perhaps you should).
2. Make it clear: Give the reader a good idea of what to expect in the email. Presumably, if it’s relevant, it’ll be something they’re interested in.
3. Don’t give everything away: Even though you want your customers to know what the email is about you don’t want to reveal the secrets. Build some curiosity so they open the email.

A common question I get: Where can I get inspiration for subject lines?

Subject lines, really, are just titles. You should look to great copy writeres like Joanna Weibe of CopyHackers to learn everything you can about writing catchy copy.

Take these tips, for example, as a starting point! like this.

You can also ‘steal’ ideas from content masters like Neil and the crew at KISSmetrics. This post-webinar follow-up email is a great example:

Key takeaway: Spend time on your subject line. NO, really!

2. Everyone loves the sound of their own name

No one is fooled by personalization anymore.

You’re right, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work! Personalization sometimes gets a negative stigma these days. You know, using someone’s name in an automated email just couldn’t possibly have any positive effect.

There are many case studies out there that suggest using names can work well and that using names can be a disaster.

The team at PadiAct were very skeptical that using first names but, being a conversion optimziation tool themselves, they decided to rigorously test whether personalized subject lines make a difference.

Not only did they test it but they tested it well. They used seven emails over the period of a month, they only altered the subject line (no content changes) and they ensured they reached statistical significance.

The results: a 5% increase in opens and a 17% increase in click-throughs. That’s quite a lift, just by including a customer’s name in the subject line.

…however, you could argue that using someone’s name alone isn’t really personalization.

When it comes to lifecycle emails you can can really get into proper personalization.

One of the most successful emails we have at Vero is a campaign that goes out on day four of a customer’s free tiral. The email comes from me and reads something like this:

Another example, from HelloFax, which really resonated with me last year is as simple as this:

There’s no mention of a first name but the email is so short it feels personal. The truth is joseph.walla@hellofax.com leads to the company help desk and the email is, of course, personalized…but that’s not the point, it worked!

This sort of personalization helps you connect with your customers. Customers reading an email like this feel the love.

I regularly get responses to the email I posted above along the lines of:

No worries Chris, I just haven’t had a chance to get Vero setup yet. Would you be free for a call to talk me through it some time?

Thanks, John

As you can see, this sort of email is gold. It helps us learn what is holding customers up, it gives you a chance to reach out to your customers and learn more about their problems and it makes the customer feel good.

You should definitely be setting up and testing these sorts of lifecycle emails no matter what sort of business you run.

Taking personalization even further involves segmenting each individual email campaign based on each individual customers’ previous behavior. Take an eCommerce store – rather than sending everyone the same cart abandonment emails, consider sending loyal customers (who’ve purchased more than twice before) something a little different to new customers (who have never purchased before).

This example from ArtBeads.com shows that they lifted their conversion rates (the holy grail of email analytics) by 208% by breaking down a newsletter into segments.

Segmenting like this works as it influences how customers read what you send them. If it’s relevant, targeted and speaks to them they’re much more likely to receive the email positively.

Take away: segment, segment, segment. You can’t segment enough so start by setting up some obvious customer segments and sending different emails to each group. If you’re stuck for ideas, ask me :).

3. PSssssst, the P.S. rocks

For some reason our brains seem wired to read the P.S. statement.

You tell me the last time you got an email from someone (personal or automated), read the entire email and didn’t read the P.S.?

Having a post-script in your emails is a nice little hack to re-iterate your message or call to action.

How to use a P.S. in an email

1. Testimonials – Mentioning customer stories or direct quotes in the P.S. is a good tactic though I generally like to include testimonials higher up in my emails. Why not do both?!
2. Bonuses – Something along the lines of Don’t miss out. The first X people to register will receive Y, absolutely free. Register now! A classic designed to add urgency and enhance an offer made earlier in the email.
3. Keeping it personal – In my opinion, the postscript has a one-to-one feel about it. I think it’s because it harks back to the old days of actual letter writing. Reaching out to the customer with empathy always works well. For example, This is the last email I’m going to send you about our new webinar. I know you’re busy but I genuinely think you’ll find our content valuable and, hey, you can always leave half way if it’s not your cup of tea. Link to register.

Regardless of how you plan to tackle the P.S. you should, in my experience, always include a link to the primary call to action.

After all, the P.S. is a golden opportunity to make sure your customers read the CTA!

Key takeaway: If you’re writing an email from an individual person, try including a P.S. to increase click-throughs and conversions. Always re-iterate your primary call to action.

P.S. – Made you look ;)

4. An image is (not always) worth a thousand words

Email design is a huge challenge. Great tools like Campaign Monitor, Litmus and MailChimp have continually strived to make HTML templating easier for us email marketers, though there are still a lot of quirks to deal with day-to-day.

The real question (and I get asked this a lot) is whether a fancy HTML template with lots of images really works better than a plain text or basic, rich text email.

The short answer is: test it. Depending on the targeted segment, the email in question and the conversion goal HTML or plain text can both ‘win’.

As Jason Fried at 37 Signals wrote a number of years ago, link, simple is often better.

Here’s the sort of email I often receive, particularly from eCommerce stores…

I think you’ll agree that an email like that is rather difficult to process.

In fact, it’s near impossible.

When you open an email like this, two things can follow:

1. You enable images.
2. You head to your next email.

…it doesn’t take much to realize that an email with virtually no text will lead to a decrease in click-throughs and conversions. It’ll also affect your deliverability.

Here’s another email I received just the other day from an awesome, and highly reputable, company (who I respect greatly). The entire email was one big image.

The email looked beautiful when the images were enabled but I found it curious that they hadn’t gone for a hybrid approach and included some text.

When sending HTML emails that are image heavy (and there is many a case for this) consider making as much of the email as possible basic or rich text. Have a call to action that can be rendered without an image, have descriptive ALT text (though don’t make them too long) and consider that a large proportion of readers will NOT have images turned on.

If you are going to go image-heavy then consider going all out. StyleCampaign has helped develop some really intriguing ’email games’ in the past using dynamic images. MovableInk are also pushing some really valuable solutions when it comes dynamic imagery.

Take away: Customers won’t go to too much effort when reading your emails. Make their lives easy, make your emails load quickly and, if images are something you really want to experiment with, consider some of the dynamic options for something different. Always test it, there’s a time and a place for both HTML and plain/rich text emails.

How do you read YOUR emails

Hopefully these tips have given you a few things you can use to implement on your current or future email marketing campaigns.

It’s always good to think about how you consume emails. What would you feel if you received the email you’re currently writing? Would you be likely to take the action you’re trying to drive?

What have you seen work in your emails? Have your customers responded similar to what I’ve described above or have you seen contradictory results? Let me know in the comments – sharing is caring!