Seven Ways To Improve Your Email Conversion Rate

In spite of the many messages we all scroll past or delete every day, email marketing remains popular because of its high ROI (Return On Investment). In most industries, for-profit businesses can expect to earn around $35 for every $1 spent on email marketing. Nonprofits can sometimes do even better by leveraging free and reduced-cost programs for nonprofits through services like Constant Contact and Mailchimp.

To effectively run email marketing campaigns, you must have a clear objective, whether that’s educating the public, promoting fundraising events, getting donations, or finding staff. Once you have an objective, you will include a Call To Action (a “Donate” or “Visit Site” button to click, for example) in your email. Your “conversion rate” is the percentage of people who perform that action. Your main goal is to get that number as high as possible. If you’re not doing as well as you would like, try these tips:

  1. Clean up your list. It might sound counterintuitive to delete contacts, but some of your contacts are dragging you down. If people haven’t engaged with you in several months or they’ve never opened an email or emails bounce back from their address, they need to go. High bounce rates and/or low engagement hurts your credibility with the algorithms that determine value on the internet. Your email address could come to be seen as one that sends spam (leading to lower deliverability), and your website’s search rankings could even take a hit.
  2. Segment your list as specifically as possible. You should have different audiences for different content. Segment your audience in any way that makes sense for your goals (donors, board members, volunteers, etc.). Doing so will allow you to send useful and relevant information to the people who need and want it. It will also help you avoid annoying people by sending the wrong things (a message for staff sent to event attendees, etc.).
  3. Get into the inbox and actually be opened. You don’t want to waste your time by ending up in the spam or junk folder, and you don’t want to sit in the inbox without being opened. If possible, send your emails from a real address rather than a “do not reply” address. Craft your subject line and preview text in a way that teases the content, but makes the value clear. Let the reader know what they’re getting when they open the email. Avoid words like “giveaway” or “free” in the subject line even if you’re giving something away. Filters tend to associate these words with spam and with bots. You want your audience to know you’re a real person sending them something with real value.
  4. Have a narrowly focused goal for every email you send. Everyone wants to get more donors or grow their audience, but these are not specific enough goals for an email campaign. You should have one action you want the reader to take (subscribe to your YouTube channel, visit your landing page, attend a webinar, etc.). The more specific the goal is, the more likely you will be to craft copy and a Call to Action that support the goal. You will also be more likely to meet the goal, and better able to judge the email’s performance through open and click rates.
  5. Make it easy for your audience. Once you have a goal for your email, make sure the email conveys that goal clearly. Your Call to Action should be obvious. Your design should be uncluttered and your copy should be clear. Have a sensible hierarchy of information with bolded headlines, bulleted lists, and lots of white space. Make it as easy on the reader as possible. Use a tone that matches the expectations of these particular readers and is true to your brand. Remember to proofread.
  6. Look good on mobile. More and more people are reading email on phones these days; on average, nearly 50% of all emails are read on mobile devices, and it could be even more, depending on your industry. It isn’t hard to do responsive design these days, especially if you use a service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, which allow you to preview your email on a number of devices. Don’t frustrate your readers by having them have to scroll side to side on a tiny screen. Most people who encounter a non-responsive message on their phones will simply close it without reading.
  7. As always, be compliant with laws against spam. Nothing else will matter if you run into legal troubles with your email marketing. At a minimum, provide an unsubscribe button in the footer of every email as well as your company’s name and physical address.