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Email can be overwhelming. Most of us have at least two emails we use daily for work and personal. Some of us have a lot more. Think about how many emails you get in just one of those inboxes each day. Well, your customers have the same problem. How can you ensure your email is seen when it’s competing with hundreds of other emails for your customer’s attention? It’s a tough task, but if you follow these 10 tips you can improve your open and click through rates for the next email blast you send out. Because let’s face it – email marketing is NOT going away any time soon.

1. Change your preview text

When you open an email, usually there are a few lines of copy from the body of the email under the subject line. You should keep this text under 50 characters and it should be short and clear what the email is trying to achieve or offer.

2. Send emails at off times of the week

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 10am are the most popular times for other businesses to send emails so your customers may be already overwhelmed. Try sending on a weekday around 6am when your customers are waking up or at night around dinner time. You could also try sending on weekend mornings.

3. Subject lines should be clear and clickable

Your subject line will get cut off on mobile devices and other email clients if it’s over 50 characters. Use verbs and action-oriented language to create a sense of urgency to make the recipient want to click. Avoid words that can trigger spam such as “save” or “cash.” Personalization could increase click through rates by adding the recipient’s first name in the subject line.

4. Stop sending to unengaged customers

Gray mail is any email sent to a recipient who opted into receiving your emails but doesn’t open them or interact with them. Sending to these recipients hurts your open rates.

5. Keep your emails short

Too much copy could trigger spam filters and people typically prefer short, concise emails because they will skim the hundreds of emails in their inbox.

6. Add social sharing buttons

Most of the time your email is opened and either action is taken or not. Your email isn’t looked at again. Extend the life of your email’s content by adding social sharing buttons so that recipients can share your content on their own social media.

7. Edit the plain-text version of your email

Sometimes you spend all this time on a brand-new beautiful design and your recipients won’t get to see it because their email client blocks it or they set their email up with viewing plain text emails. Be sure to replace URLs with shortened ones, take out any extra text and fix formatting for a clear, concise message. Don’t change the copy too much or you might be marked as spam.

8. Include text links in email body

Having more links increases the opportunity for your recipients to engage, so we would suggest adding in one or two noticeable links for phrases with about 7 to 10 words.

9. Provide clear expectations to new subscribers within 24 hours

Email your new subscribers with the information that they can expect to receive from you moving forward and how often they will be hearing from you while your company is top of the prospect’s mind.

10. Be CAN-SPAM compliant

You can use the following guidelines in order to be CAN-SPAM compliant. Somewhere in your message you must include your valid physical postal address (we recommend in your footer).  Don’t use fine print if you’re sending out an advertisement. The intention of the email and offer should be clearly stated. Your opt-outs must be opted out within 10 days of the recipient unsubscribing and there must be a clear and easy button to do so. The from sender of the email as well as the subject line must also be clear.

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Thanks for reading,

Your Zirlux Team