Emails provide one of the best platforms for lead generation. However, standing out in a crowded inbox can be incredibly challenging—since many users receive tons of emails daily.
Most marketers establish that standing out in emails is one of the biggest challenges in digital marketing!!
Shortcut to: Best Email Lead Generation Tactics to Increase Response Rates
How do you increase the response rate of your email marketing efforts? How can you make more prospective clients sign up for the opt-in form so you can begin generating leads?
Below, we’ll comprehensively overview the best email lead-generation tactics to increase your response rate.
What is an email marketing response rate?
Email marketing promises an incredible return on investment (ROI). Research shows that for every dollar you spend on your email marketing efforts, you can get an ROI of $44.
However, these earnings depend on your email marketing response rate.
Email marketing response rate is a metric that shows the percentage of email users who respond to an email marketing campaign.
It reflects potential leads, interests, and engagement. Marketers often use the email marketing response rate to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
It lets you evaluate whether -- your email marketing campaigns contribute positively to your business success!! How do you calculate the email marketing response rate?
To get your response rate, divide the number of responses you get by the number of emails you send. Then, multiply the result of that calculation by 100.
For example, if you sent out 500 emails and received 50 responses, your response rate would be (50 / 500) * 100 = 10%.
One essential thing to note is that a high response rate shows that your email content resonates well with your recipients.
On the other hand, a low response rate indicates that you need to improve your email content.
Why is it essential to track your email response rate?
Tracking your email response rate is incredibly important. Here is why:
- It helps you know how many of your email subscribers are engaged. Also, it lets you know the type of content that keeps your audience engaged and which does not. This knowledge can help you make the necessary changes to keep your audience engaged.
- It helps you analyze the success rate of your email marketing strategy efforts, so you can double down or adjust your tactics. As stated above, emails have an incredible return on investment. Thus, tracking your response rate can help you capitalize on the ROI.
- It helps you learn which audience will likely purchase your services and products. The email marketing response rate ensures that you can access subscriber knowledge of which subscribers are more receptive to your sales campaigns.
So, what are the best email lead generation tactics to increase response rate?
Your primary email lead generation tactic should be to have a response rate of 10% or higher.
To do this, consider using the below tactics:
1. Segment your audience
51% of marketers say email segmentation is one of the most effective personalization strategies!!
It generates about 58% of revenue from emails. Thus, one of the first things you should do is segment your audience.
But how do you go about segmenting your audience? The first thing you can do is find like-minded individuals and then segment them.
For example, you can divide your audience based on the following:
- Physical location
- Position in the sales funnel
- Gender
- Age
- Income level
- Challenges faced
- ETC
This email list segmentation lets you send relevant content your audience can relate to, engage with, and respond to.
For example, -- fashion brands tend to segment their email subscribers by gender so they can send offers that fit their specific needs.
It will not make sense to send content about one gender to another.
The key to a positive response rate is to send the right content to the right audience. It will help you boost your response rate.
2. Use a personalized approach to communication.
Automated emails are no longer attractive. Most people tend to avoid one-size-fits-all content—which is understandable.
Thus, your content must provide relevant information to your audience, including offers, sales, or significant promotions.
Ensure that the content you send relates to areas of interest of your potential clients, leveraging net promoter score tools.
This focus on areas of interest will help you attract repeat customers to make repeat purchases.
Personalizing your email content, such as the subject line, can increase your open rate by 26%.
Note that the higher the open rates, the higher the response rate will be!!
3. Focus on lead quality.
Some email lead generation tactics are excellent regarding offer and content quality. However, they need to achieve a reasonable response rate. In most cases, the offer and content are not an excellent match for the target market!!
Thus, if your primary goal is to increase your response rate, ensure that your potential leads genuinely need your services, online software discounts, and products.
One way to do this is by having a lead-nurturing program.
This program will help you concentrate your efforts on the audience that is more interested in your offer. You can use the double opt-in strategy to get quality leads.
Ask your email list to confirm whether they would like to hear from you -- this eliminates the chances of you getting subscribers who will never open your emails!!
4. Apply thoughtful mailing.
Some marketers believe prospective customers will make purchases if they receive email often. That is not true.
Your focus should be on the quality of your content, not the quantity. It is better to send a few exciting emails than many generic and basic ones.
Interesting emails can make your target audience want to read your messages, as they know they will find something interesting.
When you apply a thoughtless mailing system, your target audience may perceive your emails as spam. This perception will reduce your response rate.
So, it is worth it to apply thoughtful mailing!!
5. Have a clear call to action.
What is the primary purpose of using email lead-generation tactics? To make your prospective customers take action!! So, do not assume your email audience knows what to do after receiving an email!
This assumption can reduce your response rate by a significant margin. Thus, ensure your email content has a decisive and clear content action. Consider using a personalized CTA instead of a basic one.
Research shows that personalized CTAs have a better conversion rate, just shy of 4%, than a basic CTA. Thus, some of the things to keep in mind when creating your CTA include the following:
- Keep it short
- Depict a sense of urgency
- Be clear
- Avoid ambiguous CTAs
6. Test and optimize your email lead-generation tactics
What makes one tactic more successful than the other? There can be several reasons!! The price point may not attract the right audience, or the content may not be enjoyable.
You will only know what works once you test and optimize each aspect of your email lead-generation tactic.
You can test and optimize your tactics by running – A/B tests on every tactic. Make sure you test the following:
- Page layout
- Call to actions
- Photos
- Button colors
- Headlines
After performing the test, place the winning elements in your next marketing campaign. Then, test for something else.
This test and optimization aspect will help boost your online response rate. Also, it will give you valuable insights on personalizing subsequent campaigns.
You can also use AI for lead generation to help with these elements.
7. Use captivating subject lines.
Subscribers need to open your emails—so that they can respond to them. Thus, one of the best ways to boost your open rates is to use captivating subject lines.
You can do this by:
- Use the recipient’s name.
- Use a sense of urgency, such as ‘Open Now’ rather than later.
- Have a subject line that reflects the content. Note that click-bait subject lines may cause you to lose the trust of your subscribers. Also, it may ensure that you will not get the response you need.
- Keep the subject lines short since most email recipients use mobile devices to check their email.
- Use A/B testing to test your subject line.
8. Use GIFs and emojis.
GIFs and emojis are now essential to daily written communication and conversation. They engage the recipients visually.
Also, they provide you with an exciting way to engage with your recipients.
Some of the things that you can do with your GIFs and emojis to increase the response rate include the following:
- Use them in subject lines and then test and optimize them
- Align them with your brand voice
- Use them at suitable places in your content to increase engagement
- Use them in the proper context
- Do not overuse the emojis and GIFs
In Conclusion
Increasing your email list response rate is often the primary goal behind email lead generation tactics.
This need for an increased response rate will require you to apply some smart moves. Use the above strategies to boost your email open and response rates.
Maintaining control over these lead generation activities is also essential, ensuring that each strategy is executed on schedule and within scope.
An appropriate project management software provides a structured platform to monitor progress, optimize resources, and make data-driven decisions, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of your email lead generation efforts.
