How to design an email to improve customer engagement

[Grace_R]

Perhaps you've looked at your email engagement levels recently, and - unlike temperatures across much of the Eastern United States right now - they're not so hot. And you're wondering, what can I do to improve?

There are several ways you can personalize your emails and utilize tools in order to boost your open and click rates, including:

• Creating and sending to contact segments
• Personalizing your subject line
• Adding a greeting tag that will automatically populate with your contact's name
• Customizing your email by inserting dynamic content to show contacts only what’s relevant to them based on their city, state, or other custom field
• A/B testing subject lines in order to determine which performs best
• Including a handwritten signature

What other ways can an email be designed in order to improve your customer engagement? We'd love to hear your suggestions!

[TraceyLeeDavis]

One of the biggest things I learned early on in my emailing career is that it is SO crucially important to create emails that your audience wants to read, not what YOU want to read. I made the mistake of creating emails that other professionals in my industry would be interested in, but my clients were not professionals in my industry. So I was really missing the mark there. Always think about creating content for your audience. What do THEY care about? What are their big questions? That's going to be the foundation that helps all of the other great tips mentioned above get even more traction.

[Chris-S]

Don't forget to visit our Campaign Feedback board as well. This is the perfect spot to share your email templates, events, surveys, and landing pages. Gain valuable feedback from other members of the community and discover useful tips on how to make the most out of your latest draft before sending.

[Elizabeth_K]

Email engagement is built on opens and clicks, so your content needs to be interesting enough to get the open, and your call-to-action needs to be enticing enough to get the click. When you're trying to get your contacts to engage with you, pay extra attention to the call-to-action! Make sure that it stands out as the focal point of your email, and that the supporting content is both persuasive and has a sense of urgency.  This article has some helpful tips.

[Abigail_S]

I personally love an email with a witty subject line. A good example of creative subject lines that get me to click in  emails are my favorite retailers. I feel targeted because they know I have a shopping problem. But I have to give them credit because their subject lines get me to click into the email and usually the email has some type of offer waiting for me to spend more! 

We receive hundreds of emails a day. Think about the ones that you click on and what made you click on it. Was it the eye-catching subject line? Was it the offer waiting for you inside the email? Whatever made you click, start thinking about how you can implement something similar in the emails you are sending out to your customers.