It's a tale as old as time, a song as old as… Wait, let's not get all Disney about this.. Plunging email engagement rates can be a serious issue for a business, especially in B2C sectors like retail and ecommerce.
Fortunately, you don't need to transform every inhabitant in a remote castle into furniture to solve this problem. Instead, try these four simple steps:
Ensure your audience is properly segmented
Identify where your engagement is dropping off
Test to fix your issue
Never resort to just buying more data
Let's delve into more detail on each of these.
Segmentation
This is the cornerstone of any robust email marketing strategy. You won't find many businesses with successful programmes that haven't implemented it. Segmentation involves breaking down your email audience into smaller groups, each linked by a common characteristic.
Most commonly, you might have groups of people who are subscribed to your emails and those who are unsubscribed. You could also have people who engage and click on your content frequently, those who engage less frequently, and those who only engage rarely.
On the B2C side, at the bare minimum, you should ideally have a segment for people who have recently abandoned a basket. This allows you to target these potential customers with personalised reminders or offers, encouraging them to complete their purchase. Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table by missing a segment that could power a key automation.
Identify the problem
So, you've lost engagement, but where exactly is it happening and what is the cause? While the answer is often subtle, there are some basic checks you can make to reverse the trend.
Are open rates declining?
This is often a symptom of unengaged contacts or subject lines that simply aren't enticing enough to get people to open the email.
Are click-through rates declining?
People are opening the emails, but they aren't taking any further action? Diagnosing and fixing this issue can be more challenging. The underlying problem might be that your email content no longer appeals to your subscribers. We'll delve deeper into why this might be the case in the next section.
Are unsubscribe rates on the rise?
Similar to the issue above, it seems like your content may not be delivering on its promise, or perhaps you're sending too many emails. We'll explore this further below.
Are hard bounce rates increasing?
This issue is arguably the easiest to diagnose, as hard bounces indicate poor data. You'll need to work on validating the data entering your system, or even cleaning older data that you've had for a while.
Test and “fix”
First things first, did you notice those quotation marks around the word 'fix' in the header? That's because email marketing isn't something you simply test, fix, and consider done. You'll often hear the word 'test' used alongside 'learn' in this context, as continuous improvements are vital to your email campaigns. It's about learning and implementing what you gleaned from the last test.
However, ensure you only test one thing at a time, or you'll never discern what exactly gave your campaign that boost!
Here are some suggested tests that may help boost your declining metrics:
Open rates: Try using emojis in subject lines, adding a sense of urgency, scarcity, or eliciting FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Click-through rates: Test the colour and position of your main Call to Action, experiment with the length of your email, or adjust the number of images you use. If something isn't clicking here (no pun intended), don't be afraid to mix things up!
Unsubscribes: This should be improved by the click testing above, but also try adjusting how frequently you send emails. If your provider allows it, do time zone-specific emails work better than static sends?
Bounces: Review your data sources. Can you add reCAPTCHA or something similar to forms? Are you blocking invalid emails? This is less of a testing phase and more of a technical one, where you need to investigate where the poor data is coming from and then modify or block that source. Investing in an email validation service for larger databases can be extremely beneficial.
Don’t buy data
I often see people suggesting this as a quick fix, and I've never heard of it ending well for anyone serious about marketing effectively and for the long term.
Buying data, at best, provides you with contacts who may have never heard of your business or your product/service, and have no need for what you offer. At worst, you may be breaching your email service provider's terms of service and risk losing your account, or even violating data protection laws.
In B2B, there is some legal flexibility, but you'll still face performance issues when this data fails to engage, which can further drag down your engagement numbers and potentially cause lasting problems. In B2C, the repercussions can be even worse.
Turn around achieved?
Hopefully, these tips and suggestions have provided some food for thought. While they are by no means an exhaustive list, they should offer some insight into what you can do should your email engagement start to decline.
Of course, if you're stuck, aren't sure what else to try, or simply want a helping hand, Brew Digital is here to help. Request a review today.
