10 INGENIOUS EMAIL MARKETING TRICKS THAT BOOST SUBSCRIBER ENGAGEMENT

We all want those great open rates right?!? Subscriber engagement is queen when it comes to ensuring that our emails are delivered, that they are read and that we get the best results from them.

And the key to engagement? Creating customised subscriber experiences.

Gone are the days when we should be mass emailing everybody everything. There’s a time and place for that – but not every email.

Instead, subscribers are getting savvy and are only interested in what is relevant to them – not the other 999 people on your list.

In this blog post, you’ll discover how to learn more about your subscribers using some nifty email tricks so that you can use that information to send your individual subscriber the best content (and offers) for them.

TRICK #1: ADD A THIRD FIELD TO YOUR SIGN-UP FORMS

Everyone says “less is more” when it comes to email signup forms BUT a recent study by Omnisend (https://www.omnisend.com/blog/best-signup-forms-conversions/) found that 3 x fields (email address + 2 others) converts the best.

This has the added incentive of being able to find out more about your new subscribers – and I would suggest it is something different than their last name or birthdate. Instead, why not ask them something like “What best describes you?” with 3 or 4 dropdown options. Not only will this help you segment your audience, but it shows your potential subscriber that you are thinking beyond just mass marketing emails.

TRICK #2: PERSONALISATION

We all love to use a subscribers first name at the beginning of emails, but did you know your email service provider can have a “merge tag” for every field you have information for?

That means you can take that third field from your signup form and then sprinkle these details throughout your emails.

For example, if you know what service or topic they are interested in (from a drop-down field), add this into one of your sentences or to customise questions.

TRICK #3: CONDITIONAL CONTENT

Going a step even further is to add entire content blocks that only certain subscribers will see. ActiveCampaign is one email service provider that allows you to filter who sees what content by segment, tag or field. That means if you know someone is interested in a particular topic, you could show them a promotion on that topic and then if someone else is interested in a different topic, show them that one instead – all in the same email!

A variation of this is Dynamic Content in which all subscribers will see a certain content block but what is shown within that could be different.

For example, in Klaviyo they will create dynamic content blocks in review request emails which will link directly to the product they purchased or for recommended product emails which will showcase other products the subscriber may be interested in based on past purchases.

TRICK #4: ADD YOUR SUBSCRIBER’S FIRST NAME TO THE SUBJECT LINE

Personalised subject lines have 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click through rates that normal emails.

While this isn’t something you would use on every single email you send, it’s a handy one to have up your sleeve for that extra-important email.

Copy & paste the First Name personalisation code you’ll find in the body section of your email and put it into the subject line. Note – this will be different depending on who you use.

This is the code to use for common email providers:

MailChimp *|FNAME|*

MailerLite {$name}

ActiveCampaign %FIRSTNAME%

ConvertKit {{ subscriber.first_name }}

Klaviyo {{ first_name }}

Omnisend [[contact.first_name]]

Aweber {!firstname}

CampaignMonitor [firstname]

Drip {{ subscriber.first_name }}

Note – for bonus points, have a look up with your email service provider how you can add a fallback option if you don’t have someone’s first name.

TRICK #5: ADD AN EMOJI TO YOUR SUBJECT LINE

Mixing these techy things up with something fun! Emoji’s aren’t just for messages and social. If you want to stand out in someone’s email inbox – an emoji can definitely do that.

In MailChimp, you can do this by clicking the smiley face next to the subject line editor. For other providers heads to emojipedia, find the emoji you want and copy and paste the code.

TRICK #6: RESEND TO UNOPENS

Not something I recommend for every single campaign – especially if you email weekly. However, if you have a very important campaign such as a launch event or promotion and you want to make sure everyone sees it, then resending to unopens is very handy.

And, if you only email monthly, why not resend every campaign after a fortnight? That way you can try to maximise your opens.

The key here is to make sure that you change the subject line before you hit resend. Most email service providers will allow you to do this as part of the setup process.

TRICK #7: ENGAGEMENT TRACKING

Sure, we all try to keep a close on open rates and click through rates but are you tracking how well you are performing with engagement overall?

Adding some level of engagement tracking of individual subscribers can provide you with powerful data. Not only that, but you can use this information to either follow up with your most engaged subscribers (send a personal email!) or automatically add those who haven’t opened in a few months into a re-engagement campaign sequence.

Plus, this makes it so much easier to do a list clean up when needed.

The way this is done is different depending on your email service provider. Most will create segments that will track this.

If you are with ActiveCampaign you can use the Engagement Tagging 2-part automation to apply tags and trigger off notification or re-engagement emails.

TRICK #8: ADD A TAG ON LINK CLICK

One of the best things about email marketing is that you can use it to learn more about your subscribers – so you can serve them better in future. Adding a tag on link click is a perfect, seamless way to do this.

A tag is like a little label you add to a subscriber’s profile which you can then use to create segments or send campaigns to.

A few examples of this include if you have a link to a blog post, you can automatically add a tag like “Interest: Topic Area of Blog Post” or if they click to view a product or service add a tag like “Viewed: X Product”.

Available in ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign.

TRICK #9: SITE TRACKING

One of my favourite tricks is Site Tracking. This is the ability for your email service provider to track what pages and/or products your subscriber is looking at on your website! This means you can even create automations around what they do.

This works by adding some code from your email service provider onto our website and then once they are able to cookie your subscriber, the data will start coming through.

Available in ActiveCampaign, MailChimp (eCommerce), Omnisend and Klaviyo

TRICK #10: ASK QUESTIONS

This is not a revolutionary hack, but something that is worth mentioning when we are on the topic of engagement and learning more about your subscribers.

While technology advancements like Site Tracking and Adding Tags to Link Clicks make it easier for you to learn about your subscribers, it doesn’t entirely replace the benefit of asking questions of your subscribers.

Here are a few ways in which you can ask questions to engage more:

1. As an ordinary “hit reply and tell me” question in emails – this not only starts conversations with your warmest leads but also sends really good signals to Gmail or outlook that help improve deliverability
2. A second form after first signup – instead of redirecting someone to a thank you page, ask them to complete a second form! Still keep this brief but if you are open in saying this is in an effort to provide them with the best emails for them they will likely comply.
3. Utilise a quiz as your opt in incentive – everyone loves a quiz and with some quiz / email provider combinations you can push the answers to every question through to your email service provider.
4. Combine the questions with the Add Tag on Link Click hack – Ask a simple question and give a few answers in the form of “links”. When someone clicks the option that best describes them, a tag is automatically added.

Conclusion

The best way to increase engagement is to learn more about our subscribers and then use that information to create better experiences and emails for them.

This is just scratching the surface – we didn’t even get into the automations you can trigger as a result of this information!

The bottom line is, the more information the better. Even if you don’t use it immediately, if you add a few of these strategies to your email software now in 6- or 12-months’ time when you want to use it, you’ll have the data there waiting for you.

Which one are you going to implement today?