How to Increase Email Marketing Conversions

Introduction

When you’re a digital marketer, there’s one channel that’s a necessary evil. Wanna guess what it is? (Hint: I bet it’s obvious.)

It’s email!

Seriously…is there really any other channel that makes your stomach turn quite like email?

On one hand, email is easy. You create some templates, make them educational or witty, or otherwise share value. Then, you string some together, and voila! You have a nurture sequence.

But then there’s the dark side: the intense focus on the numbers. As a marketer, the data matters. But to your potential customers? Email isn’t what it used to be.
It’s why all those performance metrics keep pointing downward. It’s why your email marketing campaigns aren’t doing what you intend them to do. And, if you’re treating email marketing the way you’ve always treated email marketing, it’s why your revenue numbers are at risk.

The good news?

There’s a better way to drive more conversions.

An Approach That Beats Email

Before we get to that, let’s take a step back…We all can agree—at the highest level—the key to increasing sales lies in communications
Sure, what you say and how you say it will always be critical, but these days, using the right delivery mechanism can dictate whether you’ll find success…or failure.
Boost engagement, and you boost conversions!

It’s easy to see why. With the right communication—the best message, the best channel, the best timing—it’s easier to realize all those benefits above; it’s easier to hit the numbers.
In a world where email has become more of an annoyance for your potential customers, the best way to increase conversions is to focus less on email! In fact, there’s another channel that’s quickly becoming preferred by consumers…and it’s taking brands too much time to figure it out.

Text Messaging: The Next Boon for Marketers and Sales Pros

If you feel like this is a bait and switch…it’s because it is. And there’s a good reason for it.
With only the most forward-thinking brands taking advantage of text messaging marketing for sales, we can see there’s far more opportunity in engaging your customers. This means—if you know the right way to adopt text messaging—there’s a massive opportunity.

Email vs. Text Messaging: Which performs best?

FACT: Email is no longer the #1 communication channel.

Email has been the prime source of communication for most businesses over the past several decades. The reason? The channel has performed exceedingly well!
But, all good things have to end at some point. And for email, that time has come. Things have changed drastically over the last year in lock-step with the modern-day customer’s communication preferences…well that and advanced spam filters!
These days, you can (and arguably should) still send emails as part of an outbound lead gen effort. But, the numbers will never be as good as they once were.

Text Messaging (that’s SMS for the cool kids) is becoming the new normal for customer-business communication.

SMS has emerged as an effective and efficient communication channel for forward-thinking brands.
Think they’re too intrusive? Think again.
According to a survey by OpenMarket, almost half – 48% of millennials surveyed said they’d prefer text messaging when communicating with a business. Millennials receive an average of 67 texts per day, with an open rate of 98% and a reply rate of 45%. Compare that to your last email campaign!!
Today, the average email open rate is 20%, with a response rate of only 6%. Considering this data, it’s clear that when it comes to younger and future audiences, customers just don’t prefer email communications. They’re more comfortable with the short burst of text.
The question becomes this: What’s your business going to do about it?

Email vs. SMS: benefits for business

Email vs. SMS: benefits for customers

Customer communication preferences in 2022

The Bottom Line

Text messaging is the new email.

SMS is where email was at its infancy…with one huge BUT.

BUT.

There is a right way to do text messaging and a wrong way.

SMS can act as a lead management automation mechanism and can enhance engagement and accelerate sales.

OR, it can annoy your potential customers as badly (or worse) as email.
The key lies in conversational text messaging. When the text message feels like it’s from a human…when the texting becomes more of a conversation than a transaction, your engagement—and with it, your performance metrics—go way up.

Then, your email marketing efforts can become less of a focus, and more of a supplement.

Stop annoying. Start engaging.

That should be the mantra for us all.

Don’tcha think?