The email enigma refers to the quandary companies face in trying to spark conversations with prospects and customers via email marketing. Despite relatively high open rates on email campaigns in recent months, designs that aren’t mobile-friendly and a lack of relevance in messaging impede conversion rates.
The following is a look at how proper design combined with precise CRM-driven targeting can make a world of difference.
The Current State of Email
According to a recent Forbes article, 69 percent of emails received by prospects were opened on mobile devices (54 percent on smartphones and 15 percent on tablets), as compared to 31 percent on desktop. However, desktop still dominates email conversions, with 51 percent of conversions coming from desktop, 29 percent from tablets and 20 percent from smartphones.
These numbers paint a clear picture. People spend more time on mobile, including checking email. However, companies aren’t currently leveraging access to mobile targets as effectively to drive conversions as they have on desktop.
Responsive Design Factors
If you want people to not only read but also respond to your marketing emails, you need to ensure a quality user experience. Forbes also indicated that 45 percent of readers who unsubscribe to a campaign do so because the emails or business website won’t display well on their phones. Thirty-four percent mark company emails as spam for the same reason. Another 35 percent unsubscribed from emails because of poor app display.
These stats point to the importance of responsive emails that fit the screen size and capabilities of the in-use device. Many companies appear to get that point, with the percentage of desktop-centric email designs dropping from 60 percent to 23 percent since 2014, according to Forbes. Mobile-aware design is up to 27 percent, but responsive design has more importantly grown to 50 percent. Companies that haven’t “responded” to the need for responsive or mobile-friendly design are behind the times.
User-Friendly Content Gap
Even with the right design setup, you won’t generate interest and conversions without content that matters to particular readers. Successful email marketers use high-quality CRM systems to gather deep, insightful data on prospects and customers that correlate with their database email address.
First, you want to build a broad profile on each target that allows you to identify distinct marketplace differences. Additionally, tracking behaviors associated with emails allows you to identify which devices particular people use for activities. Knowing these things allows you to segment your email campaigns to more consistently deliver messages with content that appeals to each reader, in a format he or she prefers.
Conclusions
Competition is way too high in email marketing to rely on a large database full of random email addresses. You need to tailor your emails with responsive or mobile-friendly design, and provide relevant content that appeals to discrete market segments.
Salesgenie offers you great opportunities to target the right readers with deep data. Start your free trial to see for yourself!
