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58 February | 2023 Business What should your messaging look like? Both Conforti and Freeman agree that providing value is key. Conforti believes that "less is more" when it comes to promotional emails. Have nice imagery, short copy and that's it. " Value is something that is relevant to most customers," he suggests. " You must off er products they are interested in and that are relevant to their lifestyles. But it must include a good off er. e off er is everything." Freeman concurs, adding that people will act on your campaign only if there is an appealing off er—as well as a call to action. "Telling consumers that fl owers are on sale does nothing," he says. "Telling consumers to click a button to automatically redeem a coupon for free delivery is more likely to get a response. e call to action should spell out the benefi t; 'Click Here' doesn't cut it." In today's email marketing, interactive emails are the way forward , writes Maryam Mohsin for Oberlo, a drop- shipping app built by Shopify. According to research by MarTech Advisor, an international source for marketing technology news and research, adding videos to your emails can increase "click-through" rates (clicking to open an email) and "click-to-open" rates (clicking on a link within an email) by as much as 300 percent. " Your emails should create user engagement, and adding videos does that," Mohsin notes. "Progressive email marketers also include sliders, collapsible menus and GIFs to make their emails more engaging to customers. Also, make sure that all of your interactive emails are optimized for mobile devices." Of critical importance in getting people to open emails are subject lines, as are sender names. Freeman states that an email's subject line and sender name will determine if someone opens the email. "Some brands might do better with 'Brandi@BFloral' as the sender name while others might do better just using the company name." Test subject lines and sender names by monitoring your click-through rates to see what types and formats perform best, and search the internet for more advice on writing eff ective subject lines; you'll fi nd lots of useful tips, advice and data. MailChimp provides advice for writing eff ective subject lines online at eepurl.com/dyikT9. Research conducted by Yes Marketing/Data Axle, an email marketing consulting fi rm and service provider, shows that emails with personalized subject lines generate 50 percent higher click-through rates, so it is worth customizing your greetings and subject lines to include individual names when you send emails. It that's too much of a task, try personalizing your emails with a topic of interest to your subscriber base. While emojis in subject lines have an impact, studies show that the impact could be positive or negative. Freeman suggests that if your brand is more traditional or if your email list largely comprises older consumers, the usage of emojis in your email subject lines could be off -putting for your recipients. However, if your email list is separated by ages, emoji usage could be intriguing and enticing to younger consumers. Both Conforti and Freeman agree that it is time well spent to come up with good subject lines. If they're not good, no one will open the email, and, if they're awful, you could get fi ltered as spam. One tip is to avoid ALL CAPS; some people consider all caps to be shouting, and they also can cause your email to be perceived as spam by the receiver's spam fi lter. Conforti also advises to never say "Save $5"— or any other dollar fi gure—as an off er in a subject line. What kind of click-through and click-to-open rates should you expect? As of December 2022, Constant Contact states that the average click-through (open) rate for delivered emails across all industries 34.51 percent, and the average does nothing," he says. "Telling consumers to click a button to automatically redeem a coupon for free delivery is more likely to get a response. e call to action should spell out the benefi t; 'Click Here' doesn't cut it." In today's email marketing, interactive emails are the way forward writes Maryam Mohsin Oberlo shipping app built by Shopify. According Shopify. According Shopify to research by MarTech Advisor an international source for marketing technology news and research, adding videos to your emails can increase "click-through" rates (clicking to open an email) and "click-to-open" rates (clicking on a link within an email) by as much as 300 percent. " Your emails should create user engagement, and adding videos does that," Mohsin notes. "Progressive email marketers also include sliders, collapsible menus

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