Email Conversion Rates & Opens
I. My System: Tried, Tested & True
I acquire the best lists on my own, by calling on Founders and Executive Directors (basically I go straight to the CEO if it's a large organization, or straight to the Founder if it's an independently-owned business) - the closes I celebrate the most are the ones where I cold-called them, got them in for an intro meeting on my own - but once we started growing, the leads came in on their own so fast that I couldn't keep up with them. Even then the ones that brought the most satisfaction were the ones where I did my homework and found them on my own. Then I'd add them to our email list (all 100% original and either I called on them and got their consent or they came in through Jivo chat or our HOLLA forms). The emails promoting ourselves are the most important. I knew that RCM had to be the #1 brand because people had to aspire to be us, in order for us to charge a higher price. I was a total control freak about them. Email open rates vs click-through are how I know them. Conversions are always linked to people that clicked through. I have a system where I have our lead web developer separate them into Excel forms by who opened them vs. who clicked through the CTA on the email correspondence while noting who went to the corresponding landing page. Each e-blast is super targeted for that specific audience (so it speaks their language and takes them straight to that page). The people who clicked through were more likely to convert and got a different follow-up email. The ones who opened them and didn't click through I pursued harder on my own with follow-up calls asking them various questions I could just intuit 1:1. They got a different kind of automated yet personalized email than the ones who clicked through. The ones that clicked through were more likely to convert (around 3 cycles as in months) vs. the ones that just opened. Once we grew though, the ones we got through chat converted far easier because of our reputation.
II. Emails with Emojis
A. Email opens - Knowing how stupid people were already, we always ran a test to 10% of our email list with two different subject lines. The ones without emojis were literally less than 1% less likely to get opened, so eventually we just tested two subject lines with two different emojis.
B. Examples of how emojis can make subject lines more engaging - They always had our attitude in them - and we celebrated things like Left-Handers Day, and were smart-alecky.
C. Caution against excessive or irrelevant use of emojis - No, on Valentine's Day one we did for Jewelers had a shit ton of hearts on it that won the 10% test and it was a big hit, so I'd never say never.
III. Tailored and Personalized Content
A. Importance of personalizing email content for better engagement - hugely important - that Founder or CEO has to know you're speaking directly to them as a person instead of a transaction, so having the first paragraph super personalized is way more effective. For example, I never left the first name out and I always conveyed in that email that we just 'got' them and that we knew we could keep them in the game where they could focus on why they got into it in the first place, and what I did really well was make the burned out ones remember why they got into it in the first place. Eventually, we got to be the team where the Founder or CEO could let go of all the middlemen and just have us and their core team. And that made me feel proud.
B. Benefits of segmenting email lists based on recipient interests or preferences - I didn't do this except for the secondary emails. For those, I separated them by how old the leads were and followed up with the ones that I hadn't heard from in the longest time first because I understood their lifestyle and didn't want to nag.
IV. Compelling and Benefit-Driven Subject Lines
A. Emphasize the significance of subject lines in grabbing readers' attention - majorly significant - for example 'Why You Working So Hard?' with an emoji would work better than a standard 'You got mail' like AOL or some automated BS. It has to be slightly off and a bit funny.
B. Strategies for creating compelling subject lines that highlight the benefits - it depends on the landing page. the one that took people to contract killers was the best. It said something like "Sick of working with people who don't speak your language?" or ones that implanted doubt about the agency they were working with. We are the best at using that doubt to make them question who they're currently working with so something like "Does your agency make you pay to host your files?" (because we never did, we called out all those posers).
C. Examples of subject lines that have been successful in driving open rates -legit one that was 'Ads Around the World" and "Spending Your Life in Operations Instead of Running the Operation?" stuff like that. For vasectomies, it was always "Straight Up is How We Serve It" (something with edge and cheeky).
V. Building Trust and Credibility
That comes through the monthly emails and staying true to ourselves.
A. Importance of establishing trust through email communication - I consider this very important, and I always email the Founders directly their email open rates and subject lines and it's why we meet with our clients in person once a month.
B. Highlight the value of delivering valuable and relevant content to recipients - Another big must to me - we wanted to make sure they got as much traction as we did, I knew the selling point was that they'd want to be like us. Like attracts like, so super witty, with tons of attitude and a huge dose of sardonic wit.
C. Encourage transparency and sincerity in email messaging - YES, transparency is something I can't help but be, and I value that to an enormous extent, and that's why all their wins came in an email from me. It made me happy to see them converting, and I knew it would keep us in business.
VI. Timing and Frequency
A. Discuss the significance of sending emails at the right time - Timing is huge to consider, and I understand the lifestyle of a business owner innately. We test different times of the day out and I swear the ones at 11 pm (b/c I always trusted my intuition) got opened the most by Founders and CEOs. I knew they'd be late and always on, and I nailed it with this time even though the team thought 9 pm or 8 pm - my 11 pm always worked out. On the follow-up emails, I'd try 11 am vs 11 pm and 11 pm always won out as well.
B. Strategies for determining optimal timing based on the target audience - My intuition and using the 10% test batch at different times to confirm it.
C. Caution against excessive email frequency that may lead to disengagement - I always send them monthly and did follow-ups no more than a month later but I knew which ones were wanting to convert and would just pick up the phone before I sent that off-the-cuff email, and would attach case studies that I knew would sway them to decide faster.
VII. Call-to-Action and Conversion Optimization
A. Importance of clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) in emails - Strangely enough the COLOR of the CTA mattered more than the CTA itself. I take what's proven and known, and it would work, but the shorter the better. For example, just changing the color of the button to Amazon yellow would increase the click-thru rate. People always told me in the hour-long introductory sales meetings I would hold with the shot-callers that we were not only creative but also really technical. We're always optimizing because as a consumer myself I understand consumer behavior.
B. Strategies for creating effective CTAs that drive conversions - I always wrote them or honed them myself. I just knew right away, and speak my truth, but if you need an example it would be like 'Be the Proof'.
C. Highlight the significance of testing and refining CTAs for better performance - Very important. If the test batch doesn't get a lot of opens I'd change the CTAs to be more time-sensitive but they always had to make that person feel special. So 'Stay True To Form' was a good one. Ones that had that psychological thing of 'Hey, this person gets me.'
VIII. Conclusion
A. Encouragement to implement the suggested strategies for improved email performance - I'm psycho about this with my team - it was something that they had to prioritize. They knew that RCM had to be the most important brand. Staying on a monthly schedule in Basecamp where this was a to-do they couldn't ignore and they just knew they'd be dead if they didn't.
B. Final thoughts on the potential impact of using the suggested methods - The email list and lead generation are only as good as you researching and knowing the pattern of the right people to call on. I always used the ABJ, Community Impact, and WIRED magazine. You're only as good as your list, and mine was built through me finding them on my own and ones that came in on their own and eventually we got so many leads I had to limit the intro sales meetings to 1 or 2 a week and schedule them three months out. I just knew the right ones would wait to work with us because we're damn good at knowing our audience and being a Founder myself, really damn good at speaking their language.