How To Improve Your Email Conversion Rate (2024)

In 1978, marketing manager Gary Thuerk launched the primary industrial email marketing campaign. In it, he announced a brand new line of computers to 400 email recipients. Since then, email has grown into one of the necessary channels for marketers, small business owners, and ecommerce entrepreneurs; the truth is, one study forecasts the variety of email users worldwide will surpass 4.7 billion by 2026.

But what are the most effective ways to judge your email marketing efforts? In keeping with a survey, over 1 / 4 of email marketers reported that their preferred success metric of an email marketing campaign was the conversion rate. After learning how one can calculate your email marketing conversion rate, you may take critical steps to enhance it.

What’s the conversion rate in email marketing?

An email conversion rate is a metric that measures the proportion of email recipients who take a desired motion after opening an email. This motion is commonly a particular conversion goal, like buying a product, signing up for a service, downloading a resource, redirecting to an internet site, or claiming a promotion.

Email marketing conversion rates are an important metric when running email campaigns because they provide insights into how effective your campaigns are and the way you may improve them. By calculating the conversion rate for email marketing campaigns, you may discover strengths and weaknesses in your campaigns and adjust their marketing strategies accordingly to encourage more conversions.

calculate your email marketing conversion rate

To calculate email marketing conversion rates, divide the variety of email recipients who accomplished a desired motion by the variety of delivered emails. Then, multiply the result by 100 to seek out a percentage.

Here is the formula for how one can calculate email conversion rate:

(Variety of conversions / variety of delivered emails) x 100 = email conversion rate

For instance, in the event you sent 1,000 emails with the goal of accelerating website traffic, first find the variety of emails that went through successfully without bouncing back or getting flagged as spam (most email marketing platforms provide these insights).

Then, check what number of email recipients opened the e-mail and clicked through to your website. If 960 of your emails were successfully delivered, with 48 of the recipients completing the specified motion by clicking through to your website, your calculation would appear like this:

(48 conversions / 960 delivered emails) x 100 = 5% email conversion rate

What’s a superb conversion rate for email marketing?

A very good conversion rate varies depending in your particular industry, company, and email campaign. Nevertheless, average email conversion rates typically fall between 2% and 5%. For instance, one survey reported that automated welcome emails sent by ecommerce merchants in 2022 had a median email conversion rate of three%.

Suggestions for improving email marketing conversion rates

Some aspects that may negatively impact your average conversion rate include poor email list hygiene (akin to having addresses with typos), subject lines with spam-triggering words, and irregular sending frequency with too many or too few emails sent at random times. Listed here are just a few ways to extend the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts:

Maintain good email list hygiene

Email list hygiene is the means of maintaining a clean, accurate, and engaged list of email subscribers. In case your email list includes invalid email addresses, your email deliverability can suffer, leading to fewer emails landing in recipients’ inboxes and a decreased email conversion rate overall.

Repeatedly remove any invalid email addresses. Include clear Unsubscribe buttons in your emails to permit recipients to simply remove themselves out of your email list. Although making it easy to unsubscribe out of your email list can seem counterintuitive, it ultimately helps you maintain a high-quality list of engaged recipients.

Write compelling subject lines

Craft engaging email subject lines that grab attention and clearly convey your advantages. Make them not more than roughly 50 characters, and avoid spammy phrases like “apply now” or “money bonus” or too many special characters like exclamation marks as these can trigger filters that send your emails into spam folders. Be sure that to deliver on any relevant content promised in your subject line. 

Include clear call-to-action buttons

When developing an email marketing strategy, set clear conversion goals and create attention-grabbing call-to-action (CTA) buttons that encourage readers to click through and, most significantly, act. Design your emails in order that they draw attention to your CTA buttons. The visuals and wording can have a huge effect in your email conversion rates.

For instance, in the event you launch an email campaign with a sales conversion goal for a brand new product line, include a daring call-to-action button using energetic language like “Buy now” or “Add to cart.” Consider establishing dedicated landing pages for CTA buttons to encourage specific conversions.

The CTA button for the brand new product line could link to a landing page highlighting its advantages and offering straightforward checkout options.

Personalize your emails

Relatively than send the identical email to everyone in your email list, send personalized emails that address recipients’ specific interests and desires. Personalized emails include a recipient’s name, in addition to information relevant to their previous purchase histories or behavior in your online store.

Start with email segmentation; divide your email list into smaller groups based on aspects like demographic data, purchase history, and customer behavior. Segmenting your email subscribers into targeted groups lets you send more relevant email campaigns tailored to every segment. For instance, you can create welcome emails for brand spanking new customers or follow-up emails for purchasers with abandoned shopping carts.

Optimize emails for mobile

Optimize campaigns for mobile devices to extend conversions. One study reports that mobile ecommerce sales exceeded $2.2 trillion in 2023, accounting for roughly 60% of worldwide ecommerce sales.

Mobile optimization techniques include compressing images for faster loading times, using a single-column layout with easy horizontal navigation, and constructing a responsive template that lets mobile users navigate your emails easily on their phones.

Running your ecommerce business on Shopify gives you access to a built-in email marketing tool called Shopify Email that makes it easy to create email campaigns with mobile-friendly templates that can assist increase conversions.

Use automation tools for email sequences

To further enhance your email campaign’s performance in driving conversions, leverage automation tools. Tools like Shopify Email, ActiveCampaign, and Omnisend offer automation features that allow you arrange email sequences—a series of automated emails that differ based on user behavior.

For instance, you can arrange a welcome email sequence to maximise engagement from recent subscribers and encourage them to take a particular motion like sharing feedback about your services or products. You’ll be able to boost conversions through automatic email sequences that prevent money and time while targeting customers with information relevant to where they’re in your sales pipeline.

Test and adjust your email campaigns

Implement A/B testing—also generally known as split testing—by sending two different versions of a marketing email to 2 different groups out of your email list to match and contrast the outcomes. Pursue the version with the most effective results and adjust your email campaigns based on feedback.

Comparing campaign performance can provide insights into how one can optimize your email engagement and craft emails that encourage more conversions. You may as well monitor email marketing metrics like click-through rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate to judge the success of your campaigns.