For many of us, emails are a huge part of our daily routines. Plus nowadays email marketing has become a huge part of digital marketing. That is why it is not surprising that, globally, close to 350 billion emails are sent and received every day. The average person who works in an office receives roughly 120 emails daily. Generally, the average person receives 100 emails daily comprising of anything from work, and business, to social and spam, amongst others. This means the likelihood of not getting your emails opened or read is high. That is why you need to know how you can guarantee people read your emails. Here are some strategies you can use:

Resend Emails That Are Unopened

On average, only 2 out of 10 emails sent by businesses are ever opened by the recipients. That is why you need to be vigilant in executing these strategies. Email marketing has proven to be effective but you need to put in the work. When you send out an email it has an 80 percent chance of not getting opened. What you need to do is to resend emails when you see they have not been opened.

This is better done when you use a software application for managing your email marketing campaigns. Such applications will give you reports on which emails were not opened. You can wait at least a full day before resending. Before you resend try to figure out why it was not opened. It could be several reasons e.g. you emailed at an inappropriate time. It could be that your subject line was not that eye-catching.

Ensure Your Emails Are Optimized For Mobile

You may have heard of the importance of optimizing for mobile. For example, it is emphasised that websites should be optimized for mobile. This means that a website should be designed in such a way that it is visibly readable whether via desktop or mobile. In most cases a website will look good only via desktop. Yet most people now use mobile devices. The same applies to emails as well. You must be certain that your emails are optimized for mobile. Most people’s emails are not optimized for mobile; an average of 8 out of every 10 emails are received. The open rate of your emails will be poor if your emails are not optimized for mobile.

Periodically Update Your Email List

Updating here is specifically about getting rid of unnecessary email addresses. If you are using an email marketing application such email addresses will be easy to note. These can be emails that are never opened. It can also be emails that always bounce. Periodically go through your email list; even up to 4 times annually. Doing so will help you remain with worthwhile email addresses.

Interestingly, this can enhance your email delivery and open rates. This is because the system will not be slowed down by docile email addresses. Ultimately your email marketing costs may even go down. Another element of updating your email list is to add new email addresses. These will essentially be your prospects and leads but it is best to work with leads most.

Tailor Your Emails With The Recipient’s Needs In Mind

In email marketing, the goal is that most of your emails should not be hard sells. Remember the 80-20 rule of content marketing. The bulk of your content should be about creating impact. That also applies to whatever interactions you have with people, be they lead, prospects, or customers. Your thrust should always be to give them value; to impact their lives positively. More than 80 percent of the time that should be focused. Providing people with valuable information is highly impactful.

Only 20 percent of the time is when you should directly talk about the stuff you are selling. If you effectively handle the 80 percent you might not even have to worry about the 20 percent at all. We discussed this in the article subtle ways to close more sales. This perfectly applies to email marketing. This is all akin to focusing most on catering to the recipients’ needs. If you apply this 80-20 content marketing rule, you will find that most of your audience will always look forward to your emails.

Starting this year you need to use these strategies in your email marketing efforts. I know most entrepreneurs and business people in Zimbabwe are sleeping on email marketing. It is one of the most engaging digital marketing tools in this era. You need to start taking it seriously and these are the strategies you should employ.