24 Tips to Improve Your Email Marketing ROI

Jackie from Key Principles here again with another article on B2B Email Marketing.

In part 6 of the Email Marketing Guide, I’m covering ways you can look to improve your return on investment (ROI) from your email marketing activity.

Introduction

When it comes to all marketing activity, it’s important to optimise your campaigns and improve your return on investment whether that’s your Google Ads campaigns or your email marketing for example.

In this article, I’m going to cover:

Likely return on investment from email marketing
24 Tips on how to improve your email marketing ROI

Likely Email Marketing ROI

Tablet with chart and "online marketing" text

HubSpot quote the ROI from email marketing as $36 for every $1 spent which is most definitely an impressive return on investment¹.

Looking for UK related statistics the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), article called Investigating Email: Getting Returns On Email in 2020 suggested email marketing ROI remained strong at £35.41 for every pound spent².

Clearly there is an ROI to be made when you implement B2B email marketing in a consistent and thought through manner. So, what’s your email marketing ROI now and what can you do to improve it?

Below I’ve provided 24 tips to review and test that may help improve the ROI of your email marketing. It’s worth noting as with all marketing, there is no silver bullet. The key as always is to test, review the data and test some more. Treat each emailing as an experiment and keep optimising.

24 Tips to Improve your Email Marketing ROI

Keep building your list and keep it up to date: Continuously grow your email list and regularly clean it to ensure higher engagement and deliverability. (Source: HubSpot – 39 Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List)
Keep it simple: Opt for a clean and straightforward design to avoid overwhelming your audience. Emails with a single call-to-action can increase clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%. (Source: WordStream – 6 Mind-Blowing Digital Marketing Stats from Unbounce’s Conversion Road Trip)
Test and measure to improve: A/B test different elements of your emails to find the most effective strategies. Small changes like personalised subject lines can boost open rates by 26%. (Source: Campaign Monitor – How To Get Started With Email Marketing)
Improve your open rates with proven subject lines: Craft compelling subject lines that create curiosity or offer value to increase open rates. (Source: OptinMonster – 184 Best Email Subject Lines And Why They Work! (2023))
Consider testing emojis: A report by Experian found that emails with emojis in the subject line had a 56% higher open rate than those without emojis. Another study by Campaign Monitor showed that emails with emojis had a 29% higher unique open rate and a 28% higher click-through rate compared to emails without emojis. Clearly it is worth testing the impact of emojis with your audience. (Source: Experian & Campaign Monitor – The Real Scoop on Email Emoji in Subject Lines)
Make sure the From Name is a person: Emails from a real person rather than a generic company name can boost open rates by 15% to 35%. (Source: Pinpointe – Which is Better: Person’s Name or Company for Send-From Address?)
Don’t forget the Preview text: Utilize the preview text to complement your subject line and entice recipients to open the email. (Source: Litmus – The Ultimate Guide to Preview Text)
Avoid sending emails at ‘purge’ times: Steer clear of peak email deletion times, such as early morning or late Friday afternoon. (Source: GetProspect – The best time to send B2B emails: importance, tips, and cases)
Include at least four links to your content and test more: Multiple links throughout the email increase the chances of click-throughs and engagement. Although this goes against the WordStream statistics in Tip 2 so always with testing which works best for your audience. (Source: HubSpot – 23 Email Marketing Tips to Improve Open & Clickthrough Rates)
Think about how you are using images: Consider using images strategically. Adding a video play icon can boost open rates significantly. (Source: ConstantContact – How to Use Impactful Images in Your Email Marketing)
Personalize your images: Dynamic image personalization can lead to a 29% increase in unique click-throughs. (Source: Campaign Monitor – 6 Ways To Use Personalization In Your Next Email Campaign) Want to look at adding image personalisation then check out NiftyImages.
Integrate with your other marketing activity: Align your email marketing with other channels for a cohesive and powerful marketing strategy.
- Integrated marketing delivers nearly four times the revenue of email broadcast alone.
- Co-ordinate with postal campaign – 2.8 times more revenue than broadcast alone.
- Website link with appropriate landing page – 3.8 times more revenue than broadcast alone.
  
  Source: Jupiter Research
Add telemarketing follow-up: Combining email marketing with telemarketing or sales phone call follow ups can enhance lead nurturing and conversion rates.
Look at email automation after you’re up and running with your regular newsletter: Automated emails can improve conversion rates and ROI (Source: Campaign Monitor – How Email Marketing Automation Can Help Your B2B Achieve Its Goals)
Deal with bounces: Regularly clean your email list to reduce bounce rates and improve deliverability. (Source: HubSpot – How to Clean Up Your Email List With These 5 Tips)
Make your email newsletter part of a campaign: Integrating email into larger marketing campaigns can increase engagement and ROI. (Source: Campaign Monitor – Email Marketing Integration: What It Is & Why It Matters) Use email marketing to help with product or service launches as well as to promote new content on your website and offers.
Consider who and how you will follow up: Plan your post-email campaign strategy to capitalise on responses. Get your sales team on board with follow up calls and plan follow up emails related to engagement with certain pieces of content. Identify what individual subscribers are interested in and provide more of the same or related content.
You’ll get responses within minutes: We often see 50% of responses from a marketing email occur within the first hour or two, so it’s good to be ready for the follow up so it can be done in a timely manner. It’s important to note though that some responses can come much later… days or even months later. We’ve certainly had prospects contact us months after a short series of cold emails to ask for help. Although emails can land at just the right time, some will still save an email for a future occasion.
Reply quickly to any communications: “Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.” (Source: Harvard Business Review – The Short Life of Online Sales Leads) Put simply, follow up fast. One client of ours realised that if they followed up within 10 minutes of the enquiry, they were twice as likely to make contact and book the driving lesson than if they left an enquiry for longer than 10 minutes.
Add your social channels to your email newsletter: Including social media links can extend your reach and grow your social following. (Source: Constant Contact – How to Integrate Social Media with Email Marketing) Integrating your marketing works. Here’s how we’ve added our social channels to our email marketing newsletter.
Promote your newsletter on social media: Regularly share your newsletter content on social platforms to attract new subscribers to your email list. (Source: Entrepreneur.com – 5 Effective Ways to Promote Your Email Newsletter)
Include clear calls to action: Include buttons with clear calls to action such as ‘Find Out More’, ‘Get the Details’, etc. to encourage a higher click-through rate to your website content.
Add a link to your latest newsletter to your email signatures: Use your email signature as a way of promoting your newsletter and encouraging more sign ups to it. Add a short form to sign up to your newsletter next to your blog posts to help build your email list.
Promote it on your website: Create dedicated section on your website to encourage new subscribers. You could even use a pop up to encourage new subscribers. Make sure your forms link to your email marketing software or CRM so subscribers are automatically added to your list.

Conclusion

Email marketing, once set up, can provide a valuable source of leads and sales, and offers one of the best returns on investment of any marketing channel if used correctly.

I do hope that you’ve found this article of value in helping you to improve the return on your investment from your email marketing.

If you would like some help with your email marketing then please do get in touch on 0115 880 0211 or head over to our Email Marketing service page for details and to book a free consultation.

Further Reading from Key Principles