When Jane sent out the first ten email campaigns to get downloads for her new app release, she had done her due diligence. No wonder her delivery, opens, and clicks were all through the roof. But unfortunately, the downloads never showed up from emails.
Jane felt there was something she was missing. How could such a perfect campaign lead to zero results?
After some research, Jane discovered something called email conversion rate. This number told her what was wrong. And it highlighted the value of her campaign in real life, which was not much.
However, Jane didn’t know how to change this rate? What could she change in the email that could improve her conversion rate?
If you were ever in a position like Jane’s, this guide would help you understand the different parameters and factors that you can leverage to boost conversions.
Table of contents
- What is the email conversion rate?
- How to calculate email conversion rate?
- Six ways to boost your email conversion rates
- Wrapping up
What is the email conversion rate?
Email conversation rate is the percentage of subscribers who took the action you wanted them to take. These actions might be a subset of your larger business objective.
For example, it may be to register for a webinar, subscribe to your weekly newsletter, or fill out a survey.
Typically not all users will take the desired action. For instance, If you send a survey in an email, some might click on the link but not fill out the survey. But still, it’s some progress, isn’t it? This progress reflects micro conversions. Metrics such as email open rates and click-through rates help measure micro-conversions. And those who did complete the form submission will be macro conversions. Such conversions are more important for any organization as they reflect the success of your email marketing campaign.
Now, every business is different, and so are their goals. You cannot measure something if you don’t know what to measure. Thus, defining your goals is crucial.
Now, let’s talk about how to calculate email conversion rates.
How to calculate email conversion rate?
After determining your goals, you can calculate the conversion rate using this formula:
Email conversion rate = (Number of conversions / Number of delivered emails) × 100
The number of conversions refers to the desired action that your user took.
The number of delivered emails is the number of emails sent minus the number of bounces.
For example, if you send 1000 emails and 100 of them get bounced, the number of delivered emails will be 900. Out of these 900, if 450 people took the desired action or clicked on your CTA, your number of conversions would be 450.
Thus, your conversion rate will be (450 / 900) X 100 = 50%.
Six ways to boost your email conversion rates
Here we have discussed six ways that you can use to increase email marketing conversion rates:
1. Use AMP emails
AMP is the new buzzword in email marketing. Why? Because AMP emails allow you to add more functionality and interactivity to your user’s inboxes. See the image below. Notice how your users can book a meeting without leaving the inbox. Interesting, isn’t it?
How does AMP email help in conversions?
AMP emails increase engagement as users can book a demo, fill out a feedback form, manage their subscription within the email.
These emails help you create an interactive user experience by including an image carousel, accordions, calendar, etc.
As the process is hassle-free, users are more likely to take the desired action thus, boosting your conversions.
One of our clients, Talent500, used AMP emails to send dynamic questionnaires. Using AMP emails, they boosted the form submission rate by 370%.
2. Make your email responsive
A report published by Litmus reveals that Apple mail and Gmail are the top email clients with 34.2% and 30.7% email open rates, respectively. In addition, 43.5% of emails were read on mobile as of Q4 in 2020.
These statistics reveal how important it is to make your emails responsive and interactive for different devices and applications.
How to make your emails responsive to boost conversions?
Use the right email marketing software that will help you create a responsive email.
Consider using a single-column layout for better legibility. Two or more columns can create confusion.
If you use images, keep their size small to shorten email load time.
Make sure to use the right-sized fonts for better readability.
Related guide: How to Create Responsive Email Design For Better User Experience
3. Create a representative segment of your audience
According to Mailchimp,, segmented emails can earn 100.95% higher email clickthrough rates than non-segmented email campaigns. If you send the same message to every subscriber, they won’t find it worth their time, and your email would end up in their trash box.
Thus, segmenting the audience is crucial as it is a great personalized tactic that can help deliver more relevant and valuable email marketing content to your subscribers. You can segment your subscriber based on their demography, behavior, geography, and psychography.
How does segmentation help in conversions?
Helps build brand awareness and enhances brand reputation.
Helps in targeting the right audience with the right content at the right time.
With segmentation, you can send more personalized emails.
4. Write relevant and compelling email copy
It’s a widespread saying that one should not judge a book by its cover. However, in email marketing, your subject line and preview text become that cover. And your users do judge you by looking at these two elements.
Not only this, after they open your email, everything they see is part of your email copy - images, text, CTA, etc. Thus, you must write compelling and valuable content for your audience to boost your conversions.
How to use email copy to improve your conversion rate?
Create urgency and curiosity in your email subject lines.
Make sure to check the tone, wording, and style of your email writing.
Use visual elements such as carousels, gifs, icons, emojis, to highlight content in your emails.
Focus on your target audiences, interests, behaviors while writing your email copy.
5. Test your emails
Testing emails is a great way to ensure that your email campaign works well. For example, test emails for the sender’s name, timing, etc. If you identify any error, try to resolve it. This will reduce bounce rates and help deliver your emails to your users’ inboxes.
Additionally, you can run A/B tests on your emails. With a/b testing, you can understand which kind of emails resonate most with your audience. As per Hubspot analysis, brands that always include an A/B test in their emails generate an ROI of 48:1.
How can you use email testing to improve your email conversions?
Use a trustworthy sender’s name that your subscribers will recognize. It will reduce your spam rate and improve email deliverability.
Keep your subject lines compelling and within the character limit to improve open rates.
Test emails by writing personalized subject lines, CTA, etc.
Test your call-to-action. According to Campaign Monitor, including a call-to-action button instead of a text can increase conversion rates by 28%.
6. Use automation and trigger emails
As per the DMA report, triggered campaigns generate over 75% of email revenue. At the same time, automated email campaigns account for 21% of email marketing revenue.
Using automation, you can send trigger emails when a user takes a specific action.
An automated email flow can look like this:
How can you use automation to boost your conversion?
Sending re-engagement emails to inactive users may prompt them to take action.
If you run an e-commerce store, you can send abandoned cart emails. Such emails might prompt users to complete their purchase, and if you send AMP-based emails, the chances of conversion are even higher.
Wrapping up
Your email marketing campaign should not look like you are just trying to sell and make money in a consumer-driven economy. Instead, your focus should be to provide value to your audience by understanding their interests and needs. In this way, your emails will be able to compel them to take the desired action and increase your email marketing ROI.
To do this, you can sign up for Mailmodo, which provides various interactive email templates. You can also track and analyze your email metrics with Mailmodo. Sign up today!
