It is important for email marketers to understand how recipients handle the flow of email into their inbox. Sarah Perez discusses five approaches that recipients take to deal with email overload. As inboxes become fuller, many recipients are implementing new inbox strategies to cope with the demands on their time and attention.
Understanding that recipients are developing new strategies for inbox management, it behooves senders to make it easy for them to respond to campaigns. Here are some tips that senders can implement:
- Express value in your Subject line. Often, your subject line will determine whether your message will survive the first cull of messages.
- Make your call-to-action direct. If the action required is communicated directly, your recipient won’t have to wonder what to do with your message. Tell them what you want them to do and how they will benefit from doing it.
- Make that action time sensitive. If the offer is only available for a short time, then your recipient knows that they can’t put it off until later.
- Make that action easy to take. One click to purchase. One number to call. One offer to accept. One article to read. One video to see. One link to visit.
Email used to be sticky. It remained in a recipient’s inbox for some time. Today, more and more recipients are taking steps to keep their inbox clear of clutter. It’s up to you to make it clear that your email isn’t part of that clutter, but something worthy of your recipients time and attention. It’s also up to you, as a sender, to make it easy for your recipients to take the action desired if it is deemed worthy.
