A popular question asked by Infusionsoft users is how to increase the open rates of their emails they send to customers and prospects. The answer is not very difficult but it will depend on the industry and the expectations when they opt in. Try the following tips to increase open rates in your email marketing campaigns.

Philosophically, we must think about what an “open” really means to us as marketers. You could surely increase open rates by sending a highly offensive message, but you’ll also raise your opt-out and spam complaints, too. You want to strike a balance between open rates, clicks and unsubscribes. If you have a 30% open rate, but a 1% click-through percentage, you probably want to improve the links people click on to become more relevant and attractive.

Nonetheless, say you have a 10% or higher click through percentage, but an open rate that’s 5%, you could benefit from these eight tips to improve your open rates. The best part is – all of these are easy and you’re in full control to improve it.

Use a unique and personalized subject line. Consider using the recipient’s name or city when sending out an offer. This simple technique can increase your open rates because people are always curious about something that involves them. Don’t forget to keep them short and to the point; aim for 50 characters or less. Examples: “Special event in Phoenix” or “Joseph’s 20% discount”

Use a consistent ‘From’ address. The From Address is very powerful – don’t neglect to personalize it. If the message is from a person, say so. Be clear with who the email is from and make sure the email address is active and monitored by them. Often people reply to emails and you want to engage with this feedback. Examples: “Clate Mask, Infusionsoft” or “Infusionsoft Events”

Use an attractive email template. I’ve seen some emails people send out and trust me when I say they aren’t pretty. Consider using a clean and professional looking email template that matches your brand. Infusionsoft has their dead-simple Drag ‘n Drop Email Builder, so anyone can create slick email templates that match their brand. Examples: Infusionsoft’s Pitch the Switch and Conquer & Grow

Use a pre-header to support your message. A well-written, short message at the top of the email goes a long way. For some email readers, it will show the text right after the subject line. For everyone else, it’s the first thing they see when they read your email – especially if images are turned off. Examples: “As an Infusionsoft user, you’re receiving The Vault, our monthly newsletter” or “Exclusive discount for long-time customers.”

Ask your subscribers a question. Another way to solicit engagement is to simply ask them a question. This could be a random, off-the-cuff question about their needs or strategic based on a free report or guide they checked out previously. The more relevant and specific the question, the better response you’ll receive. Examples: “What do you think of the Email Marketing 2.0 report?” (… And direct them to a page to comment.)

Leverage multimedia that’s worth opening your message. A great way to increase open rates is to quit sending stale emails. What’s a stale email? Well, the same style and the same one they’ve been receiving for the past year. Mix it up and include a video in one, or a useful diagram in it. Perhaps, you might want to send a plain-text message occasionally. Examples: Videos, pictures or plain-text emails.

Segment and send tailored subject lines to recipients. Sending the message to the people who want your message is the number one way to boost open rates. Perhaps people opted in for a free report, so send a specific message connecting the concept of the free report to what you’re telling them today. Sending the same message to different groups with a slightly different subject line is a powerful way to keep the message personalized and worth opening. As much as this will help your open rates, it’ll educate you about your contacts even more. Example: Send a separate monthly customer and prospect newsletter with different types of information in each.

Send less, get more. Consider reducing the number of email messages you send. Don’t do it for the sake of a lower number, but do it because you know they get a ton of email everyday. Every email message you send should be meaningful and filled with value. The fewer number of emails you send your recipients, the more often they’ll open them. Respect your recipients’ time and they’ll honor yours. Example: Consider changing up a weekly email tip to a bi-weekly or monthly email message or let people confirm their interest for the next series of emails you’re making.

At the end of the day, it’s not open rates that are the cause of concern. Rather, it’s relevance and interest of your subscribers. This is called list fatigue, and it happens the more you email undesirable content to unsuspecting recipients. Many successful marketers send about 80% quality content and 20% sales. I’m willing to say that it’s a good idea to shift that to 95/5 because a long-term relationship via email is a profitable one.

It’s worthy to mention that all this is possible when you tap into the full power of your CRM and marketing automation suite. Use the data to help support decisions and leverage the data to send the right person the right information at the right time.

Implement these tips to see a worthwhile lift in open and click-through rates. I’m curious to hear of the before and after results. Let me know your results in the comments on your next email campaign.

Image credit: Steven Damron]

As part of our ongoing “Meet Infused Customers” interview series, this month we talk to Jermaine Griggs, owner of Hear and Play based in Orange County, California.

Jermaine knew he had a talent for music as a young child. He started Hear and Play 10 years ago to help others learn how to play music. From piano to organ, to guitar and drums his customers learn how to play by ear, without reading sheet music. His online CDs, guides and video tutorials have trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments.

Jermaine was one of the most talked-about presenters at our Conquer & Grow conference last month where he shared a deeper look at how he uses Infusionsoft for creating campaigns that automatically nurture customers to buy more.

Why did you switch to Infusionsoft? I was frustrated because I kept hitting the same gross sales for years. I started looking for an “edge”. I decided to watch an Infusionsoft demo, and the rest was history. Once I saw what it could enable me to do, I realized what I had been missing all this time: It was automated follow-up!!

What I couldn’t do before is systematize things under one roof. I had many systems doing many things. And I couldn’t tell you exactly the process that happened whenever someone placed an order. It was a consistent experience and my follow-up was mediocre. Now I can tell you exactly what happens when. I didn’t have a place I can press one button that does a series of things it literally is set and forget it. With Infusionsoft, I can now. I can tell you exactly after someone buys, what communications they get.  I know what time their phone is going to ring with a greeting thanking them for their order. They’re going to get a post card, a birthday card.

The magic sauce is the automation. With other systems it’s nonexistent. There’s no focus on automation. I can take orders online all day.

How do you use Infusionsoft? Where I really use Infusionsoft and see the magic is with what happens right after a customer orders.  They place an order. Then a few days later they get a thank you and special offer postcard, then they get a thank you phone call, followed by a letter in 30 days. If they don’t buy more from us in six months, I have a special campaign I set up that is set to automatically send a letter saying, ‘What happened to you?’ But any time they order, that campaign gets delayed until they go another 6 months without ordering. So essentially no contact goes untouched for more than 6 months. It’s brilliant the way it just works.”

What has Infusionsoft enabled you to do? I now offer high-touch super-sized customer service and have the capability to up-sell in a natural way. I have to say, we market like world-class marketers now. I incorporate the following in my marketing campaigns: Voice broadcasts, text messaging, mailed letters, and postcards, gifts like Starbucks cards and brownies, and birthday cards. My business looks and operates like a bigger business with all the tools we use in our marketing.

What do some of your campaigns look like? My campaigns in Infusionsoft consist of personalized emails that are automatically triggered by what my customers do or don’t do. As a result of Infusionsoft and its ability to fully automate my marketing, now I touch customers in a 360-degree way through multi-channel campaigns that incorporate email, letter, postcard, text messaging and phone. We’re on track to double our net profit this year with record-breaking income and cost-savings.

Managing continuity programs is way better. I can set up so many different rules when credit cards fail. I can keep credit cards on file and so if customers want to buy again they don’t have to re-enter information, they can just click a link and the order is completed.

Now I can segment my prospects and customers a million different ways, and with ease. I can offer payment plans on all products. If I want to test 4-pay options, I add it in 15 seconds and now every product can be 4-pay. Or I can do it by certain products. I can even do it if they put in a special code only. Or I can do it by price. If they spend more than $300, add 6-pay option.”

What’s your best campaign? I have a great campaign I dreamed up that I know would be impossible to make happen without Infusionsoft. But with Infusionsoft I can! It’s my “CD of the month club” product. Everyone starts at CD 1 and moves forward every 30 days… automated. I’ve recorded up to CD15 already and I record them each month. Any time I want to stop recording, I can still market the program and just end them after month 15. Infusionsoft makes this seamless. It enables intelligent follow-up. You can set up so many rules and triggers.

How has your business changed? My business is totally different now. People get collection letters automatically, they get birthday cards, birthday text messages, they get Starbucks $5 card the minute we notice they spend more than $350. That’s automated. They get cookies when they have spent more than $750. I use it for customer marketing, online sales, automating credit card collections, follow-up campaigns to manage failed charges and workflow automation where it sends tasks to my assistant.

Is there anything you can’t do with Infusionsoft’s marketing automation suite? There is pretty much no limits on what you can do. Really. It’s amazing how creative I can get.

What are the results you’ ve experienced? With the software I was using before Infusionsoft,  lifetime customer value peaked at about $90, but with Infusionsoft and being able to run continuity programs, 1-click up-sells, and automation links and really pinpoint, our customers the lifetime value of a customer has jumped to $374. I never knew my customers could spend $1000 at one time and now they do. If you follow up, do it intelligently—meaning hyper-targeted—instead of mass blasts to everyone like I was doing before, you see results. Hear and Play is living proof of that. Here are other results I’ve seen:

Increased sales by 80% to existing customers!

Reduced overhead, but increased sales—your accountant is asking you how you did this?!

Reduced hours spent working each week—every hour you spend on the system means increased sales, but less hours working long term

Increased customer retention

Increased lifetime customer value from $90 to $375

Spend more time with wife and 2 kids—especially now that we have a 10-month old and one on the way, I can help out much more

I can actually can take vacations now. My wife and family love Infusionsoft too

If you missed his presentation from Conquer and Grow, here is his slide presentation 360-Degree Marketing: How to close more leads and increase repeat sales.

If you have a story you want to share with the world, tell us how your business is infused here.

Infusionsoft users have asked for templates and now we’re giving you them. High Impact Email is an Infusionsoft add-on that we’re providing to users free of charge. With High Impact Email from TemplateZone, you’ll get access to hundreds of TemplateZone’s professionally designed templates. If you’re looking for more than the standard templates, you can upgrade to access premium templates.

Design Emails like a Pro with HTML Email Templates We all know it’s a smart decision to build branded online newsletters and email invites, but let’s face it life’s too short to start from scratch. With one less thing to worry about, your business will run better. This is how High Impact Email and Infusionsoft helps you.

Craft your own exceptional email marketing with easy editing tools, no HTML or design experience necessary. Creating stylish emails has never been so fast and affordable.

You already know how to use High Impact Email There are no tricky instructions to hold you down. The Photo Editor lets you edit images with ease and ensures their perfect placement in each template. Adding, removing or editing text from templates is as easy as working in Microsoft Word.

Polished emails, no matter who opens them Every template design has been tested to display correctly across popular email clients, so you can rest assured that your masterpieces arrive in every inbox intact.

Works with Infusionsoft This special edition of High Impact Email will allow you to send your finished templates straight to your Infusionsoft account with the click of a button.

This great add-on, in addition to our new Drag ‘n Drop Email Builder, give you all the flexibility to create and send beautiful, professional looking email without the need for a graphic designer or HTML coder.

Get  High Impact Email Now! Accessing High Impact Email is easy. Simply log into your Infusionsoft account and click on My Account. Click on the “View Plugins” button and then choose which edition of High Impact Email you’d like. (Note: High Impact Email is a desktop application available on Windows only.)

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Infusionsoft’s offices will be closed on 11/25 and 11/26 in honor of Thanksgiving. We’d like to take a moment to say thank you for being a part of our family at Infusionsoft.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. CEO and cofounder, Clate Mask, summed it up nicely in a message to our customers. Not only have we grown in the past year, our users have grown just as much.

Look around and be thankful for where you are in your life, your business and your community. As we spend time with our friends and families this week, we hope you spend time and connect with yours.

We’ll return to our normal business hours on Monday, November 29, 2010.

[Image credit: turtlemom4bacon]