Email marketing still beats social with a massive 122% median average ROI. Add to that the CTRs of 3.57% compared to Facebook’s uninspiring 0.07% and it is clear to see why email marketing is still winning interest from marketers around the globe.
Among the top five of the latest trends for email in 2018 sits interactive email. There are many different ways you can incorporate interactivity into your emails, some more difficult than others. Below are four simple suggestions for the new marketer on how to make interactive emails.
Move Them With GIFs
Video emails have a 96% higher CTR than non-video emails. However, video email isn’t supported by every email service provider. GIFs provide a great way to make emails interactive with moving content. They bring products to life in a more interesting way than simple images, and it is a relatively easy process to insert them. Using GIFs in your emails allows you to display different elements of products or display several items in a smaller space.
GIFs can be created with various types of software, but the one you’re likely to be most familiar with is Adobe Photoshop. This can be used to create frame-by-frame animations or, alternately, 3-5 second clips from video.
Step-by-step instructions for Adobe GIFs can be found on many blogs and alternate software options, such as GIF Animator by Windows, GIF Brewery for Mac, or GIF Maker from Giphy. All have easy to follow instructions to lead you through the process of creating GIFs that will help you create more interactive emails.
Use Meaningful Emojis
The use of emojis in email marketing messages rose by a whopping 775% between 2015 and 2016. An Experian report finds that 56% of brands using emojis in email subject lines had higher unique open rates.
There are a few different options you can incorporate when using emojis in interactive emails. Graphic-based email sentiments on what the receiver of your email thought are more likely to garner a response than a simple ‘Was this email relevant to you?’ question at the bottom of an email with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer options.
Another tactic that some of the bigger brands are using is to have emojis specifically designed for their campaign so they can be used in both email and messenger app communications. Various apps are available for creating your own emojis, so you can make them specific to your interactive email campaign or brand.
Integrate Hover Effects
Hover effects are great for highlighting text and giving special treatment to CTA buttons, or adding interest to images. They can also be used to add motion effects for highlighting special offers, discounts, or other CTAs. Simply giving a second view of the same product or a changing the color of links with rollover effects will resonate with the user and increase your CTRs.
Look online for an instructional post explaining exactly how to add a variety of hover effects to your emails, and note which effects are supported by which email providers.
Connect With a Wider Audience
This is possibly one of the easiest techniques for making your emails interactive. All you’re doing is inviting email subscribers to connect via social platforms and/or asking them to share your news and offers with their social networks.
Placing social media icons anywhere in your email content is a simple task, best explained with a step-by-step guide by Pardot. Resources like this provide relevant tips and tricks for encouraging this connection, as well as the best graphics to use for social icons.
Uses for social media interactivity range from the more subtle to overt. Whichever you chose should depend on your interactive email campaign objective and subscriber base preferences.
The four techniques for interactive emails listed above will keep you ahead of the email marketing game in 2018 without the need for highly technical knowledge or expertise. Before you implement these, though, remember to verify email addresses on your subscriber list to ensure your interactive emails are actually reaching their intended audience. Then, whether or not you use one or all of these interactive techniques, you are sure to build interest in your email marketing campaigns.