• by Kath Pay , Op-Ed Contributor, October 1, 2015

Picking up where I left off in my last post, here are more ways to move up from "good" ROI to "amazing" ROI with basic tweaks, updates and alterations:

Pre-fill data on landing-page forms. Whether your prospects are signing up for an event, a white paper, a webinar or a newsletter subscription, you should be pre-filling their registration form with data you have from the user's email record, even if it's just the email address itself.

For customers, the prospect of filling in online forms can be a huge barrier, especially if they’re typing on tiny smartphone screens. So give this idea a go, and see how your conversions soar.  

Capture email addresses when delivering download links. Whitepaper downloads can do double duty, generating and nurturing leads while also building your email database.  But many marketers give up the goods too easily.

Ask for an address in exchange for your valuable intellectual property. Then, deliver the link to download the paper in a follow-up email instead of on the thank-you page. This way, you can validate the email address and invite your prospect to further engage with you.

Add triggered messages and lifecycle marketing. Triggered messages fit into into four phases of the customer lifecycle: pre-transaction; purchase process; post-purchase; and relationship-building/upsell/cross-sell.

Triggered messages bring a significant slice of revenue. For one company, triggered messages  account for 4% of its email volume but drive 40% of its email ROI. So, why aren't we all doing it?

The main barrier is lack of resources. But with that much money at stake, you should be able to talk your boss into making this a priority, whether you build a program in-house or outsource it. Then sit back and enjoy the results.

Test subject lines. The subject line is one of the most valuable elements of your email campaign. So I'm always surprised to find out how many marketers rely on instinct instead of testing.

Does your subject line drive the most opens and conversions possible, or could you phrase it a better way? Only testing at least one variation can answer that question.

Also, does the metric you're testing match your campaign goal? Don't assume that "maximum opens" equals maximum click-throughs, conversions or ROI. Check your historical results — you’ll most likely find, that all too often, the subject line that received the least opens generated  maximum ROI.

Design email for mobile viewers. Viewing email is the No. 1 activity on smartphones, but it's often an awkward experience even on the most sophisticated devices. Don't force your viewers to pinch, zoom or side-scroll in order to view and act on your messages.

Three tactics make your messages more mobile-friendly: enlarging the font size, replacing text links with buttons, and switching to responsive design, which adjusts the message appearance to the user's screen size.

Of course, there are many more missed opportunities in email marketing. What have you been able to capitalise on? Let me know in the comments box.