Email marketing is still one of the best ways to engage with your audience and expand your business. However, with attention periods getting shorter and inboxes overflowing with messages, you need your email to arrive in that inbox as soon as possible. The good news is you do not need to be lucky. You just need the right tactics.
Here are five tested and realistic ways to enhance your email open rates and ensure your content gets the interest it deserves.
- Use Catchy Subject Lines
Nobody wants to read another “Weekly Newsletter”, certainly least of all, and nobody is likely to open that email!! Your subject line is your first and often only opportunity to catch attention. Just like it is easy to scroll right past “Weekly Newsletter”, “Monthly Newsletter” is equally generic. But a subject line that is personal, fun, or curious?
Think about putting the person’s name in the subject line or personalising the subject line to their needs and interests. Avoid subject lines that are clickbait, but feel free to experiment with language that draws their interest or conveys a sense of urgency.
Instead of:
“New Deals This Week”
Consider:
“Anna, your weekend deal is waiting.”
“Hurry! only hours left to save 20%.”
Keep it brief and to the point. Around 6-10 words is ideal, especially if your audience is mostly mobile.
- Segment Your Email List To Deliver Targeted Content
When it comes to email marketing, there’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” newsletter. Everyone on your list is different, so why send them the same emails?
Segmentation is the process of breaking your email list down into smaller groups based on traits like age, gender, interests, previous purchases, or geographical location. This allows you to send forwarded emails that have the information an audience member is more likely to find relevant or worthwhile.
For example, you sell both men’s and women’s products. You can send one audience a promotion for the men’s products and a different promotion to the women audience. If someone hasn’t purchased from you in a while; you can segment that email list and send a re-engagement email with a special offer just for them.
Sending targeted emails shows that you care and understand your subscribers and trust leads to higher open rates.
- Send Emails at the Correct Time
It’s not only the content of your emails that matters. When you send your emails specifically is also important. Timing your message badly (e.g., in the middle of the night or the morning of a busy Monday) could result in it being buried and never opened.
Look back at your email tracking from the past or analytics from your email platform to see when your audience is most active. Many email tools now offer “smart send” options that will send your email at the best time for each individual subscriber.
Also, be mindful of time zones! This might be even more important if you know your audience is international, so bear this in mind.
Example:
A travel company tested what time to send trip deals and found that sending trip deals on a Wednesday evening performed the best – people were getting excited for weekend getaways and were more likely to open it.
- Stick with a Recognizable Sender Name
Readers are more likely to open an email from someone that they recognise. If your sender name is unclear, there is a high probability that your email will be overlooked or land in the spam folder.
Acknowledge that people receive a LOT of emails from generic companies and brands. Make sure to use a friendly, recognisable, and consistent sender name. Use your brand name or combine it as such:
“Emma from WanderCo”
“Sarah | Fresh Kitchen Weekly”
Make sure to avoid generic names like “noreply@company.com”. It has an impersonal, cold feel.
Remember that a friendly, human touch may also make a difference. People tend to open emails when they feel like they are hearing from a person rather than a brand, or if it is a brand they recognise, consistently.
- Maintain Your List Clean and Engaged
Even the best email in the universe will fall flat if it’s sent to people who have forgotten or don’t even want it anymore.
Over time, your email list can accumulate users who have gone inactive. People who haven’t opened or clicked any emails in months. These inactive users are some of the worst for your open rate, and they can lower your email deliverability.
You should build a habit of regularly cleaning your list and removing or re-engaging inactive contacts. You can easily send a message that says:
“Want to keep getting emails from us? Click here to remain subscribed!”
If they don’t respond, it isn’t a big deal to let them expire. A smaller engaged list is always better than a large list that doesn’t care.
And lastly, always allow subscribers to change their preferences so that they are only receiving content they really want to receive.
To Wrap Things Up
Increasing your email open rates isn’t rocket science. It just requires an intentional approach. To get started, write subject lines that are attention grabbing and segment your audience for more relevant content, while also sending your emails at the times your audience is most likely to open and read their emails. Then, ensure your sender name is recognisable and trustworthy, while also having a healthy list by focusing on real engagement.
If you remember these five strategies, you will elicit not just higher open rates, but also better results from your email marketing, as well as improved relationships with your subscribers.
