9 Great Ways to Improve Email Open Rates

In the 1990s the internet started to become very popular, and email marketing became a very lucrative marketing model. Although things have changed since the 1990s, email marketing has remained popular as it still produces good results.

One of the biggest challenges faced by email marketers today is getting people to open their emails. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to improve email open rates and get success from your email marketing campaigns.

The Subject Line

The subject line is the most important place to get your message across and encourage the recipient to open the email. Make sure that you write compelling subject lines to boost open rates. Inboxes quickly become full with emails and you need to ensure that your subject line makes your email stand out from the crowd.

Quality Content

It’s always better to focus on quality rather than quantity. If your customers come to associate your emails with interesting, informative and engaging content, then your open rates will increase. In contrast, if customers come to associate your emails with uninformative content or promotional material, then your emails will end up being ignored.

Spam Filters

Emails which go directly to the spam folder will greatly affect your open rates because most recipients will never see your message. Spam filters are becoming more sophisticated, so you should do research about how to keep your emails from going directly to spam.

Examples include not using all capital letters or using words such as “free”, “deal”, etc. Moreover, you should limit the number of outbound links, include your contact details, and provide opt-out links so people can easily unsubscribe.

Clean & Segmented Lists

Take your time to keep your lists clean and remove email addresses with a hard bounce. This will help to increase open rates and save money by not having to send emails to people that can’t receive them.

You should segregate your lists into smaller groups and then send targeted information to your customers which is specific to their interests. You can use an online form during the email signup process to separate users into groups. This will allow you to send different offers and content to various customers depending on their interests. If you send emails to people who you know to be interested in your business, then you should see open rates increase dramatically.

Frequency & Timing

The timing of when you send emails is extremely important when it comes to open rates. If you send your emails when your customers are sleeping, it’s easy for the email to become lost and forgotten about. Send emails when your customers are likely to read them. This may differ according to your customer base, so you’ll need to experiment to find the best time.

You should also focus on quality over quantity. It’s best to email customers less often, but with better quality content. Similarly, if you email people too often, you run the risk of annoying them. This will cause them to unsubscribe from your list or filter your emails to go directly to their spam folder.

Untargeted Leads

Buying lists of untargeted email addresses will not do you any favors. Firing off as many emails as possible and hoping one will stick is not the best way to encourage people to read your emails. Unsolicited emails are spam and people don’t appreciate being spammed.

Instead, keep your lists fresh with targeted leads. These should only be people who signed up using a double opt-in process to start receiving your emails. This will ensure that only people who are interested in your business will receive your emails.

Responsive Emails

Many people use a mobile device to check their inbox and the number of mobile users will only continue to increase. Therefore, you should ensure that your emails are responsive and well-designed when opened on all devices. Responsive emails are nearly as important as having a responsive website. If your emails are mobile ready, then more people will open and read them.

Write from a Person

When checking emails, people will see the person sending the message and their subject line. Emails from companies will be instantly marked as online advertising. If an email is coming from an actual person, it’s more likely that it will be opened.

Write Like a Friend

It would be much better to write the email with a friendly tone. For example, “You must check out this great deal” is better than a corporate phrase such as “We have great savings for our customers”. A personal tone will help to improve email open rates.

Email marketing is still a viable method of getting your message to your customers as it’s easy to send promotions and information to interested parties. Most people receive many emails throughout the day and you need to make your email stands out from the crowd to encourage the recipient to open it.

There are many ways to encourage users to open emails. You should focus on creating high-quality content which people want to open and read. You should also send emails at the right time and write compelling subject lines. As with any style of marketing, you should test and experiment to find out what works best for your email marketing campaigns.