5 Sure-shot Ways to Increase Email Open Rates

Email marketing is an essential tool in a company’s marketing strategy and it continues to be so for marketers- to nurture and convert leads into prospects. A survey conducted by eMarketer says that 97% of small businesses rely mostly on email marketing especially to connect with their customers. Campaign Monitor reported that Marketing and Advertising is one of the top industries that see success with email marketing, so making sure those emails are memorable is key to delighting customers.

As per the above study, the receiver will only have 3-4 seconds to decide whether to open the mail or not. That is why it is extremely critical to understand email deliverability and open rates. There are several different ways through which you can give a competitive edge to your emails. We have put together a few hands-on tips to help you boost open rates for your email campaigns.

1. Effective Subject Line

The subject line is one of the most important elements in any email. To stand out with great subject lines and break away from the competition you need to have a personalized and quantitative subject line.  Subject lines have nothing to do with SEO, so there is no need to include a target key phrase. Always tailor the subject line for the inbox. This is all about psychology and empathy. By including the personalization token (first name), the intention of sending an email, and adding special offers, you can trigger the receiver to open emails.

2. Sending out emails at the best time.

Timing is not everything, but it is important to consider while sending out emails. If you send emails at erratic times of the day, week, or month, you may cause your readers to stop reading or interacting with your email. Campaign Monitor has put together the best days for campaign sends in terms of open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, etc., basis their research.

3. Segment your audience list

Segmenting your email lists allows you to direct more relevant content to each group. Depending on which type of business you are running, it might be worthwhile to start segmenting your list. There are many ways to segment your list. For example, segmentation is based on the industry of your subscribers, purchase, buyers’ journey, or time since your last interaction, etc.  The more relevant and targeted your email communications are, the more likely people will be to engage with them.

4. Optimize for Mobile

A study says that over 70% of the readers use mobile devices to open their emails. The tip here is to make sure your email is mobile-­friendly with responsive formatting and loadable media, optimizing the email preview text for mobile devices will directly improve your email open rate. Also, note that the preview text maximum character length also includes your subject line. Relatively Mobile device screens are small, so make sure that your subject lines are not too long.

5. Email authentication

Email authentication is a way to convince email spam filters that you can send emails from your domain. Also, emails are extremely easy to spoof, and it’s relatively easier for someone to send an email and just claim to be you, and this is how email scams and phishing happen.  Authentication is a way to prove who you are and say that you are a legitimate sender. Emails that fail authentication checks might not make it into an inbox and instead, get caught up in a spam filter. The important fact is that you need to not worry about email authentication if you are using a legit email service provider, they will take care of all this stuff for you.

It is always good to spot a trend in the email marketing Ecosystem. Email marketing at times can be difficult to comprehend and get really good results. However, by following the above simple tips you can ensure your email campaigns stand out even in a very busy inbox, full of work, personal & marketing emails. Your emails need to maintain the human quality of a personal email that can be felt by both the sender and recipient.

If you ever need any help along the way, feel free to register your interest with us and we will get you started in the right direction. We would love to help!