Email is the most preferred type of marketing communication that people want to receive, but that doesn't guarantee that they will open what you have to send.
We all lead busy lives, including sorting through, on average, 121 emails per day. Before you can deliver your email marketing message, you must get them to open it first.
Don't fret, we are going to share some tips that you can implement to increase your email open rates and get your emails read by your prospects and customers.
Why Is Your Email Open Rate Important?
Your email open rate is important for a number of reasons.
When you send an email to your list, you are basically taking up their time that they could be using to read someone else's content. If they are opening your emails, it means that you have earned their attention so far.
Having high open rates is also a good way to ensure that you are sending your emails to the right people.
If you have low email open rates, it means that your subject lines and your email bylines are not grabbing their attention.
Factors That Affect Email Open Rates
Target Audience Relevance - Your subscribers have wants and needs, your content needs to be tailored to what they want. Make sure your information is relevant and gives real value in exchange for the attention your specific prospects are giving up.
Email Content - Your prospects need to look forward to the emails you send. Send something great today, and your audience will gladly open your email the next time they get one. Send them a dude and they will think twice about opening anything from you afterwards.
Email List Quality - Make sure your audience truly wants to hear from you. If you send emails to people who don't want them, they will ignore them, send them to trash, or worse, report them as spam.
Time of The Day - Are your prospects more active in the morning, during lunch, or after "working" hours. Sending your emails when people are already checking their email is a great way to ensure they will read it.
Subject Lines - This is your hook, or how you grab your prospects' attention. Even if they enjoy reading your content, you want to give them the irresistible urge to read your email. The subject line is the first line of defense in the fight to increase your email open rates
Ways To Increase Email Open Rates
Catchy Subject Lines
Make your prospects curious with subject lines that catch their attention and make them want to read more. Don't give away the whole message, just enough to give them an idea and make them want to read more.
Get Personal With Subject Lines
The sweetest sound that someone can hear is their own name. How sweet? Personalized email subject lines canboost email open rates by 50%. Humans are vain creatures, use that to your advantage.
Be Funny or Be Forgotten
Humor is memorable and can positively affect your reader for the rest of the day. Adding a splash of humor to your emails can even have your readers looking forward to receiving more emails from you. Make sure that you still deliver value, however, humor will make that value more memorable.
Watch Out For Spam Filters
Spam filters have become smarter over the years. If your subject lines use certain words like "free" or have all caps, you could be asking for trouble. It also helps to take certain precautions such as authenticating your email account, including an unsubscribe button, and asking subscribers to add you to their contact list can help your emails avoid the spam box.
Use Emojis
Emojis are a great way to stand out in someone's inbox. Some people say they are unprofessional, however, depending on your audience, they might be the best thing to catch their attention. Emojis will add color to your subject lines and allow you to come across as friendly to your prospects.
List Segmentation
Make sure you split up your lists so that you are sending the right info to the right people. One example of email list segmentation is to separate those who haven't opened your emails in months from the rest and send a different set of emails that are geared to grab their attention. The difference in these emails could just be changes you make to your subject lines between the two lists.
Split Test Everything
Liars figure, but figures never lie. Whatever you decide to change, make sure that you are tracking how your audience responds to these changes. Split up your lists and try sending different subject lines to each group to see which gets a better response. Trust the numbers, they won't steer you wrong.