Do you know that your email newsletter has a chance of being sent to the trash or spam folder as of right now? As you read this your email is facing competition, tracking issues, RSS readers, mobile accessibility and digital noise. The first thing these attacks will target is your email open rate.
This might be a bit of exaggeration but statistics from MailerMailer.com show that email open rates have declined steadily since the early 2000’s. In the early days of email marketing, emails saw an open rate of 25-30%. Nowadays MailChimp estimates an average open rate of 20.81% across all industries.
So what do we do about this? Read our tips below to boost your email open rate.
Start With A Good Subject Line
The most important thing in an email is the subject line. Most businesses and organizations spend approximately 95% of their time researching, writing and refining content. However, all of this content needs to be opened before it can be seen. Concentrating on the content means that you’re ignoring the subject line which is what readers see first and consider if they want to open it or not.
You can think of the subject line as the cover of your book. No matter what others say, people always judge the book by its cover.
A subject line that reads “April Newsletter” will be ignored. Go for something that piques your reader’s interest. Think something like this:
- Shocking statistics of your industry.
- Something personal.
- Value proposition that relates to your readers’ needs.
You want to pique their interest and at the same time engage them.
A/B Test Subject Lines
Don’t trust your gut when it comes to email marketing. Always A/B test subject lines to find out what appeals most to your audience. This will give you data to make concrete decisions that matter most to your business. A simple A/B test can help boost both open rates and sales.
Before sending an email blast, send 2 different subject lines to selected audience. Once you’ve identified which of them have a higher open rate use that for your full campaign.
Don’t Look Like Spam
You want a subject line that stands out from your competitors but you also don’t want to look like spam. This means you want something eye catching but not ALL CAPS! Not only will using this technique skew your open rates but your subscription rates as well.
You also want to stay away from transaction or promotional looking subject lines and make sure that your email has personality. Would you rather open an email from [email protected] or [email protected]?
Not All Email Recipients Are The Same
You shouldn’t treat your email recipients the same way. Many businesses send the same email to their loyal customers and new sign ups. This is like sending the same Christmas card to your mom, girlfriend and stranger.
Segment your email list and send more general emails to new sign ups and more customized ones to loyal customers. A MailChimp study reports that segmented emails have a 15% more chance of being opened.
Find The Perfect Timing
There is a lot of data on when you should send emails to guarantee higher open rate. Weekdays outperform weekends with Tuesdays and Thursdays performing the best. Think about it, nobody wants to read email during the weekend and nobody has time to open emails on Mondays which are usually busy.
However, it is also important to remember that emails sent should be relevant and note that audience is unique to every sender. Test different days and times to find your own sweet spot.
Go Mobile
Make sure that your email can be read on mobile devices. According to studies, 55% of emails are opened through mobile phones. Data also shows that at least 96% do not engage the same email on multiple platforms. This means that if they opened your email on their cellphone they’re unlikely to open it on their desktops.
This means that your email needs to be optimized for mobile devices. Don’t overload it with media, images or links. Keep it relevant and short.