10 Ways To Improve Your Email Open Rates
Every business needs more- more clicks, more calls, and more customers.
There are certainly plenty of companies out there using email marketing as a way of bringing in more business since it’s an effective way of building a loyal fan base. If you’re currently doing email marketing, then you’re always looking for ways to improve. Increasing your open rate is a great place to start.
A Few Facts About Email Open Rates
Email open rates are a key metric used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of email campaigns. Essentially, an email open rate is the percentage of email recipients who open and view an email sent to them.
To track email open rates, an email marketing tool or software will place a small, invisible image or pixel within the email message. When the email is opened and the images are downloaded, the email is recorded as having been opened. The software then calculates the percentage of total emails sent that were opened.
Email open rates are important because they provide insight into the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. A high open rate indicates that your email subject line, preview text, and sender name caught the attention of your subscribers and compelled them to open the email.
Conversely, a low open rate indicates that your email failed to capture the attention of your subscribers and may indicate that your subscribers are disengaged or that your email content needs improvement.
Additionally, email open rates can be used to measure the success of A/B testing. By creating two versions of an email and sending them to a small subset of your email list, you can measure the open rates of each version to determine which is more effective. This information can then be used to improve future email campaigns and increase overall email open rates.
It is important to note that email open rates are not a perfect metric, as some email clients and settings may block images, preventing the email from being counted as opened. Additionally, some subscribers may simply delete or archive an email without opening it, skewing the open rate. Nonetheless, email open rates remain a valuable tool for email marketers looking to gauge the effectiveness of their campaigns and improve their overall email marketing strategy.
Below, we will discuss 10 ways to improve your email open rates and get your message seen by more people.
- Craft Compelling Subject Lines: The subject line is the first thing your audience sees when they receive your email. It’s essential to create a compelling subject line that grabs their attention and entices them to open your email.
- Segment Your Email List: Not all subscribers are the same, so it’s important to segment your email list based on their interests, behavior, and demographics. This allows you to create targeted messages that are more relevant to each subscriber, increasing the likelihood of them opening your email.
- Personalize Your Emails: Personalization can have a significant impact on open rates. Use your subscribers’ names, purchase history, and other data to personalize your emails and make them more relevant.
- Optimize for Mobile: More and more people are checking their emails on their mobile devices, so it’s crucial to optimize your emails for mobile. Make sure your emails are mobile-responsive and easy to read on smaller screens.
- Use A/B Testing: A/B testing can help you determine which elements of your email campaign are working and which are not. Test different subject lines, email copy, and CTAs to see what resonates best with your audience.
- Send Emails at the Right Time: Timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. Experiment with different send times to see when your subscribers are most likely to open your emails.
- Clean Your Email List: Over time, your email list may accumulate inactive subscribers or invalid email addresses. Cleaning your email list regularly can improve your email deliverability and increase your open rates.
- Use Eye-Catching Images: Images can make your emails more visually appealing and engaging. Use high-quality images that are relevant to your message and will capture your subscribers’ attention.
- Keep Your Email Copy Concise: Long, wordy emails are likely to be skimmed or ignored altogether. Keep your email copy concise, focused, and easy to read.
- Provide Value to Your Subscribers: The most important thing you can do to improve your email open rates is to provide value to your subscribers. Offer exclusive deals, valuable content, and other incentives that will make them look forward to receiving your emails.
Why Are Email Open Rates Important?
Email marketing is an essential component of any modern marketing strategy. However, sending out a high volume of emails to your subscribers is not enough; ensuring that your emails are opened and read is crucial to the success of your email campaigns. Therefore, improving your email open rates is essential for any business that relies on email marketing to drive traffic and conversions.
Here are some reasons why improving your email open rates is important:
Increases Engagement
Improving your email open rates means that more people are interested in what you have to say. This increased engagement is essential for building a relationship with your subscribers and turning them into loyal customers. When subscribers regularly open and read your emails, they become more familiar with your brand and are more likely to engage with your content.
Boosts Sales
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive sales. However, if your subscribers are not opening your emails, they will not be aware of your latest products, promotions, or discounts. By improving your email open rates, you increase the chances of your subscribers seeing your latest offers and, ultimately, making a purchase.
Improves Deliverability
If your emails have a low open rate, it can negatively impact your email deliverability. Email service providers (ESPs) such as Gmail or Yahoo may interpret low open rates as a sign that your emails are not relevant or engaging. This could result in your emails being marked as spam, which can ultimately damage your sender reputation. By improving your email open rates, you demonstrate to ESPs that your emails are valuable, and as a result, your deliverability improves.
Provides Valuable Feedback
Improving your email open rates can help you understand what your subscribers are interested in. By analyzing which emails are opened and which ones are not, you can gain insights into what content resonates with your subscribers. This feedback can help you improve your email content and tailor your messaging to your audience’s interests.
Optimize Content
By analyzing open rates, businesses can gain insight into what types of content and subject lines are most effective in engaging their audience. This information can be used to optimize future email campaigns and improve overall engagement.
Measure campaign success
Email open rates provide a simple and effective way to measure the success of email campaigns. By tracking open rates over time, businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of their email marketing strategy and make data-driven decisions to improve engagement and sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Improving email open rates is crucial to the success of any email marketing campaign. While Make It Loud Digital Marketing does not provide email marketing services, we can still provide valuable insight on your email marketing strategy and help improve email open rates. As experts in digital marketing, we can offer guidance on optimizing email content, creating attention-grabbing subject lines, segmenting your email list, and conducting A/B testing.
By analyzing your email open rates and providing data-driven recommendations, we can help you make informed decisions to improve engagement and increase sales. Our expertise in digital marketing can provide valuable insights to help you get the most out of your email marketing efforts.
Cliff Tillery, MBA is the Chief Operating Officer at Make It Loud which is a digital marketing firm located outside of Atlanta Georgia. He is also the Director of SEO. More than 14 years ago, he started search engine optimization at this agency and has taught digital marketing skills to business owners at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, the Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center and other groups.
