Emails are considered to be one of the oldest but most effective ways of marketing. But the effectiveness and success of email marketing campaigns are determined by the email open rate. If you want to succeed in your industry then it is important for you to improve email open rate of your campaign.
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You may find a lot of reports stating that email marketing is on its last breath. But that is not the case still, there are marketing agencies and marketer who finds email marketing to be more effective and converting than any other form of online marketing.
If you are looking to gain in-depth knowledge of email marketing then check our latest article on What Is Email Marketing? And How It Can Benefit Your Business?
In today’s marketing world most of the email marketer knows about email open rate and they aim to achieve maximum email open rate percentage. But due to some tiny reasons, they fail to achieve their goal.
Therefore In this article, we will be discussing what is email open rate and how you can optimize your email to get higher email open rate.
What is Email Open Rate?
Email open-rate helps in analyzing the percentage of emails opened by your existing and new subscribers. Breaking it even simpler, an email open rate tells you about how many people viewed or opened the email you sent. Email open rate may differ depending on emails Subject matter and email subject relevance. If you are sending emails to irrelevant people then they will not show any interest in opening your email. And sometimes people mark irrelevant emails as spam. So, optimize your email and email list to get a higher open rate.
Email open rate plays an important role in giving you the results of your email marketing campaign. Every email campaign aims to achieve a higher email open rate but sometimes marketers fail to achieve maximum open rate. Due to:
- Inactive email subscribers,
- The unappealing subject line,
- failed delivery,
- sending emails to the disinterested recipients,
- poor timing, etc.
Tips to improve email open rate
So, now the question is how to increase email open rate????
To improve email open rate SFWP Experts have come up with strategies that can help you in achieving a higher email open rate.
1. Update and Clean your mailing list
If you are into bulk email processing then it is always recommended to update and clean your email from inactive users. You might have heard of the advice that it’s good to send emails to your subscribers to stay in touch with them. But if your subscriber is not active then what is the use of sending an enticing email to an inactive user.
Everyone is aware of the fact that new email id creation doesn’t cost a penny and people change their email id. So, your email list can contain users who may have changed their email id and people who may not be interested in your product. You can filter your list from the data and get rid of the inactive user. Basically, an inactive user can be someone who didn’t respond to your email from the past 8 or 9 months.
Before removing inactive users from your mailing list you can get sent them a re-engaging email as shown in the example:
2. Segment your mailing list
Segmenting has always helped marketers in reaching the right audience and choosing potential customers. A segmented email list receives a higher email open rate and it also helps in reducing unsubscribe rates. Once you are aware of your subscriber’s actions. You can create a separate email list by placing tags and defining your subscriber’s action.
For example, you can possess subscribers who always show an interest in your product and give the proper response of your mails like filling the feedback form and giving product reviews, etc. So you can segment them and send different types of mail depending on their field of interest.
There are companies that send emails depending on their subscriber’s interest in a product. Even if your subscribers are reacting and downloading your lead magnet bribe then you can plan a strategy and send them different types of emails.
By doing this, your email marketing campaign can achieve a high open-rate. You can segment your subscribers and send them mail according to their interests.
3. Create enticing email subject line
An optimized and enticing email subject line can help you in boosting your email open rate. Imagine a scenario where you receive an email from the leading clothing brand saying that it’s Christmas time and we are giving you a 30% discount on all products. After looking at the email subject line you will surely click and check the details.
This type of email subject line always grabs user attention and inspire them to open the email. Even if you are adding a humorous subject line then your subscriber will surely open and see your email. A creative subject line has helped many brands in boosting their open rate.
4. Generate mobile & user-friendly emails
Users are shifting From desktop to mobile devices, so write and optimize your email for the mobile device. A report says that mobile-friendly emails have a higher opening rate. You can perform various tests on mobile devices to check how a subscriber will react after opening your email. And, you check whether hyperlink in your email is redirecting your user to an appropriate landing page or not. There are a few more factors that you need to check before mobile-friendly emails like
- Compress your image in your email to reduce load time
- Use the larger call to action bottom and display it in the middle of the screen
- Most of the mobile users ignore small fonts so add larger fonts.
- One of the common mistakes carried out by email marketer is that they display two links on the top of another link. mobile user finds it difficult to click on that link. And it can annoy your subscriber. So don’t place two links next to or on top of one another.
- Use 660px wide single-column format
- Most of the android phone turn of the image by default. so, make your email look enticing without image.
Instead of sending an email without subscriber’s name, try to include your subscriber’s name in your email. You can segment your list and identify your responsive email subscribers and include their name in the email. It will help in setting up an emotional connection with them and there are chances that by seeing their name your subscriber can perform the desired action that you are seeking them to do like filling up the feedback form, giving product review, etc.
5. Don’t make your email too lengthy
What if your subscribers are opening your email but not performing any action. That will be disappointing and the failure of your email campaign, right?
This type of scenario occurs when your content is not attractive and too lengthy. A lengthy email confuses and distracts your audience from performing the required action. Nowadays people don’t want to read lengthy emails they divert more on Short email. As it requires less time to read and grabs recipient attention.
Therefore, to get higher CTR and open rates, focus on creating shorter and conversational emails. An email should contain an average of 200-300 words.
6. Avoid spam filters
In the early day’s email marketer were not concerned about spam filters because people were not concerned about marking an irrelevant email as Spam. But in today’s world, if you try to send emails to irrelevant people that they will mark your emails as spam.
If you want your email to land in subscribers inbox and reach a wider audience then try to save your mail from falling into the spam folder. Even if you have your best performing email sent to irrelevant people then they may mark your email as spam.
So, To avoid being flagged as spam you can check for a few things like
- Don’t buy an email list. Instead, you can opt for creating an email list using Inbound marketing strategies. It will take some time but you will get verified subscribers.
- Avoid using spammy language.
- Check whether your subscriber has opted for receiving the email in their inbox or not.
- Always send your emails through the verified domain.
- Offer Unsubscribe option in your email
7. Include Sender name and write your email to just one person
If you are sending an email to your subscriber then try to frame a template and content that contains the sender name in it. An email without a sender’s name will look awkward and people may not show interest in performing any action.
While drafting a content or template try to create an email that concentrates and talks about an individual person. You might be creating the email campaign for thousands of people but always show that you are talking to individual persons. This practice will enhance your email marketing campaign and make it more personalized.
Leading email marketing companies say that personal subject lines and personalized content grab user attention and persuade them to perform necessary action. For example, if you are sending an email to the recipient stating that we have noticed you as our frequent buyer. So as thanksgiving we are providing a 40% discount on all our products exclusively for you. An email with this kind of content will surely grab users attention.
8. Send emails at the appropriate time
Every email marketer wants to gain a maximum open rate and click-through rate. One of the reasons why marketers fail to achieve that because they are not aware of their subscriber’s email opening time.
Timing plays an important role in getting the maximum open rates. Before running any email marketing campaign you should be aware of your recipient Location, age, and occupation. This practice will help you create different lists depending on the time and demographics of your recipient.
It is hard to figure out accurate time but by running the A/B test you can analyze the time frame suitable for your email. SFWP Experts has got email marketing professionals who can help you in identifying the best time to send your email to subscribers.
There is a misconception that weekends have higher email open rate. That’s not true, By looking at the data collected by HubSpot you can figure out which day has got a maximum email open rate. And to be more precise weekdays morning has a maximum email open rate compared to the weekend.
So if you are an email marketer and aiming to improve email open rate then analyze your data, research on your subscriber’s email open time, and figure out the best timing for email to get clicked by your subscribers.
9. Create Enticing Content for your Subscribers
Content has always helped companies in getting the maximum number of audiences. And in email marketing, an attractive template and content plays an important role in getting high open-rate.
Now you may be wondering how content is relevant to open rate?
Content plays an important role in deciding email open rate because if your start sending monotonous content to your subscribers then they may open your email a few times but after that either they will unsubscribe from your email list or stop opening your email.
So, always focus on including enticing content in emails that can encourage your subscribers to open and engage with your email. Try adding humorous images and text in your content to make your audience anticipate for your email. You can also send educational stuff in the form of an ebook or blog post link to attract your audience.
Once the audience finds that you are trying to pitch something boring then they will surely stop opening your email, And It is really hard to recover a lost and uninterested subscriber. You can plan a strategy and discover something creative that can rejuvenate your audience.
Conclusion:
Email open rate plays an important role in every email marketing. If you find your email to be attractive but it is not giving you the desired open rate then you can follow the tips to boost your email open rate. Or you can contact California’s leading marketing agency SFWP Experts in building converting and engaging email marketing strategy.