7 Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Email Open Rates

Email is one of the most powerful marketing channels for businesses of all types. There are up to 4 billion email users worldwide and, for every dollar spent on email marketing, you can earn up to $44. That’s a jaw-dropping 4,300% ROI.

However, to produce such results, you need to get people to open your emails in the first place. How do you trigger these oh-so desired clicks? In this article, we give you seven easy tips. We also show you how working with an email marketing agency can help skyrocket your open rates. Let’s start by discussing the tips:

1. Optimize your Subject Lines

Since the subject line is the very first thing people see when you send an email, it is arguably the most important part of your email. In fact, 47% of consumers use the subject line alone to determine whether to open an email or not. So, you need to make sure that this first line of contact is interesting enough to make them want to click. Here are a few ways to achieve this:

• Avoid long subject lines: Keep your subject line between six and ten words to ensure that your subscribers see the full sentence in their inboxes.
• Pique your subscriber’s curiosity: Whenever possible, you should craft your subject line as a cliffhanger that makes readers want to know more. There are several ways to do this. For instance, you can ask an irresistible question. Or, you can use a shocking statistic as your subject line. However, avoid clickbait or tricking readers into clicking without delivering the information promised.
• Connect on a personal level: If you really want to catch your subscriber’s attention, go the extra mile and personalize your subject lines. This can increase open rates by up to 50%.

2. Pay Attention to Your Preview Text

Your subject line is not the only thing that appears in your reader’s inbox. Right below or next to it is preview text. If you don’t write preview text when you craft your email, then readers will see the first part of the first line of your email.

Preview text can have a huge impact on a reader’s decision to open your email. So, make the most of it. Use the preview text to summarize the content of your email in an intriguing way. Get creative and use the same guidelines that you use for subject lines to pique curiosity and draw your reader in.

3. Segment Your Audience

One of the most crucial factors for email open rate is relevance. People are much more likely to open an email that seems relevant to them. But with their varied interests and needs, how do you ensure that your emails are relevant to your subscribers?

Segmenting your subscribers into different groups based on their demographics, interests, needs and purchasing behaviour makes it easier to send targeted emails that are more likely to be relevant to your customers. As opposed to sending the same content to your entire email list, this approach can cause your open rates to hit the roof. A study by MailChimp showed that segmented email campaigns have open rates that are 14.32% higher than non-segmented ones.

While it is very rewarding, segmentation can take a lot of time and effort, which is why many brands employ the services of an email marketing agency.

4. Work on Your Timing

Sending emails at the wrong time or on a wrong day can plummet your email open rates. But figuring out the right time to send your emails can be difficult.

One of the best starting points is to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Imagine the life of the people represented by each buyer persona. What is their day like? How early do they wake up? What do they do in the mornings? When do they go to bed?

You also need to look at relevant data to get fact-based insights into customer behavior. If you are just starting out and don’t have any data of your own, check out past studies. There are lots of studies, such as those done by MailChimp and Experian that analyze the behaviour of individuals to help pinpoint optimal times for sending email. While the results of these studies differ in some ways, they generally show that late mornings on weekdays are among the best times to send email.

Once you’ve chosen a time frame, be consistent. Be sure to analyze the data generated to find out how effective your timing is. Don’t forget to perform A/B tests to compare open rates by time of day you sent the email.

5. Optimize for Mobile

Over 60% of all email opens happen on mobile devices. So, optimizing emails to make sure they look good on mobile devices is not just a plus, it’s a must. This is why any reputable email marketing agency will take a mobile-first approach to email marketing. Here are a few mobile-friendly practices you should be implementing:

• Keep your subject lines short to ensure that they are fully viewable on smaller devices.
• Use larger fonts which are easier to read on mobile devices.
• If you decide to use images, make sure your email will look good without them in case the device has been set to prevent images from loading.
• Use lighter images that will load quickly on mobile devices.

6. Steer Clear of Spam Filters

To give customers a better experience, email platforms like Gmail and Hotmail have filters in place to weed out spam. But these filters are not perfect, and sometimes harmless emails like yours can be sent to the dreaded spam folder. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to steer clear of these filters. Here are a few of them:

• Avoid using words and phrases like “free,” “special promotion,” “order now,” “winner,” “buy” and “cash” in your subject line. These types of words can trigger spam filters and might get your email flagged.
• In your welcome email, ask new subscribers to “whitelist” you. Be sure to give them clear instructions on how to go about it.
• Avoid tricking people into signing up for your email newsletters. Make sure you have a clear opt-in process that tells them exactly what to expect.
• Include an easy way for your people to unsubscribe from your emails.

7. A/B Test Everything

We already mentioned using A/B testing to find the best times to send your email. But you shouldn’t limit split testing to only timing. You should be performing A/B tests for basically every other variable in your email marketing strategy. This includes your subject lines, preview texts, images, calls to action and so on.

By constantly performing these tests, you can find out which approaches have the best effect on your target audience. This enables you to tweak variables and boost your email open rate.

Good Practices Are More Important than Ever

In case you haven’t caught  the latest on the Apple iOS 15 update, it’s going to affect tracking your open rates. This makes it more important than ever to use the best practices from the get-go and learn about other email marketing metrics that you can use to measure success.

Reach Out 

While you can do all of the above on your own, it is far easier and often more cost-effective to employ the services of an email marketing agency like Umbrella Local. From crafting effective copy to segmenting email lists based on more than 700 parameters, we provide an all-inclusive package that will completely take the load off you and allow you to focus on other business operations. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how our email marketing services can help you produce amazing results.

Metadescription: Reach out to a good email marketing agency to help increase your email open rates using these 7 methods and more