Your email marketing strategy can produce a surefire return on investment — if you’re implementing it correctly.
Email marketing campaigns are only effective if your contacts are opening the messages in the first place. You can lose out on potential revenue if your emails are unengaging and fail to deliver a compelling message.
So what’s the best way to ensure your email stands out in a flooded inbox and gets opened? Today, we’ll cover tips on how to improve email open rates and make sure your messages get read.
What is a “Good” Email Open Rate?
Email open rates vary across different industries. A subpar rate in one sector might come across successful in another.
Let’s take a look at some standard rates within different industries, according to HubSpot:
- The average open rate across all industries is 32%
- Marketing and advertising have the lowest open rate at 25%
- Arts and entertainment has the highest open rate at 47%
- Other industries with high open rates include: beauty and fitness (40%), business and industrial (41%), construction (45%) and legal (44%)
- 37% or above is a benchmark for a “good” email open rate
Additionally, findings from Campaign Monitor suggest that email marketing campaigns generate approximately $44 for every $1 spent. Yet 15% of marketers say their company never reviews email open rates! (In other words, they’re missing out on hundreds or thousands of dollars in potential revenue).
By implementing a few simple changes, you may be able to close more deals, make more sales and increase your overall revenue.
7 Easy Hacks to Improve Your Email Open Rates
Luckily, increasing your email open rates doesn’t have to be a complicated endeavor. We'll show you how to improve email open rates with these strategies and best practices.
1. Segment Your List
Most people glance at an email and immediately decide whether or not the content pertains to them.
Segmenting your email by website behavior, product history, demographics or interest can immensely help your open rates. This tactic allows you to send relevant, focused emails to different individuals, thereby piquing their interest and increasing your open rates in the process.
2. Keep Your List Fresh
Is your email list outdated? You may be wasting your time if you’re still sending emails to customers who haven’t purchased from you in a decade.
Some email accounts become inactive, while others are just no longer interested in your brand. It’s vital to keep your list updated with active, engaged subscribers. If a consumer has not opened an email or engaged with your brand in over six months, chances are they never will.
Be sure to review your list regularly. Before you ditch anyone, try last-minute efforts like a discount code, or ask them to update their personal information. If they still don’t respond, it’s probably time to remove them from your list.
3. Ensure Content is Relevant
Although open rates are critical, sending relevant content is equally important. If a subscriber enjoys the material, they are more likely to open future emails.
On the other hand, if a subscriber finds your content pushy, annoying or unsolicited they may unsubscribe from your list or block you altogether.
If you’re struggling to target the right individuals with the right content, products or offers, try Personalize. This AI-powered platform ranks the top interests of each contact in your database, offering real-time insights of what your customers want and need most at any given time.
4. Write Engaging Subject Lines
Subject lines can make or break your email open rates. Emails are likely to be unopened if your subject lines are bland and uninteresting.
If you aren’t sure which subject lines work best, try applying an A/B split test on your email campaigns to determine what works.
These days, spurning the interest of consumers requires a bit more creativity. Here are a few ways to guarantee you’re always crafting a strong subject line:
- Use curiosity as a means of engaging the customer
- Provide numbers or figures to grab attention
- Use casual, fun tones to make it seem more personal
- Speak in a language that’s relatable to the customer
If you’re curious about the quality of your email subject line, try this tool by Coschedule to see if your subject line is up to snuff.
5. Write to the Individual
Email lists can contain thousands of recipients, but you can easily personalize the subject line or body to speak to your contacts one-on-one.
Communicating with individuals on a first-name basis is more likely to increase engagement. Use personalization tokens in the subject line or the body of the text as if you’re speaking with them directly.
An individualized experience will likely increase the chances of recipients opening future messages.
6. Avoid Spam Filters
Spam filters continue to advance, so it’s essential to be crafty with your email marketing strategy. Even the best emails can get lost forever in spam purgatory.
If you want to avoid having your email exiled to the spam folder, try implementing these tips:
- Only send emails to recipients who have opted into your list
- Send campaigns from reputable IP addresses
- Avoid overused sales words such as “buy”, “clearance” or “free”
- Don’t use bait-and-switch methods to deceive your list
- Limit the number of links and graphics used so you don’t overwhelm recipients with excessive white noise
- Provide a way for customers to opt out
7. Send from a Person, Not a Company
Email fatigue is real. In today’s day of information, more emails end up unread or in the trash.
Individuals will quickly tire of receiving repetitive emails. To remedy this, modify your sender name and send your subscribers a message from an actual person.
A personable, friendly email is often more effective than a generic one. Plus, recipients will be less likely to delete it in frustration and more likely to open it.
Get Your Emails Opened (and Read) with Personalize
Updating your lists, creating A/B tests and modifying subject lines or sender names through your email marketing platform is pretty simple. But sending highly relevant and personalized content based on your contacts’ real-time interests isn’t as easy.
Luckily, Personalize tackles these challenges by providing the most critical information you need to send targeted emails to your list.
Personalize reveals the top three products or services that your customers are most interested in, giving you 50% better response rates and increased revenue.
Our AI engine analyzes metrics like time on page, visit frequency and recency to identify what your customers want in real-time. With this data, you’ll be able to send timely, relevant emails that get opened (and read).
Personalize is simple to start, easy to use and provides enterprise capabilities for your business.
Learn more and sign up for a free 30-day trial of Personalize today!
