How to Boost Email Open Rates

As a marketer, you know firsthand the amount of time and effort it takes to craft a well thought out email campaign. With the goal of getting your subscribers to first open the email and second take action, you need to ensure that the email subject line piques the interest of the recipient and that the email content is crisp and clear. However, even when your subject line and content is flawless, you may still encounter low open rates. Read on to learn how to boost your email open rates.

Optimize Deliverability and Open Rates

Unfortunately, not all of your emails will reach the intended receiver. And, for the emails that do, you still face the possibility that they won’t be opened, and if they are opened, that the reader won’t click on your call to action (CTA). You may be wondering – what are the rates that I should strive to achieve?

Regardless of your industry, your goal should be at least a 17.16% open rate, an 8.87% click-through rate, and less than a 10.42% bounce rate. These figures, however, vary by industry, so be sure to know the average percentages of your industry.

To increase open rates and keep your company’s email address off the blacklist, here are 10 tips that’ll help you improve subscriber engagement:

Keep Your Email Lists Fresh: By keeping your email lists current, you’ll be able to avoid spam traps and stay in good standing with ISPs. Be sure to remove email addresses that have expired, as well as unsubscribes. If you don’t, they will bounce and ISPs will begin to flag your emails, making it even more difficult for you to reach your subscribers’ inboxes.

Avoid Spam Filters: Certain words and phrases within your subject line will trigger spam filters. For example, free, money, help, reminder, increase sales, consolidate debt, a full refund, pennies a day, as well as nearly 200 others should be avoided. In addition, you should never include an emoji in your subject line. Doing this is a spam red flag. Instead, focus on using words and phrases that are thought-provoking and informative, and keep the number of words in your subject line to between six and ten. Additionally, be sure that the “To:” and “From:” fields are properly populated with the recipient’s name and the name of the sender. Finally, keep your email copy short and concise. Emails that contain heavy content is another spam filter trigger.

Personalized Content: When you create a unique and targeted experience, you’re more likely to attract and retain your readers’ attention, increasing open and click-through rates and putting you in a position to nurture your subscribers through your campaigns.

Keep Content Clean: You want the recipient to read through the email and take action. When emails are cluttered with large graphics, embedded forms, and attachments, it’s difficult for the reader to grasp your message. By the same token, avoid using exclamation points, colored font, and text that is in all caps. Your emails should be short and contain an inspiring call to action that guides the reader to your landing page.

Double Check for Errors: Nothing says unprofessional like grammatical errors and typos. Be sure to include spell check as part of your email campaign process.

Keep Keywords to a Minimum: All marketers know the benefits of including keywords in their copy, however, using too many has the opposite effect. An overabundance of keywords lowers your Google ranking, as well as weakens the subscriber experience.

Re-Engaging Inactive Recipients: When a recipient stops engaging with you, that’s when you should put creative campaigns in place to re-spark their interest. To reignite communications, make your campaigns interactive and interesting. For example, you may want to offer incentives such as an invitation for coffee and a webinar. Or, you could include a survey – who knows, you just may find out why they became inactive. At the end of the email, be sure to make it easy for them to stay a subscriber or opt-out.

Keep Messaging Fresh: Nothing is duller than receiving the same email content month-after-month. Our culture is constantly changing, and it’s up to you to tweak your messaging and copy in a way that will generate interest. By creating content that is positive, yet empathic, while still providing useful information, your subscribers will be more apt to stay engaged.

Make it Easy for People to View Your Emails: The majority of people read emails on a mobile device. Although time-consuming, you need to ensure that your emails can be opened by the most popular email clients, including Apple iPhone, Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and Yahoo! Mail. It’s also recommended that you give the recipient the option to view your email in a web browser. You don’t want to lose subscribers because they can’t access your emails.

Include an Unsubscribe Link: Did you know that it’s illegal in many countries, including the US, if you don’t provide the recipient with a way to opt-out? The most common method is to use an unsubscribe link. While the unsubscribe link can be placed anywhere within the email, the most common placement is within your footer. In addition to the unsubscribe link, you also need to include your company’s physical address.

Nearly 300 billion emails were sent and received per day in 2019, and this figure is expected to climb to over 360 billion per day by 2024. To compete in such a crowded area you need your emails to stand out.

By incorporating these ten tips, you’ll be on your way to increasing your email open and click-through rates, while decreasing your bounce rate.

Need help creating an email campaign that drives results? Contact the Ariad Partners team, today!