A few weeks ago I discussed the basics of email marketing campaigns that anyone could use to get started. That’s all well and good, but having a campaign means nothing if people aren’t opening your emails. There are many things that you can do to help your email open rate. Most of these are just a matter of delivering quality writing and content. What exactly does that mean and where should this ‘quality content’ matter most? Great question.
1. From name & email address. This is the first thing that people are going to see when they receive an email from you, so make sure it’s recognizable. Many people are opting to go more casual with this and use their first name @ company for the FROM field. Others will just use the company name which is usually a less desirable method as it creates a less personal experience in many cases. Whichever you decide to go with, make sure that you keep it consistent, familiar, and keep in line with the tone of your email campaigns. For example, don’t use a very casual from field if your email is very professional.
2. Subject line. As has been mentioned, this is like the handshake you give someone when you meet them. Something I read in researching this post was to remember CURVE when looking at a subject line: Curiosity, Urgency, Relevance, Value, Emotion. When you can invoke all of these things, you’ve probably got a winner. As always, A/B Testing multiple subject lines to see which will garner the highest open rate is a great idea.
3. Preheader. A lot of people forget about this, but this is literally the part of the email that someone sees without opening it. What is written here for many people determines whether they will open the email. Make it engaging and eye catching. If it’s not done right or filled with HTML code then it can be really damaging.
4. Delivery time. If I receive an email at 3am, likely I’m asleep and the email will end up just one of a pile of unopened when I eventually wake up. However, if I receive an email at 3pm I might see it come in and open it straight away. There are actually some platforms out there that will collect data and analytics based on your subscriber’s optimal open time and send it automatically at that time. If you can’t access something like this then try using the more simple ‘deliver at local time’ option so that subscribers aren’t receiving your email in the middle of the night.
There are many more things you can do to tweak your emails in the right direction, but these should be your major focus. If you’d like to know more about increasing your open rate you can visit this great list.