Email Deliverability: How to Improve Email Open Rates
Since email marketing is one of your marketing’s core techniques, there is a need to improve, tweak it better for a more robust result. The way marketers measure the success of their campaign is often on the click-through rate.
There is no harm measuring in such a manner, but you’re missing the big picture. The only logical way to improve the click-through rate is by improving your open rate. When more subscribers open your mail, the chances of clicking are relatively higher.
This article will expose you to tips and practical techniques that will help you improve your email open rate. If you can implore the right angles, there will be an increase in CTR.
Email Deliverability: How to Improve Email Open Rates
Since email marketing is one of your marketing’s core techniques, there is a need to improve, tweak it better for a more robust result. The way marketers measure the success of their campaign is often on the click-through rate.
There is no harm measuring in such a manner, but you’re missing the big picture. The only logical way to improve the click-through rate is by improving your open rate. When more subscribers open your mail, the chances of clicking are relatively higher.
This article will expose you to tips and practical techniques that will help you improve your email open rate. If you can implore the right angles, there will be an increase in CTR.
What Is Email Open Rate?
Most online store owners or marketers often wonder how email rates are calculated. It is a no brainer. According to Email Service Providers, the open rate is calculated based on the number of people who opened the mail, divided by the number of sent emails that didn’t bounce.
Let’s say you sent 100 emails, of which only ten bounced, leaving you with 90 delivered emails. Out of the 90 emails, only ten were open, which means that your open email rate is 11%. Around 2015 to 2018, the average email available rate was 24% globally.
However, the number stepped down in 2019 to 22.1%. Your aim should be seeking means to beat the average mark and make more sales. Email marketing is still a formidable marketing strategy that isn’t going away soon. If you want to grow your business or build your brand, you must pay full attention to the benefits of email marketing.
How To Improve Email Open Rates
1. Keeping Your List Fresh
You want to send emails only to individuals who wish to receive them, not people who have lost interest in your brand. To ensure your list is always fresh, you need to email your subscribers on a consistent base. That way, you water the ground for the big sale.
Aside from sending consistent emails, so they don’t go stale, it is possible they might have changed their email account, or they are utterly no longer interested in your offers. If that becomes the situation, you need to weed your list of these inactive subscribers.
But before you say your final goodbye, try one last attempt by sending a win-back email campaign. You might be able to win a few back before weeding off the other inactive. By keeping your list fresh, you increase your open email rate since your subscribers opt for it. Implementing an email finder tool can also enhance list accuracy by identifying and updating outdated or incorrect email addresses, ensuring your campaigns reach genuinely interested recipients.
An interesting subject line for your win-back email campaign could be something like, “Is the love gone?”, “Do you hate me?” or “Do I bore you?” A lot of marketers have tried these techniques, and it always seems to win a few subscribers.Make sure you have your email security protocols like SPF, DKIM, DMARC records enabled so that your email looks more credible to the subscribers. Additionally, consider using a bulk email verifier to ensure that your email list remains up-to-date and consists only of valid email addresses.
2. Segment Your List
Before people open an email, they consider if the mail is relevant to them. When you’re marketing to the wrong subscribers, you can as much expect no traction at all. To solve this problem, you have to create a segment. You can still save a lot of time by sending mass emails to the various segments and also be relevant to them.
Many studies have confirmed that marketers who segment their list experienced over 28% open rate, low unsubscribed rate, and more significant revenue. Implementing this strategy entails adding tags to your subscribers based on their behavior, such as buying behavior.
The email you send to paying customers can’t be the same transmitted to non-paying customers. You can also send different emails based only on the specific product they bought, location, or personal interest. For instance, you can use email marketing mapping tools like taradel.com to target locations or neighborhoods. If they had chosen a particular topic while signing up, ensure you send them more emails on those specific topics.
When you segment your list, it makes it easier to personalize your emails and writes a better subject line. If you got your subscribers organically, you’re most likely to experience a better email open rate than before.
3. Avoid Email Filters
Have you ever found an essential email in your spam folder before? It might get you wondering about what went wrong. But the fact is, the spam filter takes various factors into account before email delivery.
If you don’t use the right practice, you can get caught in the spam folder, lowering your open email rate. If you want to enhance your open email rate, you must stick to some practices when sending your email, like ensuring that all your subscribers opt for your emails. Utilizing an email API can help you manage subscriptions more effectively and ensure better deliverability.
When you’re sending an email, make sure the IP address you’re sending from has not been flagged for spam in the past. Keep your code clean, and minimize your use of sale languages like a discount, cash, buy, etc.
What always seems to work is asking your subscribers to whitelist your emails by adding them to the address book. That way, your emails will never enter the spam folder no matter what you do. As long as your email doesn’t spam and you’re not using too many sale languages, you should be OK with the spam filter. To better protect your email account, it is important to learn how to stop spam emails by following best practices and staying up to date with the latest spam prevention strategies. Email warmup is also crucial as it substantially enhances the likelihood of your emails landing in your prospect’s primary inbox rather than being relegated to the spam or promotions folder. Utilizing email warmup software ensures that your emails receive higher open rates, translating to increased replies, more scheduled meetings, and, most importantly, a greater number of successful deals.
4. Attractive Subject Line
If you want to improve your email open rate, you need to pay a little more attention to your subject line. Most often, it is what convinces subscribers to either click or not. Your aim should be to use a subject line that is short, catchy, and intriguing. If your subject lines stand out, you’ve got yourself a click.
Overall, you’ll see a drastic increase in open email rates just because you stood out. A lot of companies and brands are using the same old subject lines for marketing purposes. As expected, they end up with a low open rate that does nothing for the brand.
If you want to get creative with your subject line, you might have to consider the following tips.
- Arouse Curiosity – When doing this, then try to be too smart since it always backfires. Your aim should be keeping your subscribers curious enough to click without appearing cryptic.
- Use numbers – Numerous studies purport that numbers on the subject line lead to a higher email open rate.
- Conversational tone – Your subscribers are humans, so you need to talk to them in a casual, friendly, and fun style.
There is a whole lot of email subject line examples that can help you with ideas. Take your time to understand your subscriber, because only then can you come up with a better subject line.
5. Create Amazing Contents
If your content sucks, no one would want to open them. That is necessary human behavior that you need to understand, as it would compel you to create better and high-quality content. When a subscriber is displeased with your content, they are less likely to open the next time.
The most common outcome is open unsubscribing from your list, hoping they don’t report it as spam. But when you’re fishing out great content that they enjoy, they will eagerly wait for your email.
When you’ve built a relationship such as this, you might not even need to go creative with your subject line as they will always click. If a subscriber is sure that an email is relevant and adds value, they will interact with your brand and even consider some of your offers.
If you must improve your open email rate, you need to keep your subscribers happy by making your content awesome. Give them access to incredible resources, offer free eBooks, showcase your products or services via a digital catalog, or deliver excellent blog posts.
To make this happen, you must strive to add value to every single email you send. When you fail to bring these values, you will lose them, which can be bad for business. But when you play it well, you won’t have to worry about anything.
6. Use Some Humor
If you can make your subscribers smile or laugh a little, then you’re a winner. Humor is an essential element that you can harness to skyrocket your email marketing campaign. You don’t need to be a comedian to pull this off or a smart person.
What you need is to understand your target market, their interest, likes, and dislikes. When you know your subscribers more intimately, it will help you craft out good humor that appeals to them. Here are a few funny ones that will give you a quick idea.</p
- It seems you’re ready and I should stop bothering you
- You’re interested but too shy to respond yet
- A hippo is chasing you
By learning to inject humor in your email, you drastically relate to your subscribers on a more personal level. With such a relationship, they will always open and click on your emails.
You can also add a funny cat or dog gif to brighten their mood. If you’re feeling ambitious, consider creating a funny video and adding it to your email. If you succeed in pulling off this humorous act, it will lead to a distant subscriber to become more engaging with your brand.
7. Make Email Personal
When sending out emails, you want to ensure it’s humanized for the best result possible. One of the ways to do that is through the ‘form’ portion of your email. Sending emails as your brand might not always work since people are more likely to interact with a real person’s mail.
However, there is some brand that prefers to use a generic brand email for some reasonable reasons. It is because they have a large team, and several emails might not come from the same person. Also, some brands might not want to expose the email address of their workers to scammers.
Whatever you decide to put in your ‘form’ portion, try to remain consistent and offer value. That way, your subscribers will get used to your brand, even spam filters.
The more personalized an email is, the more likely it will get opened by the recipient. If you can’t make your form portion reflect a real person, you can create HTML email signature, or use a human voice to communicate in a conversational tone. That way, they are convinced a human is behind the mail, not some auto-generated promotional mail.
8. Email Sending Time
If you want to improve your email open rate, you must discover the best time to send your mails. There have been numerous studies in that department, and the outcome differs based on industry and list. However, MailChimp concluded after collecting information from millions of emails sent.
MailChimp found out that emails are opened more around 2 – 5 pm, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best time in the week. Since this is a study of different companies, industries, and markets, you might need to do a bit of testing to uncover your best time.
Send and track your email open rate for months, then find out when your emails get their best email open rate and why. Sometimes, the reason could be the difference in time zone. If your subscribers live in a different time zone, you need to discover and tailor your emails to when they will be free to open them.
Lunch breaks and evenings often work best, but only your experiment will determine what time is best for you. When you send the right email at the right time, you should expect a 100% chance of conversion if you run an online store. Lunch breaks and evenings are often effective, but experimentation will ultimately reveal the best times for your audience. Email automation software can help streamline this process, ensuring your emails are sent at the optimal times for maximum engagement. When you send the right email at the right time, you can expect a significantly higher chance of conversion, especially for online stores.
Conclusion
There are numerous ways to improve your open email rate, but the main tip that crowns it all is value. When you’re able to deliver value to your target market, they are more likely to become loyal customers.
When that happens, you won’t have to struggle when it comes to converting subscribers to customers. If your brand has a sales or marketing department, ensure that y from the same persona.
If you’re a small business, there is no harm personalizing the ‘from’ portion to reflect your personality. That way, your subscribers will be more likely to interact with you and your products. But when your ‘from’ portion is always changing, you run a risk of getting caught by the spam filter.