What is the email open rate?
The email open rate is the percentage of the number of people who opened the email that you sent.
For example, if you sent an email to 100 people and 10 people opened your email, the email open rate would be 10%.
Usually the more people you send your email to, the lower your email open rate. In order to increase the number of people who open your email (higher email open rate), you’ll have to optimize accordingly. Here are some of the ways to do that.
How do I get a higher email open rate?
Increase your email open rate for your business with these easy tips and tricks:
- Email technicalities
- Know your audience
- Provide value
- Subject lines
- Timing and expectation
- Segmentation
- Personalization
- Trends and seasons
- Clean-up your list
- Split test (A/B test)
EMAIL MARKETING
1. Email technicalities
Before we get started, there are a few technicalities to look into. Make sure the email service provider is reputable so that your emails are considered safe and won’t end up in the spam folder.
You should also keep in mind that most people are now using emails on their phones, therefore you should have your images and text sizes optimized for small screens. Also, make sure to keep it short and sweet and not to overload your readers with too much information.
2. Know your audience
Your email subscribers are expecting you to send emails that contain important, interesting, and relevant information to them.
Send your emails to the group of people that are receptive to what you have to offer. You don’t have to target everyone, just your most valuable customers.
3. Provide value
Your emails should contain valuable information that your email subscribers cannot get anywhere else.
For example, send an email that contains a loyalty discount voucher, share a new product or service just for your subscribers, share an article that you just wrote before you publish to the public, and many more email ideas to make subscribing to your email an exclusive act.
4. Subject lines
Your email’s subject line is the first visual element that your email subscribers will look at before opening your email to view the contents. Therefore, it should be given some thought.
The email subject should convey information, urgency, and emotion. Grab attention immediately by having specific keywords that they can understand quickly, words such as “free”, “offer” or “limited time only” catches attention and has a higher chance of your email getting opened.
5. Timing and expectation
Your emails should get a better open rate if people are already anticipating and expecting to receive an email from you.
For example, emails sent during the weekday have a better open rate as people are working during the weekdays, especially on Monday mornings as it’s the first workday of the week. However, it will also depend on the nature of your business.
6. Segmentation
You should segment your emails by several factors to increase your email open rate. On a basic level, you could segment based on demographics such as age, gender, and location based on your products and services.
You can take it one step further by segmenting based on their psychographics, such as interests and lifestyle. Other ways to segment include their browsing or purchasing behavior if you have an online catalog or store, articles they’ve previously read, videos they previously watched, and many more ways.
7. Personalization
You should write your emails in a personalized manner, just like an email you would write to someone you know. For example, use their first names for informal emails (or formalize in a friendly way).
You should also consider their locations (city folks vs rural areas) and interests (products and services) for better relevancy. Prompt them about a recent purchase or ask for an honest opinion about your service, there are many ways to engage with them on a personal level.
8. Clean up your list
You should clean up your list once in a while to improve your email open rates. Some people may have stopped using their emails for several reasons such as a career change, lost password, or maybe they’re just not interested anymore.
There are a few ways to clean up your email list, one of them is to send an email to ask if they’re still interested if they haven’t opened any emails for the past three months.
9. Trends and seasons
Keep in mind the seasons and trends that can alter shopping behavior during those periods. For example, during the Christmas season, there will be an increase in gift purchasing, therefore emails related to gifting would be a better fit than a generic email.
Trending topics can be categorized into expected and unexpected trends. Expected trends such as the Olympics can coincide with emails regarding a sale or event even if you’re not in the sporting industry. Unexpected trends such as some social media challenges can also be considered if it’s relevant.
10. Split test (A/B test)
You should also conduct a split test (also known as A/B testing) with your emails. Split testing is the practice of sending two or more different versions of an email that will allow you to find out the factor that increases your email open rate.
For example, varying visual elements such as subject titles, colors, images and button placement, can have an impact. You can even test out a variety of promotions to see whether your subscribers prefer free shipping or discount vouchers. Go ahead and test it out for yourself! Only you will know what’s best for your business and subscribers.
