Increase Email Open Rate with 9 Key Factors

The common goal of all marketers is to gain

email addresses from web visitors. Unlike social media or search engines, which

have a company standing between you and your visitor, email is a direct

connection to the customer. Because of this, crafting emails that drive traffic

to your site is high on the list of priorities.

Of course, driving traffic from email depends on

open rates. Find out how to increase your email open rate with these nine key

factors.

1. Keep Subscribers Engaged

It’s important to send your subscribers regular

emails to be sure that your list stays fresh, but you can still lose some of

your email list over time. People may change emails or lose interest in your

brand overall, so it’s smart to remove inactive subscribers regularly.

You can still give them one last chance to

re-engage, however. This can be accomplished a number of ways, but it’s just an

email asking your subscriber to engage with you before purging them from your

list. Anyone who responds stays, but everyone else gets purged.

You can also check in with your subscriber list

periodically to see if they want to update their information. This reminds them

that they’re still in control of how they interact, which builds a more

personal connection and encourages them to engage.

Finally, you can try to re-engage your list by

conducting a survey to rate their satisfaction and gain some insight. Offering

an incentive, such as a free gift, encourages their engagement and gives you

valuable information to keep them satisfied.

2. Segment Your List

One of the most important factors in whether

someone opens an email is deciding if it’s relevant to their needs.

Segmentation is an easy way to accomplish this and be sure you’re not flooding

your subscribers’ inboxes with emails that don’t apply to them.

Segmentation can be done a number of ways, but

the best place to start is by tagging your subscribers’ behavior. For example,

you want to send different types of emails to your repeat customers, first-time

customers and future customers you’re nurturing.

You may also want to create segments based on

the types of products purchased, demographics, locations and other information,

so you can tailor your emails to your customers’ needs and entice them to open.

3. Avoid Spam

Spam filters are becoming more and more refined,

but it’s still possible to end up with your emails in the spam folder. If this

happens, you can count on your email never being opened.

So, if you want to maximize the reach and

engagement of your email list, you need to do all you can to avoid ending up in

the spam folder. Here are some tips:

●Be sure everyone on your list

opted-in.

●Send emails from an IP address that

hasn’t been used for spam in the past.

●Send using a verified domain.

●Make sure your code is clean.

●Personalize the “to” field of your

email.

●Take the time to show subscribers

how to add your business to their address book to be sure they always get your emails.

●Avoid sales language that’s likely

to trigger spam filters.

●Avoid deceptive subject lines.

●Include a location.

●Make sure it’s easy for your

subscribers to unsubscribe as they wish.

4\. Get the Timing Right

Timing has a big impact on whether your

subscribers open your emails, so it’s worth the time and effort to test

different timeframes and see what performs.

You can also take advantage of others’ research,

such as MailChimp

. Though the research is

general, it can give you a great starting point for when your emails will have

the most impact.

Overall, they found that no particular day is

better than another, but during the week is better than the weekend. Morning is

also better than afternoon, evening or late night, but that’s also dependent on

the location, occupation and age of the subscriber, as well as the type of

content being sent.

That’s where you come in. Think a little about

your subscribers and what their normal routine might be, what type of content

you’re sending and when you would be most likely to want to read your email.

5\. Improve Your Subject Line

Subject lines are a significant factor in your

email open rate, so they have to grab attention. Some businesses get lazy with

their email marketing and copy the same subject line formula over and over,

leading to bored subscribers and unopened emails.

If you want to separate yourself from the pack,

you need to get creative. Keep your subject lines intriguing but not overly

clever or confusing, use a joke or question and speak in a language that aligns

with your brand and your customers.

You can also check out this post from Neil Patel

about writing great subject lines

that

get opened, which gives you some in-depth advice.

6\. Write to One Person Only

When you write an email that’s meant to go out

to thousands of subscribers, that can easily reflect in your tone. This makes

sense, but it’s much less effective than writing as though you’re speaking to

only one of your subscribers.

You want to keep your emails personal to connect

with your audience, which can’t be done if you’re writing to the masses. This

requires insight into your customer, however, and the ability to identify their

problems, interests and values.

If you don’t have that type of insight on your

customers yet, now is a great time to start. A simple email that includes a

survey or a conversation allows you to ask the questions you need to better

understand your customers’ problems.

7\. Write Personally

As we mentioned, keeping it personal is much

more effective that writing emails with mass appeal. Disconnected, sterile

messages will never be opened on a consistent basis, regardless of how well you

craft the rest of the email.

This is often challenging for people, but the

key is to write to your subscribers as though you’re friends. They’re flooded

with emails all day every day, so if you can reach them on a personal level and

convince them that what you sent is worth reading, your emails will be opened.

8\. Create Excellent Content

Content is read after an email is opened, so you

may wonder why that’s included on this list. Even if your goal is to increase

the open rate, you still want your emails opened consistently in the future,

and that has everything to do with what’s inside.

Think about it this way. If your subscribers

take a shot on you and start opening your emails, only to find content that’s

subpar or shallow, they have no incentive to open your emails again.

Keep it valuable and relevant to your audience

every time, and you may find yourself with a long list of loyal subscribers who

look forward to getting your emails.

9\. Make it Mobile Friendly

Mobile is increasingly more popular, so it makes

sense that a lot of your audience uses their smartphone to open an email. Even

if your product and target audience fall outside of the demographic most likely

to use mobile for email, you still can’t afford to neglect the needs of your

mobile users.

Mobile-friendly formatting is the first step in

this process, but there are some other things to consider about emails

specifically. Smaller screens make it more difficult to see graphics and

shorten subject lines, so that’s something you need to think about as you write

your email.

You also want smaller images that load faster,