Achieving high email open rates is essential for any successful email marketing strategy. When your subscribers open your emails, it signals engagement and interest, paving the way for increased conversions. However, with inboxes inundated with messages, getting your audience to click that open button can be challenging.
This blog will explore proven strategies to boost your email open rates and enhance your overall email marketing effectiveness.
Understanding the importance of email open rates
What are email open rates?
Email open rates measure the percentage of recipients who open your email compared to the total number of emails sent. This metric is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your email campaigns. A higher open rate indicates that your subject lines and sending strategies resonate with your audience, while a lower rate may suggest the need for adjustments.
Why do open rates matter?
Open rates serve as an indicator of how well your email marketing campaigns perform. They influence your email deliverability—if you consistently have low open rates, your emails may end up in the spam folder. Also, higher open rates often correlate with increased click-through rates and conversions, making it essential to prioritise this metric.
1. Craft a compelling subject line
The power of a great subject line
Your subject line is the first impression your email makes, and it plays a critical role in determining whether recipients will open your message. A compelling subject line grabs attention and sparks curiosity.
Tips for effective subject lines
- Be clear and concise: Aim for 6-10 words to ensure your message is understood quickly.
- Create urgency: Ramp up the FOMO (fear of missing out) by using phrases like ‘limited time offer’ or ‘don’t miss out’ to encourage immediate action.
- Personalise when possible: Use the recipient’s name to increase relevance.
- Avoid spammy language: Steer clear of excessive punctuation and all caps, as these can trigger spam filters.
2. Create an engaging preheader
The importance of preheaders
The preheader text, which appears next to or below the subject line, serves as a secondary hook to entice recipients. A well-crafted preheader can complement your subject line and provide additional context for your message.
Tips for writing effective preheaders
- Keep it brief: Aim for around 40-90 characters to ensure visibility.
- Use it to add value: Consider using the preheader to highlight a key benefit or incentive for opening the email.
- Make it actionable: Phrasing like ‘learn more’ or ‘get your discount’ encourages readers to take action.
3. Personalise and segment
The value of personalisation
Emails that feel tailored to the recipient are more likely to be opened. Personalisation can be as simple as including the recipient’s name in the subject line or referencing their previous interactions with your brand.
Segmenting your audience
Segmenting your email list based on demographics, preferences, or past behaviour allows you to send more targeted content. For example, you could create segments for first-time customers, loyal clients, or those who haven’t engaged in a while. This targeted approach ensures that your emails are relevant and increases the likelihood of opens.
4. Perfect your timing
Timing is everything
The timing of your email can significantly impact open rates. Analysing when your audience is most active can help you determine the best times to send your emails.
Best practices for timing
- Test different sending times: Experiment with sending emails at different times and days to identify when your audience is most responsive.
- Consider time zones: If your audience is spread across different time zones, use automation tools to send emails at optimal local times. Depending on which platform you use to send emails, most offer the functionality to periodically send out across different time zones.
- Monitor engagement patterns: Pay attention to open rates and click-through rates to refine your sending strategy over time.
5. Clean up your email list
Re-engage inactive subscribers
Email is considered the top delivery method for customer retention1 so maintaining an engaged email subscriber list is essential.
If you have inactive subscribers, you could run a targeted win-back email campaign before you delete them from your list. Something simple like a competition, referral campaign or a request to update your contact details could do the trick.
But despite your best efforts, over time, email subscribers can go stale for reasons outside of your control, i.e. they no longer use a particular email account.
An inactive audience will affect your open rate and therefore you’ll have inaccurate analytics so removing them is important. More isn’t always better. Plus, many email marketing platforms charge based on the size of your list. By removing inactive subscribers, you can save on costs and ensure your marketing efforts are focused on those who are likely to convert.
6. Optimise for mobile
A significant number of people use their mobile to open emails, so you need to ensure your emails are structured to enhance the user experience.
One of the big things to consider is using flexible layouts so your email layout adjusts to different screen sizes. You also want to minimise heavy graphics and large files that take too long to load. We want to avoid as much friction as possible to avoid audience loss and improve your engagement rates.
7. Analyse and adjust
Review engagement metrics
Regularly analyse your email open rates alongside other metrics, such as click-through rates and conversions. Understanding the factors that contribute to high or low performance can inform future campaigns.
A/B testing for continuous improvement
A/B testing allows you to experiment with different subject lines, sending times, and personalisation techniques. By comparing the performance of various approaches, you can refine your strategy and continually improve your email open rates.
Are you ready to improve your email marketing strategy?
Boosting your email open rates is a vital aspect of any successful email marketing campaign.
Follow the above steps and you’re sure to see a difference. You can also always reach out to us at Holmes for tailored advice.