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Improve Email Open Rates with these 11 Powerful Tips & Tricks!

With over 293 billion emails being sent each day, email marketing campaigns are undoubtedly the new talk of the town.

To ace the email marketing field, you need to be razor-sharp and smart enough to make prospects open your emails and take action. 

But it all starts with the first step of actually opening your email. It simply takes a few seconds for a prospect to decide if they want to open your email or not. 

That is why you need outstanding email open rates! 

Email open rates are the number of people who open your mail. It helps to determine the overall effectiveness of your campaign.  The average email open rate for all industries analyzed is 21.33%.

You surely don’t want the emails that you spent hours working on to just go unnoticed. That is why a good email open rate is extremely necessary! 

Don’t worry we’re here to help – we have cherry-picked a list of the 11 best and most effective ways to improve email open rates sustainably. Let’s dive straight in…

List of 11 Ways To Improve Your Email Open Rates 

1. Segment Your Audience

A recent study found out that 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists got higher open rates. So if you’re serious about improving email open rates, segmenting your list is the way to go. 

Think about who your subscribers are, what type of information is going to benefit them the most.

Many of your subscribers might actually get frustrated by irrelevant content and stop opening your emails. You can segment your lists based on demographics, or interests, or how they got onto your email list in the first place.

Another way to segment is to remove inactive subscribers. You can even send them a goodbye mail as you part ways. 

By segmenting your email list, you can target the subscribers who are truly interested in your mail. 

Once you have deciphered these segments, it’ll be much easier to curate content that will result in better open rates.

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2. Find The Right Timing 

Timing can have a colossal impact on whether or not your subscribers open your emails. 

Imagine this: Your subscriber is most active in the evening but you send them a mail at 7 AM. The chances of your mail getting unnoticed will definitely increase.

So how do you find the right timing? Well, there is no set formula for timing your emails. But you can conduct surveys to find the most preferred time by your subscribers.  You can also perform some A/B tests to identify which timeframes seem to perform best. 

Simply put, if you don’t time your emails well, you may lose out on a lot of coveted opportunities. 

Read more: 7 Ways to Increase Newsletter Engagement Rate

3. Outstanding Subject Line 

By now it might be pretty clear that you’re not the only one wanting to ace at email marketing. With so much competition, you need to be able to cut through the noise. 

If your email is not unique, you may get filtered out as spam before even hitting the subscriber’s inbox. 

That is why you need to come up with an enticing subject line that will make readers open your mail.  Here are some tips for writing a great subject line: 

  • Induce curiosity to make them want to open your mail.
  • Add numbers. 
  • Have a humorous and promising tone.  
  • Keep your subject lines small – around 50 characters or even lesser. 

Remember that this is your chance to stand out and improve your email open rates, so spend enough time thinking about your subject line.

4. Avoid Spam Filters

Spam filters can direct your emails into the subscriber’s spam folder. Thus, your mail will never see the light of the day. 

Trust us, all it takes is for the filter to catch onto spam words or phrases, and your emails, even your best ones, can get caught in the dreaded spam folder. 

So here are some things you need to do to prevent getting yourself into the spam folder: 

  • Include appropriate alt text.
  • Send through verified domains.
  • Stop using spam trigger words like “clearance”, “discount” etc. 

Another way to ensure that your mail doesn’t end up spam is to simply send a test email to yourself or friends and see where the email ended up. Keep tweaking till the email hits the inbox. 

5. Add Some Humor 

Humor is a powerful way to connect with people as it triggers their senses and brings a smile to their faces! 

Inject humor either in your subject line or your content. All you need to do is evaluate who your subscribers really are and insert a good reference. 

For example, if you have a flash sale at 5 pm today, your subject line could be “So we’ll see you at 5.00 pm?”

You need to let your personality shine through your mail. It just can’t drive open rates if it’s boring. 

Read more: RSS to Email: Create Automated Email Newsletters Using RSS!

6. Find The Right Frequency 

Will you be emailing your subscribers weekly? Or will it be daily? You need to decide and find the right frequency.

If you mail too often, your open rates will definitely plummet and if you mail too little, your subscribers may not connect with your brand well enough. 

Your frequency varies based on the expectations of your subscriber, how they view you, and obviously the quality of your emails. 

You can conduct a survey and find the sweet spot for your email campaigns and then it’s all about waiting for your email open rates to skyrocket! 

7. Make Your Emails Mobile Friendly 

More than 50% of emails are viewed on mobile phones or tablets – so you just can’t ignore your mobile subscribers! 

Always consider the fact that since mobile screens are smaller, lengthy subject lines won’t be effective!  So keep your subject lines concise and keep in mind these other tips too: 

  • Use small images
  • Use large call-to-action buttons
  • Avoid attachments and use web links
  • Use mobile-responsive templates

All these tips will come in handy to improve mobile user’s experience with your emails and thus, increase your open rates too!

8. Write To A Single Person 

We know that you’re sending emails to hundreds of subscribers at once but hear us out…personalized messages are more effective. SmarterHQ reports that 72% of customers only engage with personalized messaging. 

You don’t need to tweak a lot. You can use “you” instead of “you all”, and make other such small changes. Conduct surveys and assess your subscriber’s likes and dislikes and this will immensely help you to draft a personalized email. 

9. Sender’s Name Matters

This one is rather simple – people tend to not believe emails that don’t have a distinct persona behind them.

So rather than using a support mail ID or team mail ID, use your corporate ID that is more distinct. 

Using a real ID and name will show them that you’re not a robot, but a human. This will add credibility to your mail and thus drive a better open rate too! 

10. Create a Swipe File 

We know it’s super hard to be creative when you need it the most.  At such times, when you need inspiration, a swipe file will come in handy! 

It’s super simple – every time you see a great headline, write them down. You will soon have a file of all the best emails so that when you’re crafting your own, you have an idea bank to look on to. 

Fascinating right? 

11. Great Content Is Key 

Last but not the least, you need AMAZING content. 

We know all you want is your subscribers to open the mail…so why does the content matter? Well, if your content is good, your subscribers will look forward to all your future emails! 

On the other hand, if your content is dissatisfactory, not only will they not open your emails, they might even just unsubscribe claims Kate Roth, a marketing specialist from Ivory Research.

You can also use newsletters as a way to keep your audiences hooked and make them crave more. Check out the stunning newsletter templates available at elink.io. They are easy to use, fully responsive, and will help you grab your subscriber’s attention!

Keep your content awesome and you’ll generate loyalty within your subscribers and you won’t have to worry about open rates ever again! And isn’t that all you truly want? 

Now It’s Your Turn!

People want to engage. People want to connect. An email that just blurts out data is not interesting for anyone. That is why you need to start a conversation.

Email marketing is both a science and an art, you just need to keep tweaking till you find your perfect solution! 

Our tips are super-effective, so play around with them and test them all, and see what brings out the best results. Be creative and don’t forget to add the personal touch – it’ll drive in more people.

If you have any queries about email open rates, do tweet us @elink_io and we’d be more than happy to help you out! 

Happy emailing! 

This blog was written by elink’s editorial team. elink is a smart content curation tool that will help you create beautifully designed newsletters, webpages, social bio links, and much more within minutes! To learn more about it, check out Elink.io.

Further reads:

How Automation Changes Everything In An Email Outreach Sequence?

9 Best Email Cleaners in 2021 (Paid & Free)

E-Newsletter: The Key to Quickly Grow Your Small Business

21 Gmail Plugins for Smart Professionals

How to Create and Send a Newsletter with Gmail

Email Deliverability: What is it, Why it Matters, and Tools You Can Use!

14 Best Marketing Software to Grow Your Business in 2021

How To Keep Your Email Lists Squeaky Clean?

How To Write A Gentle Reminder Email? (Steps & Examples)

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