5 simple steps to increase your newsletter open rates

Newsletters are a great addition to your marketing efforts. Whether you use them to stay in touch with existing customers or to keep prospects warm, they’re a perfect opportunity to boost brand awareness, loyalty, and authority. Not to mention they’re refreshingly cost- and time-effective to produce.

But as great as they are, convincing your audience they’re worth their time is a different matter. The average open rate of newsletters is around 20% . Which isn’t overly impressive, but makes sense. With so many emails flooding their inboxes every day, people are going to be selective of what they open and read.?

So how can you make sure people are keen to open yours? We’ve compiled a list of 5 simple tips to ensure as many people interact with your newsletter as possible.?

Show your subject line some love

In corporate settings alone, users receive an average of 121-126 emails a day. And that’s ignoring their personal inboxes. So to boost your open rate, you have to stand out. When it comes to emails, that’s down to your subject line - as that’s likely the first part they will see.

You want subject lines that entice your reader in. Short and snappy phrases that pique their interest and leave them wanting to click through to find out more. We find questions perform quite well; they leave your reader in search of an answer.

Some other tips are to avoid too many emojis, exclamation marks, capital letters, or spammy phrases such as ‘once in a lifetime’, ‘buy now’, or ‘free’. They’re a surefire way to get your newsletter ignored or sent to the junk folder.?

Importantly, you also want to make sure your subject line relates to the newsletter’s content. Clickbait subject lines are going to leave a sour taste in your audience’s mouth, and maybe push them straight to the unsubscribe button. Our advice is to leave this part until last - once you’ve written the body content and know exactly what you need to be summarising.?

Focus on adding value

While your newsletters can do some light selling here and there, that shouldn’t be the primary aim. Newsletters are more about building and strengthening relationships. They’re used to supplement your more sales-heavy content and to keep prospects warm in between other interactions.

As such, your focus should be on adding value to your target audience. You want to produce engaging content that resonates with them. Content to entertain, educate, inform, or simply make their lives easier. If you want your audience to open your newsletter every month - and not only that, but be excited to see it in their inbox - you have to make sure you’re adding real value to their lives.?

What could this be in practice? That depends on your product or service. But a good example might be to pick one benefit of what you provide and make that your theme for the newsletter. How does it make the reader’s life better? Are there any reviews that tie into this? Can you help instruct how to use it best? You want to think along those lines.

Lean into exclusivity

Because newsletters are only sent to a specific group of people, they can feel like being part of an exclusive club. Rather than your social channels or website content which are open to everyone, your mailing list knows they’re getting extra access to your brand.

And this is a powerful incentive you can lean into. Make sure you’re giving your mailing list something special on occasion. This might be early access to sales, extra promotions, or business updates you don’t share anywhere else. Anything you can do to make your readers feel appreciated. Like they’re part of your organisation’s inner circle.?

Write to one reader

A handy tip for getting the tone of your newsletters right is to imagine you’re writing to a single reader. Newsletters are effective because they’re a more personalised form of communication. And visualising one individual on the other end of the screen is a good way to get the friendly and conversational tone that will resonate most with your audience.?

This is where we would recommend tying into any audience personas you have. If you’ve already done this work, then picturing them should be easy enough. But if not, now would be a good time to dive into who they are and what they want from you specifically.

A/B testing

To increase the open rate of your newsletters, it’s worth using some trial and error. There’s no magic formula to what your audience wants or needs from you. But there are ways to make sure you’re always moving in the right direction.

A/B testing aspects of your newsletter allows you to make data-driven decisions about what works best for your individual brand and audience. You might use two different subject lines, or create a shorter and longer version of the newsletter for a few months to see which is most successful. Or you might feature infographics for half of your audience to see if it leads to better engagement with your content.??

If you aren’t familiar with the concept, here’s a quick rundown. You create two versions of your newsletter, and send one out to one half, and the other to the second half. Then you compare key statistics, such as open rates. That way, you’ll know which was more successful, and from there can tweak and implement further changes, each time finessing your approach.

Newsletters can be difficult to get right. But the hard work is worth it. Once you strike the balance, they’re a powerful way to connect with your audience and stay at the forefront of prospects’ minds. With these tips in mind, you can start building up the kind of open rates you dream of.

If you want to produce consistent, engaging newsletters but aren’t sure where to start, get in touch . Our team of copywriters are experts in creating audience-focused content that has an impact. You can reach out to us at any time on 0161 413 8418.