8 Proven Tips to Increase Email Open Rate
What is an email open rate?
Before I dive into the data, you and I need to understand this metric. You see, most people consider the open rate as the number of people who open your email.
Sounds logical, right?
Unfortunately, that's not the case. An email is only counted as opened when one of the following occurs:
OK, easy enough. But, how are email open rates calculated?
Email service providers (ESPs) calculate the open rate by taking the number of people who open the email and dividing it by the number of emails sent that did not bounce, i.e. failed to reach the recipient.
For example, if you send 100 emails, and 10 of them bounce, this leaves you with 90 delivered emails. Of those 90 emails, let's say that 20 are opened. This means that your email campaign open rate is 11% (10 emails opened from 90 delivered).
Email Open Rate = (20 / 90) * 100 = 22%
On average, a 15–20% open rate is good for email marketing campaigns. However, this can vary on the industry that your business is in so it is important to check your industry averages to see how you compare against your competitors.
Emails that are not delivered cannot be opened, which is why this number is not included in the open rate percentage.
So, we can say "Email open rate is?the percentage of subscribers who open a specific email out of your total number of subscribers."
Many people look to their email open rate to determine how successful their email marketing strategy is and, while email open rate is important, no one metric should determine your strategy.
1.?Personalized Subject Lines:
Did you know that personalizing your subject line can boost your email open rate by up to?50%? Personalizing your email subject line helps you foster familiarity with your subscribers. This in turn increases their sense of trust for your brand.
For example, using the generic “Hi, valued subscriber” sounds detached but using the name of the user instead will get their attention immediately.
Pro Tips: One of the best ways to get an insight into what works for your audience is to A/B test as much as possible.
Examples:
Maria, thanks for helping us!
James, check out these hand-picked items.
2.?Use Power Words:
Subject lines should inspire the readers to take action and to do so power words play a great role in this.
Examples
Instead of:
Easy use effortless
Soon use instantly or rapidly
Huge use massive
Effective use game-changing
3.?Create Curiosity gap:
By creating a curiosity gap, you're teasing your reader with a hint of what's to come, without giving all the answers away.
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Examples:
Black Friday secrets revealed!
We don't normally do this!
4. Play with emojis:
Using emojis can increase open rates up to 56%. They are fun and instantly grab attention.
Many people argue that the use of emojis has no place in an email. We beg to differ. The use of emojis in an email is not unprofessional or unethical.
So, by all means, use emojis in your emails. They show emotion, convinces subscribers that they are not receiving spam emails from robots, and also create a playful, personal relationship between you and your subscribers.
Using emojis in your subject line will add color to your message and make you come across as friendly.
5.?Make use of preview text:
Preview text is the last chance to impress your readers in their inboxes before they scroll on, leaving your email unopened. So it's better to not miss this area blank.
Example:
Headline
Last chance for this special offer.
Preview text:
Less than 24 hours left to save 30% on pro training.
6. A/B Test Just About Everything:
Have you ever drafted out a couple of possible subject lines, and then found yourself wondering which will get you the most response from your readers? You don’t have to guess, just A/B test them.
A/B tests?provide the feedback you need to choose which content or element of your content is best for an email campaign. You can test not just subject lines, but other elements of your email content like?CTAs, images, etc.
7. Perfect Your Timing:
Timing can have a huge effect on whether or not your subscribers open your emails, so think carefully about what time and day you send your emails out.
You won’t be able to figure out the perfect time immediately but?perform some A/B tests?to identify which timeframes seem to perform best and explore those in future campaigns.
But you may be wondering, has anyone else already done some tests that you can benefit from?
8. Don’t Forget Your Mobile Users:
We all browse the internet, shop online and?check emails on the go,?which is why it is very important that your subscribers know that by opening your email on their smartphones they will be able to?easily read and interact with it.
According to?eMailmonday, mobile email accounts for?15-70% of all email opens?(depending on your target audience, product and email type).
And, according to BlueHornet,?67.2%?of consumers use a smartphone to check their email.
This means you simply can’t afford to ignore your mobile users– you have to appeal to them.
The obvious tip here is to make sure your email is mobile-friendly (with responsive formatting and loadable media), but also consider the fact that mobile screens are smaller, so long subject lines won’t be viewable on mobile devices.
Conclusion:
So there you have it!
I’ve provided the science behind email open rates and the ways you can use the data to make actionable decisions about your?email marketing.
Here are the key points for you to take away and use the next time you send an email to increase email open rates:
Of course, the best option for you might not be to use any of the above. It depends entirely on what your reports tell you. But you can start with the data provided in this post and use the science to guide you to get more emails opened.