The quick guide to getting your emails (actually) read

Imagine you’ve spent hours crafting the perfect email. It’s packed with valuable content beautifully designed, and you’re sure it will resonate with your audience. But there’s one problem: if no one opens it, all your hard work goes unnoticed. That really sucks, doesn’t it?

That’s where understanding email open rates comes into play. Let’s dive into why open rates matter, what benchmarks to aim for, and how to optimize your emails to ensure they get opened and read.

By the way, why should you trust me? I’ve been doing mailer campaigns for more than 17 years, both black hat and white hat. If you know what “day-old bread” is when relating to email domains, you have been around like me…

The Importance of Open Rates

Think of the open rate as the gatekeeper to your email's success. It measures the percentage of recipients who actually open your email. The subject line and preview text that you use largely govern this.?

What Open Rates Should Be

How long is a piece of string, because it depends on a bunch of factors:

1. Is this an acquisition email to a cold base?
2. Is this an email to a subscribed base?

Based on my experience, this is what you should be aiming at.?

So, if you want it right, you must perfect the subject line and the preview text. Let’s look at how to do that.?

0. Email Deliverability

I need to mention one little step before that, and it is step 0. If your email doesn’t deliver, no one will ever open it. Simple.

Before hitting send, it’s crucial to ensure your emails actually reach your recipients’ inboxes. Here’s a quick guide to testing for deliverability:

1. Use Deliverability Testing Tools: Platforms like Mail-Tester or Litmus can analyze your email and give you a deliverability score.
2. Check for Spam Triggers: Avoid common spam trigger words and excessive punctuation. Those deliverability testing tools in point 1 will help you with that.?
3. Verify Email Authentication: Make sure your emails are authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
4. Test Across Platforms: Preview your email on different devices and email clients to ensure it displays correctly.
5. Clean Your Email List: Regularly update your list to remove inactive or invalid addresses, reducing the risk of being flagged as spam.
6. Don’t forget email reputation: If you have been bad, you may have damaged your sender reputation. Here is a cool guide to checking your sender reputation from Sendgrid (they know their email stuff)

1. Getting the Subject Line Right

Your subject line is like the headline of a news article—it needs to grab attention instantly. Here are some tips to make yours stand out:

1. Keep it Short and Sweet: Aim for 6-10 words or under 50 characters. This ensures your subject line is fully visible on most devices. Here is a quick guide for you on subject line lengths:
2. Be Clear and Compelling: Your subject line should hint at what’s inside and why it’s worth the recipient’s time.
3. Use Actionable Language: Words like "Discover," "Join," or "Learn" can prompt your readers to take action.
4. Personalize When Possible: Including the recipient’s name or something specific to their interests can increase engagement.
5. Resist the urge to be misleading. It's Easy to put the subject line “Free Beer” and have a massive open rate, but just remember: you want the content to be read and acted on. If there is a mismatch between the subject line and the contents, the reader will not act on it and, even worse, mark the email as spam. Don’t destroy your email reputation just to increase your open rates.?

2. Perfecting the Email Preview

The email preview, or preheader text, is the snippet that appears next to or below the subject line in the inbox. It’s your second chance to grab attention. Here’s how to make it count:

1. Keep it Concise: Stick to 40-90 characters to ensure it’s fully displayed across all devices.
2. Add Value: Use this space to add context or a secondary hook that complements your subject line.
3. Avoid Redundancy: Make sure the preview text isn’t just a repeat of your subject line. It should provide additional insight or tease the content inside.

3. Add the two together for Optimum Success

Remember, some email previews (like Gmail), put the preview next to the subject line, so the longer the subject line is, the less space there is for preview text. Let’s look at an example:

This was an email from one of my favorite newsletters, The Hustle, previewed in my Gmail account on a desktop running 1920 x 1080 resolution. Breaking it down, it looks like this:

• Subject: “How to buy a stegosaurus” = 24 characters ?
• Preview: “When a stegosaurus skeleton smashed the dino sales record last month, selling for $45, it reignited...” = 99 characters ? (before being chopped off)
• Combined: 124+ characters ??
• Everything from 125 characters onward was a waste….

So, just be extra cautious and TEST to see if the subject line and preview text work together from a “length” perspective” before sending out an email.

Go forth now and get those emails opened!

Optimizing your email open rates is key to ensuring your message is seen and heard. You can enhance your email communication strategy by crafting engaging subject lines, using effective preview text, and rigorously testing for deliverability. After all, the first step to a successful email campaign is getting your audience to open the email in the first place. So take these tips and watch your open rates soar.?

The more people who open the email, the higher the likelihood of getting the clicks you need. More clicks mean more leads and more sales.?

No time to read? No Problem, watch the video:

https://youtu.be/6snXTC4T4Go?si=H7QghTSXyU9g3EFJ

About the Author

I’m Desmond Kurz, also known as Des Vader. Expect more as I share my insights and thoughts from more than 30 years of business experience. If you kindly follow me on LinkedIn and my YouTube channel, I shall endeavour not to disappoint!