There is no magical recipe to ensure that every single recipient will open every single email you send, but there are definitely some key things that will help you improve your email open rate. Here are a few factors that will help your emails get noticed and opened:
1-Subject line
The subject line is like a first impression. Similarly to making a first impression you only have a few seconds, and you can’t mess it up. Pressure is on! Before you even think about the content, you need to make sure the subject line will be enticing enough for your audience to want to open it. If you’re not excited about your subject line, you can’t expect your contacts to be.
While getting your creative juices flowing, do keep in mind that Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation requires you to describe the content. So in other words, you can’t do any false advertising. Come up with a creative way to summarize what’s inside the email without being misleading. Be careful not to sound too salesy, that might also discourage the recipients from opening your emails.
To give you a concrete example of do’s and dont’s: If a fitness facility is sending an email to promote a spring sale. A subject like: “Get Fit for Less This Spring!”, might get more clicks than simply saying, “Spring Sale”.
2- The sender email address
Personalized professional email addresses are more likely to be opened. People trust professional email addresses more than they do free email accounts, because spam usually comes from a free email address.
3-Maintaining a quality email list
Your open rate will be based on the quality of your list, if you have a quality, up-to-date list, you are more likely to reach people that are actually interested in receiving the content you are sending. This also ensures CASL compliance.
4-Segmenting your list
Make sure you segment who you are sending certain content to. For example: If you’re promoting Mother’s Day for example. The message you will send to women will be much different than the one you will send to men. For men, what would help is including a go-to shopping list with a coupon at the bottom. For women, perhaps the most effective route would be promoting self-care, and including a coupon so they can treat themselves.
5-When it’s sent
The optimal time to send emails will vary based on your audience. For example if you are a blogger, your optimal time will be different than a law office. It’s up to you to keep track of each campaign’s success and adjust accordingly. You should know your audience better than anyone, so why not use this to your advantage. 😉
Try different days and times, and see what works best. Doing your homework when it comes to this, will allow you to come up with your own recipe. For example:
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally better than a Mondays, since Mondays are always busy for everyone.
- Thursdays would be good if you’re promoting a weekend event or sale.
- Some people claim they’ve had success sending emails on the weekends because there are less emails sent on the weekends. Which means it’s easier to get attention.
6-The frequency
If you want to have success with email marketing don’t be the kind of person who’s always selling. Instead only send an email if you have something truly valuable, or helpful to say. Be useful. Don’t just email when you need something from your readers. Be consistent but don’t over send.
Keep in mind that you are trying to maintain contact with your subscribers, so you want to send emails regularly. The key is not to flood your clients’ or potential clients’ inboxes with too much information. That will eventually lead them to unsubscribing to your emails. We’ve all been there and felt relieved immediately after clicking that unsubscribe button. Put yourself in the subscriber’s shoes, and use your judgment.
7- Tracking your results
The only way to improve your campaigns, and get better results is to analyse and keep track of the outcome. When you use an email marketing solution such as Cyberimpact you have access to analytics. It’s a user-friendly, and efficient so you can spend more time doing other important things.
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