The success of every email marketing campaign heavily depends on the number of subscribers opening your emails. If only a few subscribers open your emails, your campaigns will fail to achieve the desired goals. Therefore, whether your marketing campaign aims to increase your blog’s traffic or improve sales, ensuring the maximum number of subscribers who open your emails is critical. This post will discuss 15 proven ways to increase the email open rate of marketing campaigns.

However, please note that you may require email marketing tools to save time and energy in implementing the following practices. Getresponse, AWeber, Moosend, ActiveCampaign, Brevo(formerly Sendinblue), ConvertKit, Constant Contact, and Pabbly are a few of the best email marketing tools that can automate your marketing campaigns. They also enable you to segment your email list and create visually appealing emails. Remember to carefully choose the tool that best suits your requirements and budget.

What is Email Open Rate?

Email open rate is a marketing campaign performance metric. It indicates the percentage of subscribers who opened your email from a specific campaign. To calculate the email open rate, you divide the number of recipients who opened the email by the total number of recipients who received the email. For example, if an email campaign was sent to 100 subscribers, out of which 70 opened the email, the email open rate would be 70%.
Although email open rates vary across industries, a good email open rate is between 15-25%.

What Factors Affect Email Open Rate?

The following are the top factors that affect the email open rate of any marketing campaign:

Email List Quality

The way you build email lists determines its quality. If you trick the users into giving their contact information, they will be least interested in your content. On the contrary, if you persuade the users to become subscribers consciously, they will likely open your emails. Additionally, it is essential to regularly check your email list to remove invalid or inactive subscribers.

Relevance of Marketing Campaign

Sending email campaigns that are of no interest to the subscribers can frustrate them, and they will likely either unsubscribe or mark you as spam. It is, therefore, critical to send only relevant information to the subscribers according to their needs and interests.

Subject Line

The decision of whether or not to open an email heavily depends on the subject line. An appealing subject line has a relatively higher email open rate than an unattractive one. Since people receive many emails daily, crafting a good subject line is essential to make it stand out.

Time and Day of Email Delivery

The time and day of email delivery play a vital role in email marketing campaigns. Emails delivered at the right time when the subscriber is likely to open their inboxes ensure your email is the first thing that catches their attention.

15 Ways to Increase Email Open Rate

1. Keep Updating Your Email List

It is a common mistake to value quantity over quality. A long email list does not ensure a high open rate. Many of the subscribers in your list may not even be active, causing the email rate to remain low. Remember, a high engagement or open rate is essential to avoid spam filters.

Therefore, keep updating your list and remove subscribers who have opened none of your emails in the last six months to improve the email open rate. However, it is a good idea to make a final effort to win back your inactive subscribers before removing them from your list. Send the last email asking them if they wish to hear from you in the future.

2. Segment the List of Subscribers

People may subscribe to your email list for varying reasons. For example, some may only be interested in newsletters, while others may look for product or service information. Similarly, your email recipients may reside in different locations, making only specific information or offer relevant to them.

If your subscribers receive an email unrelated to their needs or interests, they will likely not open your following emails. Therefore, segmenting your email list by putting together people with similar needs is essential. You can segment your list based on characteristics such as location, demographics, or interests.

3. Use Short and Catchy Subject Lines

The subject line is often the first thing that will catch the attention of your email recipient. If it is not tempting, the recipient will skip your email. On the other hand, an exciting subject line tempts recipients to check the content of the email.

Subject lines should always be short primarily for two reasons:

1) The inbox view displays only a certain number of characters in the subject line; on mobile devices, this number is even shorter.

2) People prefer short and to-the-point subject lines. Ideally, a subject line should be less than 50 characters.

Apart from being short, the best subject lines are irresistible and catchy. You can use several ways to make a subject line attention-grabbing, a few of which are:

Add Humor

A subject line that brings a smile to the reader’s face will least likely end up in a trash folder. Although it takes creativity and effort to develop a humorous subject line, it is definitely worth your time.

Entice Curiosity

Curiosity makes people take action. A mysterious and unusual subject line tempts users to see what is inside the email. For example, “Hey Faiza. Here is your pass to…” is a subject line that would invoke curiosity. Below is another example of a subject line that can entice interest.

Announce an Offer

We all love offers and deals. If your subject line hints at an offer, it tempts the recipient to open the email for details.

Use Words that Perform

Words impact human psychology, which is why certain words perform better than others. Among the top performing words are ‘upgrade’, ‘update’, ‘celebrate’, ‘new’,’ and ‘available’.

However, testing different terms and seeing what works best for you is good.

Since your audiences have different needs and interests, the same type of subject line may only work well for some of them. Try different subject lines and measure how they affect email open rate.

4. Avoid Getting Caught in Spam Folders

Despite technological advancement, spam filters can still mark genuine emails as spam. As a result, your email may never reach the recipient’s inbox. Therefore, to increase your email open rate, you must avoid getting caught in spam folders. There can be many reasons for getting your emails marked as spam, a few of which are:

Misleading Subject

A misleading subject containing manipulative words can trigger spam filters. Some terms that can alert spam filters are ‘free’, ‘urgent’, ‘discount’, ‘clearance’, and ‘guarantee’.

Your Email Content Has Excessive Links

Emails containing too many links can trigger spam filters, primarily if the links point to different domains.

Your Recipient Has Marked You as Spam

Your emails often land in the spam folder because the recipients have marked you as spam. It happens when you send irrelevant emails to your recipients.

Your Email Does Not Contain a Physical Address

All commercial emails must have the sender’s physical address, preferably in the email footer. A physical address is a sign of a legitimate sender. It may not necessarily be your street address; it can be a registered post office box address.

Unsubscribe Link is Missing From Emails

Just like a physical address, including an unsubscribe link in the emails, is mandatory, allowing users to opt out of future communications. A missing unsubscribe link triggers a spam filter.

Your Email Open Rate is Low

A low open rate is another factor that can cause getting all of your emails marked as spam. It is because leading email providers consider the email open rate when making spam filtering decisions.

5. Use The Receiver’s First Name

Emails with the receiver’s first name appear personal, leading to a higher email open rate. They also help you build a relationship with your recipients. Additionally, the recipients take more interest in reading such emails. You can include the recipient’s name in the subject line or the content of the email.

Emails that include names make receivers feel it is specifically written for them. As a best practice, start your email with the receiver’s first name. Also, remember to ask users for their first name and email address when subscribing to your newsletter.

6. Resend Emails That Went Unopened

Another effective way to increase email open rate is to resend emails to recipients who did not open the first one. However, wait for a reasonable time before resending the email. Ideally, wait for at least two days.

Although emailing twice can significantly improve your open rate, you must be cautious in specific cases. It is a fact that sending fewer emails can make your subscribers forget you, but at the same time, sending too many can annoy them. Therefore, if you already send over three emails weekly, you should only resend some emails as it can irritate the receiver. Instead, resend only the ones you believe are important.

7. Make Your Emails Mobile Friendly

A vast majority of users check their emails on their mobile devices. Your open rate will be severely affected if your email does not appear well on mobiles. To ensure your emails are mobile-friendly:

• Keep subject lines short.
• Use fonts that are readable on mobile devices.
• Do not include excessive links.
• Use optimized images so that they load faster.
• Place CTA where it is easily visible.
• Keep content short and meaningful.

Always test emails on mobile devices to ensure they render correctly.

8. Use a Human Sender Name

Using a human sender name can substantially improve email open rate. Human sender names make emails appear personalized. On the other hand, a company name is more professional. For example, an email from ‘Faiza Parwez from LinkClickGrow’ will have a higher open rate than an email from ‘LinkClickGrow’.

9. Always Send a Welcome Email

Welcome emails have a relatively high open rate than any other email. It is because the subscribers expect to hear from you after they have subscribed. A welcome email not only thanks the subscribers for joining the email list but also tells them about what they will receive from you in the future.

A welcome email should be concise and to the point. Additionally, it should focus on building a relationship with the subscribers. An excellent welcome email helps build relationships and increase long-term engagement rates.

10. Allow Users to Unsubscribe

Another effective way to increase email open rate is to include an unsubscribe link. You can place the link at the bottom or top of your emails. An unsubscribe link indicates a genuine sender and avoids spam filters. On the other hand, if the receivers cannot find an unsubscribe link or button, they will likely mark you as spam.

Allowing users to unsubscribe also helps you gain their trust. If the receivers know they can unsubscribe anytime, your emails will not bother them. However, the receivers may panic if there is no way to opt out of the subscriber list.

11. Ask the Reason for Unsubscribing

There can be many reasons your subscribers opt out of your email list. Knowing why they unsubscribed can help you improve your email marketing campaigns. Enhanced campaigns mean the number of people unsubscribing from your list will reduce. As a result, the email open rate will improve.

Therefore, whenever a subscriber opts out of your email list, ask them the reason. You can redirect them to a page, asking them to choose from the list of probable causes. Or they can specify their reason in the text box if none of the list options relate to them.

However, it is good practice to make subscribers rethink before they leave with the help of a message. For example, you can let them know you are sad to see them go and wish to see them again.

12. Pay Attention to the Timing

The time and day when you send emails also affect email open rates. It is because people ignore older emails in their inboxes. So sending emails when receivers are most likely to open them will ensure your email stays on top of their inboxes.

But what is the best time and day to send emails? Well, there is no correct answer. It is different for various segments of subscribers. However, you can figure it out by emailing at different times and days to assess what works best for you.

13. Write Quality Content

You send emails for a reason. The same is true for the recipients. They are only attracted to emails that are of their interest. If your emails are helpful to them, they will continue opening them.

For example, your subscribers will get annoyed if you send many promotional emails. Therefore, create content that addresses your recipients’ challenges, concerns, and needs. As a result, they will keep opening your emails.

14. Create Content that Improves Engagement

Creating engaging content can significantly increase email open rates. If your recipients find your content engaging, they look forward to your emails. As a result, engaging emails also help improve conversion rates and sales.

Use Humor

It is always pleasant to read something that lightens up your mood. A humorous email leaves a long-lasting impression, and the recipients look forward to receiving more emails from you.

Ask a Question

Another effective way to improve the email open rate is to end your email with a question. It will trigger curiosity, and subscribers will look forward to your email to know the answer.

Use Emojis

Many marketers may disagree with this, but using emojis helps create a relationship with the recipients. They show emotions, and it feels like communicating with a real person.

Use Visuals

Visuals not only make emails appealing and entertaining but also make information easy to grasp. People prefer visuals over long pieces of content. Canva and Visme are the best tools for creating professional and engaging visuals.

15. Do Not Buy Email Subscribers

To improve the email open rate, you should never buy email subscribers. Instead, let your subscriber list build naturally. Buying subscribers damages your reputation and causes most emails to land in a trash folder. It is because the receiver never subscribed to your email list.

Conclusion

Your audience needs the motivation to open your emails. Without a solid reason, your emails may be in a trash folder. The above-discussed 15 ways can significantly increase your email open rate by motivating your recipients and provoking curiosity.