8 Tips to Lift Your Email Open Rates

How can you know if you’re crushing it with email marketing, or bleeding a ton of revenue?

You can look at your conversions and click rate and what not but none of that matters if people don’t open your emails.

Let’s clearly define what open rate is: The percentage of people who opened your email out of all emails sent. A good open rate (>25 percent) indicates three things:

• Your subscribers are interested in getting emails from you
• Your subject lines are intriguing
• Your deliverability is on point

With the iOS15 update, true open rates get blurred and skewed. Without getting an accurate sense (or at least a directionally correct view), you won’t be able to double down on what works. Here’s how to measure open rates:

• Separate your MPP enabled users and measure open rates as usual
• Use clicks as a proxy for opens for MPP enabled users

Now that you have a clear idea of what your current open rate is, let’s look at some of the ways to improve it:

1. Write clear and clickable subject lines

Your subject line is the first thing recipients see, so make it attention-grabbing and compelling. Use personalization, urgency, and curiosity to entice readers to open the email.

If appropriate for your brand and audience, add some humor or creativity to your subject lines. A clever or witty subject line can trigger curiosity and lead to higher open rates

For example: Step Up Your Sock Game: These Socks Are Toe-tally Awesome! 🧦😄

You can also add intriguing questions in your subject line that encourages your audience to open the email to find out more. Here's a example from Flipkart

2. Timing is everything

The "right time" can vary depending on your target audience, industry, and location.Utilize email marketing platforms that provide real-time analytics. Platforms like Forward can help you track open rates as they happen, allowing you to spot trends and adjust your email timing accordingly.

According to research conducted by entrepreneur.com B2C emails get opened most on Saturdays followed closely by tuesdays.

3. Use preheader text 

Preheader text is a short preview text that appears right next to the subject line.Using the preheader text smartly will provide additional context to your audience and increase email opens.

Use the preheader text to communicate that the email contains exclusive content, offers, or access not available elsewhere. Give a sneak peek of the valuable content within the email, such as a tip, a useful statistic, or an exciting announcement. 

If your email is a discount campaign then you can create a FOMO factor among your audience 

For example:  Last Chance! Don't Miss Out on Our Exclusive 24-Hour Flash Sale.

4. Keep your email list clean

Choose quality over quantity. It might be very exciting to see the numbers of subscribers grow in your email list but ensuring that only genuinely interested readers joined the email list

Reaching out to inactive subscribers may not give significant results and could potentially impact deliverability and thereby affecting future open rate.

You could do this by:

• Regularly removing inactive subscribers.
• Monitoring bounce rates,remove email addresses that consistently bounce.
• Checking for and eliminating duplicate email addresses in your list

5. Use a recognizable “From” name

The sender name, or "from" name, is one of the most important factors in determining whether an email will be opened. 

• Using a familiar recognizable sender name to build trust and open your email consider using the name of a real person from your team.
• Use a name that's relevant to your brand. If you're sending an email about your new product, use the name of the product in the sender name.
• Keep the sender name short and simple. People are more likely to remember a short, simple sender name, so keep it to 6-8 characters. 

6. Personalize your content with segmentation

You don't want your subscribers to feel that you are making a mass announcement. When you personalize your emails, you make them more relevant to the recipient, which increases the chances that they'll open them.

Effective personalization starts with customer segmentation. Divide your email list into smaller segments based on various criteria like demographics, interests, past behavior, location, etc. Then, create personalized content that caters to each segment's specific needs and interests.

Example: Analyze past interactions and behaviors, such as previous purchases, website visits, and link clicks. Segment subscribers based on their behavior to send relevant follow-up emails, product recommendations, or personalized offers. 

Make them feel like your brand truly understands what they want. 

7. Send more emails

Consistency is the key: sending emails continuously doesn't mean you must spam you subscribers and engage with your subscribers effectively. Sending more emails will help you experiment on diverse content and strategies.by doing so you can ensure you stay on top of customers mind and foster lasting relationships.

8. A/B Testing 

Continuously perform A/B testing on various elements like subject lines, sender names, content, to identify what resonates best with your audience. We have written a comprehensive guide to getting started with A/B testing. Give it a read if you wanna know more.

To boost your open rates you need to blend these strategies and get creative. Craft interesting subject lines and preheader texts, segment your audience,analyze real time metrics, images,from email address,email timing. Make sure you play around with creativity and use different approaches.

Build long lasting relationships with your audience by giving them valuable content