Want to learn how to increase your email open rates? Let’s consider some important facts:
There are 300 million M&Ms produced every day, over 75 billion LEGO bricks sold each year, and around 1.7 billion websites.
Approximately 300 billion emails are sent every day.
The average person receives over 100 emails per day. With this much competition for attention, it is important to find ways to sustain or increase your email open rates.
You are also competing with people’s fatigue and their overloaded inboxes when trying to get people to open your emails.
Email open rates are some of the most important things to measure when determining the success of an email marketing campaign.
But before we get to some strategies that can help you get more email opens, let’s first define some terms.
What is an email open rate?
Open rates show you how many people opened your email. It’s a ratio of the number of email opens compared to the number of emails sent, multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. Open rates are the percentage of people who open an email out of the total number of emails sent.
Raw Open rates
Open rates are calculated by taking the total number of emails opened and divide it by the number of emails sent. So, if you sent 1000 emails and 200 were opened, then your open rate would be 20%.
Open reach rate
This metric quantifies the percentage of your list that was reached over a series of emails. In other words, it measures how many different people were reached by your emails.
Click through rates (CTR)
To calculate the click-through rate, divide the number of clicks on your email content by the total number of emails delivered. So, for example, if you have 1000 emails and 30 people open and click somewhere on the email, the click-through rate would be 3%.
Click to open rates (CTOR)
The click-to-open rate, which tells you the percentage of people who clicked on an email out of those who opened it, is more helpful than the CTR in many ways. For example, using the previously mentioned CTR of 15%, the CTOR would be 15%, because out of 200 email opens, 30 people clicked.
Measurement tools for email are imperfect so don’t take these for absolute- they are indicators only-but helpful nonetheless.
The tips
1. Abide by CAN-SPAM rules.
Essentially, the CAN-SPAM act is a law that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and outlines the penalties incurred for those who violate the law.
It’s important to follow the CAN-SPAM rules for email messages, which are available on the FTC’s website, in order to be compliant.
A few highlights:
- Include your valid physical postal address in every email you send out.
- Give recipients a clear and obvious way to opt out (i.e., unsubscribe) of every email you send. (HubSpot and most autoresponder customers: Don’t worry — you can’t save an email template unless it includes this element.)
- Use clear “From,” “To,” and “Reply to” language that accurately reflects who you are.
- Avoid “no-reply” or similar sender names, which prevent recipients from opting out of an email newsletter if they’d like to.
- Avoid selling or transferring any email addresses to another list.
Noe of this is of course legal advice. For more information on this subject, please visit the FTC’s website.
2. Ensure your opt-in process complies with GDPR.
The GDPR is a new law that was enacted in Europe in May 2018 in order to better protect internet users’ personal data.
We don’t expect you to have this long piece of legislation memorized. However, if some of your email recipients live in Europe, there is one key guideline by which you should develop your email marketing campaigns:
When a website user lands on a page that requests personal information, it is now a violation of GDPR to have a box that is automatically checked opting the user into an email campaign. So, to be in compliance with GDPR, make sure that your European users and customers are given the clear option to opt into your email newsletter themselves.
If you only send emails to people who have signed up for them, you will have more people interested in what you have to say. This increases the chances that people will read and click on the links in your email, which will lead to more customers.
3. Email new contacts within 24 hours.
It is essential to maximize the window of opportunity when your company or brand is at the forefront of your prospects’ thoughts. You can obtain a good indication of what future engagement will be like by observing what people do when you email them within 24 hours of their subscribing to your newsletter, signing up for an offer, etc. Additionally, it is an ideal time for branding and setting expectations.
If you’re not using automated email workflows, you’re missing out on opportunities to nurture and engage your existing contacts.
4. Pre-set the preview text.
Your email subject line is displayed next to a text preview of the body of your email in Gmail, Outlook, and the iPhone Mail app. The amount of text shown in the preview varies depending on the email client and user settings.
This text provides a brief summary of what is being offered. It is 50 characters or less.
If you don’t set the preview text, the client will automatically pull from the body of your email. This not only looks messy, but is also a wasted opportunity to engage your audience.
5. Include one call-to-action button per email.
A CTA button is important in an email because it allows the recipient to take an action that will benefit them, instead of just scanning the email.
It’s a good idea to put your CTA in a place where it will be easy to see and where it makes sense for someone to click on it. For example, you might put a CTA to download a free ebook in an email that describes new ways to use your product.
6. Include noticeable text links.
You should link to your featured offer in more than one place. This gives people more chances to see it and engage with it. For example, in addition to a call-to-action button, you could also include text links.
7. Add alt text to all of your images.
In many email clients, images are blocked by default. To view the images, the recipient must click a button to show them or change their default settings.
If you include images in your emails, be sure to include alt text so that recipients who can’t see the images right away will still be able to understand your message.
If you want your alt text to be effective, make it actionable. For example, “Click here to download the ultimate content creation kit.” Actionable alt text will turn every linked image into a call to action. So, even if someone can’t see the image, the alt text will still encourage them to click.
8. Use subject line split testing
If you’ve got a few ideas for potential email subject lines, the best way to figure out which one will be most successful is to test them out. Subject lines can have a big impact on email marketing, so it’s important to test different options.
Performing split tests sporadically is not particularly helpful. You need to have a consistent methodology that provides data and results over time. For example, you can set up tests that send emails to only a portion of your intended audience. The email with the best open rate is then sent to the rest of the list. Some ESPs (Email Service Providers) have this type of subject line split testing built into the platform.
9. Avoid repetition of language or strategy
If you want to keep your readers interested, change up your email content often. If you make references to pop culture, people will be intrigued and open your email. However, if you use the same references multiple times, people will catch on and lose interest.
You should be careful when you are split testing not to use the same email subject line over and over again just because it worked well once. You should use it wisely and selectively, and also find other strategies that are effective.
10. Avoid background images.
If you’re targeting buyers who tend to use Outlook as their email client, it’s especially important to pay attention to this.
Microsoft Outlook does not allow for background images. Given that it is the fifth most popular email client, it is best to avoid using background images altogether.
Use a background color for your email instead of using images. You can use images in other ways too.
11. Add social sharing buttons.
If more people see your link, more people will click on it. So make sure to keep your email alive by adding social sharing buttons.
If your email program doesn’t have built-in social sharing buttons, you can easily create your own.
Share buttons, not follow buttons, will help increase clicks. Follow buttons prompt recipients to like, follow, or add your company social media channels, while share buttons allow them to share the URL of your offer with their followers.
12. Simplify sharing with ready-made tweets.
If you want more people to take an action, make it easier for them by doing things such as creating a “lazy tweet.” This is a short, pre-written tweet that can be sent along with the email.
You can generate a free custom tweet link using ClickToTweet. Then, type in your tweet, desired (trackable) destination URL, and hashtags:
After you click “Generate New Link,” copy the link and paste it into your Twitter sharing button. You can also segment your list by attributes such as “has Twitter” or “topic of recent conversion: social media” and include the link in your main email copy.
13. Monitor each email’s performance.
The email campaign that is working well this month, may not work as well next month. It is important to check the open and click through rates for opportunities to improve your copy. You will need a tool to track your email analytics.
If you check your emails after a month and find that 10 of them have gotten double the engagement of the other 20, analyze what you did differently with the higher performers. Was it the imagery? The subject line? Maybe you have more than one audience segment and one of them just isn’t as interested in your current email content.
You can use your email performance data to improve your newsletters by running A/B tests. These tests will show you what your email recipients want from your newsletters, and let you know what trends are popular.
Email marketing can be tough, but you can increase opens and clicks by sending compelling offers to the right target segments and paying attention to the little details.
Your goals should be focused on sales, revenue, signups, shares, surveys filled out, and other higher-value engagement metrics.
Open rates are important, but they are not the only thing that matters. The rest of your email needs to engage the reader, compel them to take action, and meet their needs. It needs to deliver value that the reader appreciates enough to read your future emails as well.
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