Email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of digital marketing. But is it really business-impacting if only a handful of receivers open your emails?
In this blog, we talk about the most important metric in email marketing – open rate & how to increase email open rate for your marketing campaigns.
But first, let’s understand what the open rate is.
An email is counted as open only when receivers open your email from the inbox.
The email open rate is then calculated by dividing the opened emails by the total number of emails sent that did not bounce, divided by 100.
For example, if out of 1000 emails sent, 70 receivers open the email, the email open rate will be 70/1000*100 which is 7%.
We highly recommend this Email Marketing Course that will help you build strong email marketing strategies & help you automate your campaigns.
In this blog, we will explore how you can enhance your email marketing strategies.
What influences an email open rate?
So, what affects email open rates? The click-to-open rate is affected by various factors. Let’s have a look at some of them –
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Frequency
People usually unsubscribe due to too many emails flooding their inboxes. A solution to this is email segmenting and refining your audience. Your content needs to be tailored specifically for a certain audience.
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Timing
You need to determine when is the right time to send out your emails. Which day of the week, how many times in a week, what time are your users most active? All of these factors play a big role in your email open rates.
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Permissions
You need to make your sign-up process easy and transparent. Your users should want to sign up. You need to provide value to them and not come across as spammy. When they share their email address with you, they trust you with their email inbox.
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Subject Lines
An email subject line plays a big role in your user clicking on your email. You need to keep them simple, personalized, create intrigue, and short, to-the-point.
How To Increase Email Open Rate: Tips & Ideas
Why is my email open rate so low’ is a question we’ve heard one too many times. There are a number of ways to increase email open rates, and we have some tips for you –
1. Keep your list relevant
Keep updating your list – you do not wish to send emails to people who are simply not interested in your product or service.
2. Target Audience
Send out emails to the right target audience. Invest in market research before even strategizing your email campaigns.
3. Use Segmenting
Using email segments – do not simply build a list. You can tailor your content to specific segments so that you have quality leads as well.
4. Avoid being marked as spam
As much as possible, do not use spammy language in your emailers. Spam filters have become smarter and smarter. Here are a few tips that can save you the hassle of being marked as spam –
- Avoid using words like free in the subject line
- Use lowercase for the subject line preferably
- Always give the user an option to unsubscribe to your email
- Ask the subscriber to add you to their list
- Never use their email ID for anything else other than newsletters
5. TIming needs to be perfect
Test out different times of the day and see what works best for you. There are brands like Faasos and Swiggy that send out emails just before mealtime with exciting offers that entice users to make a conversion. For more email marketing tips, read these 13 essential marketing tips and tricks for businesses.
6. Use good subject lines
Always make sure that your subject lines are on-point. One-third of subscribers open their emails based on how interesting the subject line is. You need to leave the reader a little curious for them to open your email.
Pst, we have added some tips for good subject lines further in the article, so make sure you stick to the end.
7. Email Content
Make sure your email content is impactful and relevant. It also needs to be meaningful. Your subject line cannot be talking about one thing and your email is carrying a completely different topic.
8. Emojis
Use emojis sparingly. Sometimes, they are used to bringing humor in. Be smart about where to use them and how to use them as well in good taste.
9. Why would a subscriber unsubscribe
Really dig into why a subscriber unsubscribed from your newsletter. Are there any improvements you can make? Usually, users unsubscribe as the emails may get uninteresting or annoying.
10. Use Moment Marketing and new content
Try and leverage moment marketing and fresh, interesting content in your strategy. This will keep the users engaged as well.
11. Build anticipation
Build anticipation around major campaigns – do not give it all out.
12. Email Marketing Tools
Wondering how to increase your email open rate – HubSpot recommends that you use email marketing tools. These include Mailchimp, Mailjet and more. Read this article for the best email marketing tools you should know about.
Subject Line Templates & Examples
Here are a few email subject line templates and examples that you can use –
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Simple email subject lines
Emails with a specific purpose need to have a simple, fuss-free subject line. They usually involve a kind of order status, notification, or update.
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Funny email subject lines
These are a few examples of funny email subject lines by Zomato. They are witty and are worth the chuckle! It makes you want to open the email just out of curiosity.
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Urgency email subject lines
Urgency subject lines instill in you a fear of missing out or being left behind on an important offer. This appeals to the flock mentality. The scarcity of words like ‘ending today’ and ‘limited period’ bring about urgency.
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Click-bait email subject lines
These are email subject lines that entice the user to click on the email. It can be very random and hence, it makes the user curious.
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Listicle email subject lines
Listicles make great subject lines. Lists are easier to comprehend.
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Personalized email subject lines
Personalized email subject lines are the best. They promise higher open rates and make the user feel valued and appreciated.
FAQs
Q. What is a good email open rate for 2023?
A good industry benchmark for email open rate is about 17% – 28% in 2023. Also this depends on which industry you belong to.
Q. Is a 10% email open rate good?
It depends on which industry you belong to. The average is about 17%-28% but the individual open rate depends upon the demographics of your audience, subject line & much more.
Q. How do you optimize the open rate?
You can optimize your email open rate with the following steps –
- Keep updating your lists
- Segment your list
- Broadcast your email at the right time
- Use catchy subject lines
- Personalize your email
- Make sure your email is personal
- Write fresh content every time
Q. What factors affect email open rates?
The following factors affect email open rates –
- Event triggers
- Brand recognition
- Good content
- Relevant subject lines
- Urgency
- Time of the day
Q. How to increase the open rate in Mailchimp?
Here’s how you can increase the open rate for Mailchimp-
- Use A/B Testing
- Avoid spam language
- Have a synergistic social media campaign
- Have a compelling subject line
- Always test the email
- Check the mobile version as well
Q. How to find an email open rate?
You calculate the email open rate for an email campaign by dividing the number of unique emails by the total number of emails sent that did not bounce multiplied by 100.
Conclusion
We hope that this article helped you to optimize your email open rate. This short course in digital marketing will help you understand digital marketing as a whole and help you integrate email marketing with the rest of your digital marketing strategy.
However, if you are a company that wants to perform better & increase email open rate in a shorter period, another solution would be to hire a digital agency.
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