How to Improve Open Rates on Emails

When you have spent hours crafting the perfect email newsletter, of course you want people to read it. Unfortunately, with over 108.7 billion emails being sent and received each day, it is hardly surprising that the majority go unopened. So how can you improve the likelihood that recipients will open your emails?

A Compelling Subject Line

33% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone. You only have a small window of opportunity to capture a reader’s attention, so it makes sense to put a lot of effort into writing a compelling subject line. Personalising an email subject line with the recipient’s name can help to establish trust, but above all, get to the point fast. The subject line is chopped down when emails are opened on mobile devices, so you only have a few words at your disposal to make the right impression. Subject lines with 30 characters or less have an above average open rate. And if you include the word “ALERT”, you should enjoy a 61.8% increase in open rates.

Avoid Manic Mondays

Mondays are a bad day to send out marketing emails. We are all busy running around trying to catch up on things after a busy weekend, so opening marketing emails is likely to be bottom of a very long list of things to do. By comparison, Thursday is the best day to send an email, and if you fire it out between 8 and 9 am, open rates will be much improved.

Get the Timing Right

Timing is important. If you send emails at the wrong time of the day, they will end up being lost in a pile of other emails. B2B marketing emails need to go during working hours or they will be ignored; first thing in the morning is usually the best time. Emails to customers do better during periods when people are more likely to be checking their emails: during the morning commute, at lunchtime, or on the way home. However, according to Mail Chimp data, the optimum time to send a marketing email is between 2pm and 5pm.

Avoid Spam Words

It stands to reason that obvious red flag words such as “Viagra” will send an email straight to the SPAM folder, but there are many more, less obvious words, that could see your email stopped by a SPAM filter. So research and stick to plain language where possible.

Send Frequency

Don’t bombard recipients with dozens of emails a month. If you do, you can bet your life that most won’t ever be opened.

Take a few of the above tips on board and you should see an improvement in your email opening rate, but if you need any further advice, feel free to contact us today.

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