The success of your email campaigns depends on how many people open the email. So, how will you improve your email open rates for your business?
According to a study in the UK, the average email open rate across all industries was just 22.8%. For instance, if you have a 22.8% open rate at 10,000 email subscribers, then only 2,280 are opening your emails.
That looks like a waste.
To make your target audience open your emails, you should provide something valuable and irresistible that matches their exact requirement.
In this article, you will know about different ways to improve email open rates by providing value and communicating regularly with subscribers.
What is an email open rate?
An email open rate is defined as the number of recipients who open the email divided by the number of emails sent that did not bounce.
For instance, if you send 500 emails, 100 of them bounced then you are left with 400 delivered emails. Now, of those 400 emails, let’s suppose that 100 are opened. So, your email open rate for that campaign is 25%.
open rate = Unique opens/(Emails sent – bounced emails)
What Is A Good Email Open Rate?
According to Campaign Monitor, the average email open rate in 2020 was 18%. From 2015- 2018, the average open rate for email was 24% worldwide.
Though there is no defined benchmark for email open rates, email service providers calculate this rate by counting the number of unique people who opened the email by dividing it by the total number of emails sent.
Now you might be wondering about the shortfall of the industry’s average. Let’s go through the reasons behind it.
Reasons For Low Email Open Rates
Dull subject lines
Your email subject line is most important as it can make or break your email campaign. Focus on formulating catchy and unique subject lines such as “An in-depth sales guide to increase your conversion by 20% in 2022.”
Dull and Boring subject lines such as “Ideas For Sales Conversion” will not create an urgency for the users to open your emails.
After all, 47% of users open an email based on subject lines.
Avoid Spammy Words
Some emails may end up in the spam folder because of spammy words. Spam detection mechanisms of email providers use smart algorithms that track everything about a sender, message as email content, SMTP server information, and domain information. Avoid using words such as Never before, Not intended, Problem, Remove, Risk-free, Call free, Buy direct, etc. These are called spam trigger words.
Unqualified Subscribers
Avoid buying an email list as there is no guarantee that the people on the list have an interest in your product. These lists may have incomplete data or addresses that no longer exist. Hence, this leads to a higher bounce rate and spoils the sender’s reputation.
Instead, use trusted tools like GrowMeOrganic to find high-quality prospective leads. They have an email verifier feature that helps to get rid of old and invalid emails.
Non Segmentation
Sending the same email to every person will lead to a low engagement rate. People generally tend to have different needs and interests.
For example, some of your target audience might be interested in knowing about ads, some about SEO, and others about email marketing tools.
So, segmenting your list will likely increase the chances of user engagement.
Tracking Problems
An email body contains a tiny graphics pixel. So, the loading time of the pixel determines whether the email is regarded as opened or not.
Sometimes the graphics image does not load in the email. Many email clients block pictures by default. So, ask your leads to add your email address to their contact list.
Then the graphic image will be loaded automatically. Also, never use PNG images as they aren’t compatible with many email apps. Use JPEG images.
Mobile Optimisation
It is important to optimize your campaigns for mobile usage. After all, a mobile user will never take the extra effort of reading an email through the computer. So, to increase your email open rate optimise your campaign for mobiles.
Steps to Improve Email Open Rate
Use Catchy and Relevant Subject Lines
Never use generic or irrelevant subject lines. Understand the needs of the users and make Short and catchy subject lines under 90 characters. This will help as most people read their email using their mobile phones.
Never use too many punctuations as it can make your subject line look spammy. Avoid question marks (?) and, hashtags (#). Also, Limit the use of punctuation marks to 3 and emojis to 1.
Lastly, your subject lines should be personalized to make the reader feel a little bit more special.
Email List Segmentation
Segmenting email lists means increasing engagements after building your email lists. Never send generic emails to all subscribers. Your email campaign should be tailored based on customer’s needs and relevance.
Always segment your contact database based on their interests, location, or activities. Also, segmenting campaigns will help to increase revenue.
Segregate a few combinations of your target audiences for creating email campaigns. Test your segmentation strategy to see what’s most effective in reaching the interest of your audience.
Include High-Quality Content
Include crisp, relevant, and engaging content. Never include the information they can easily find elsewhere such as advertisements. Otherwise, it will lead to your emails ending up in the spam folder or trash bin.
Send high-quality in-depth researched content to keep open rates high.
Focus on the Right Timing and Frequency
In B2B and B2C businesses, marketers contact their clients only 2-3 times per month. But just don’t overload the inbox and provide only the relevant information to keep the audience engaged.
Timings are always essential and the best time to send an email is between 9-11 a.m. It is always better to study your statistical data to notice when your readers are mostly engaged.
Make The Email Campaign Mobile Friendly
As most people read emails from mobile phones, your email campaign should be mobile-friendly. You can improve the mobile experience for your email campaigns by creating a preheader text as the first line of your email.
An attractive preheader text will buy the attention of your readers. Also, avoid fluffy content with too many images. Some mobile gadgets don’t display images by default.
Plan your email campaign to convey the message even without an image. Furthermore, it’s best to make your CTA button at least 44 x 44 pixels and place it on the top of the email.
How do I get more emails delivered?
So, you’ve written a great email. It’s short, sweet, and to the point.
But there’s one problem. It’s not getting delivered.
In fact, it’s getting caught in the spam filter. Every Single Time.
So what’s the deal? Why are your emails getting caught in the spam filter? And how can you fix it?
Let’s take a look.
1. You’re using too many exclamation points!!!
Excessive exclamation points are one of the surest ways to get your email caught in the spam filter. Why?
because they’re often associated with spammy emails. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, cut down on the exclamation points.
2. You’re using too many images
Using too many images in your email can also get you caught in the spam filter.
This is because images can be used to hide spammy content.
So if you want to avoid the spam filter, use images sparingly.
3. You’re not using an email list
If you’re not using an email list, you’re more likely to get caught in the spam filter.
This is because email lists are often associated with legitimate businesses. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, use an email list.
4. You’re using a generic email address
If you’re using a generic email address like “info@example.com” or “sales@example.com,” you’re more likely to get caught in the spam filter.
This is because generic email addresses are often associated with spam. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, use a specific email address.
5. You’re not using a professional email signature
If you’re not using a professional email signature, you’re more likely to get caught in the spam filter.
This is because a professional email signature shows that you’re a legitimate business. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, use a professional email signature.
6. You’re using a disposable email address
If you’re using a disposable email address, you’re more likely to get caught in the spam filter.
This is because disposable email addresses are often associated with spammy emails. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, use a real email address for good email deliverability.
7. You’re not following the CAN-SPAM Act
If you’re not following the CAN-SPAM Act, you’re more likely to get caught in the spam filter.
This is because the CAN-SPAM Act is a set of laws that regulate email marketing. So if you want to avoid the spam filter, follow the CAN-SPAM Act.
Conclusion
Email analytics is important as it provides useful data about how your campaigns will succeed with a high email open rate in your niche.
There are always new ways to enhance your marketing strategy. If you need help in running and executing email campaigns to scale up your business then start with GrowMeOrganic today.
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