We are sure you had sent emails before, but have you ever thought about email open rates?
Emails are one of the most popular channels for communication, and companies really take advantage of them to communicate with their customers.
Email marketing campaigns allow businesses to segment their audience, personalize communication, automate messages based on audience behavior, and never miss a good opportunity.
So, we already know that emails are great, and if we have a big database we can reach many people, but what happens when our emails are not being read?
Even when the inside content of our emails is amazing, we still need our audience to actually want to read them.
Email open rates are the first metric you look at after every email sent. This metric is crucial to measure the success of your campaign.
How can we do that? Keep reading to find out.
1. The sender
With the increasing popularity of smartphones, the majority of users now check their emails from these devices. This is great for some purposes, but at the same time, we need to have something that triggers the curiosity of the audience.
With emails being a powerful tool for communication it’s only normal to find our inboxes saturated with daily emails from different brands, so naturally, we can’t read all of them.
In addition, if we noticed that numerous emails that are just automated email responses we won’t open at all.
That’s why, both the sender’s name and the email address play a massive role in determining the open rate of an email.
You need to choose a name or title that your email subscribers will recognize.
An email with a sender name like “Jessica” or “Mark” would achieve a higher open rate over an impassive sender address representing an ABC organization.
Don’t forget that personalization is a key factor that has changed and continues to change the customer experience.
2. The Subject Line
Besides the sender, there’s another element that defines if your emails will be read.
The subject line is probably the most important part of your email because is where you can persuade your subscribers.
Here are some tips to help you nail it:
- Tease the readers with the possible benefits they would miss out on if they don’t read the email.
- Keep the subject line short and catchy. (Use 21-40 characters).
- Make it optimized for mobile readers too.
- Place the more important words at the beginning of the line.
- Personalize your subject line so the reader finds it more individualized.
- Avoid writing your subject line in ALL CAPS.
3. The Preheader
The preheader is the preview text that is displayed next to or below the subject line in the inbox. As an extension of the subject line, a preheader gives you more real estate to convinces the reader to open the email.
You need to understand that all the elements we named this far are connected with each other, so for open rates to be positive all the parts need to be optimized.
From the sender to the subject and the preheader. The emails with great preheaders have a lower risk of ending up in the spam folder.
Also, ensure your preheader is not a duplicate of the subject line, and please do not ever leave it blank.
4. Avoid spam filters
In the past several years spam filters have gotten more advanced, but even your best emails can still get caught in the spam folder, and get lost forever.
That’s why if you want to boost your email open rates, you’ll need to do everything possible to avoid being flagged as spam.
Here’s what you can do:
- Make sure all the recipients have actually agreed to receive your emails.
- Send your campaign from an IP address that hasn’t been used by someone else who has sent spam in the past.
- Send through verified domains.
- Avoid the excessive use of spam trigger words like “buy”, “clearance”, “discount”, or “cash”.
- Include your location.
- Include an easy way for subscribers to opt-out of your emails.
5. Use a friendly tone
If you’re adding the personal touch in your emails by adding the senders name you need to keep up by writing in a friendly tone, and putting the corporate slang to the side.
This is the only way to really appeal to your audience and get them to open your emails.
For instance, this sentence “We’re offering savings to our customers!” sounds distant and cold.
A more friendly alternative could be “you’ve gotta check out this deal…”
That makes the email more personal, friendly and makes your audience feel like you know them, and they know you.
With these 5 tips you can guarantee that your emails will have bigger open rates, but what about having the chance to do it all using only 1 tool?
Freshmarketer is an email marketing software for all your email campaigns.
You can create stunning email campaigns, automate engagement, understand your customers better, and build a strong customer base.
Need more information about this product? Contact us.
At Gb Advisors we offer you much more than the product you are purchasing. We have a professional team that will be in charge of training your staff and giving you all the help and support you need.
