Any Tips to Increase Open Rate

[Harry P]

My open rate on an email marketing campaign is low, I have no ideas to increase open rate on emails. Do you guys have any tips to increase it?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Ron Killian]

That's a very hard thing to answer. Depends on so many things. How you built the list, the type of traffic, how you communicate with them, how often or little you communicate with them. How your sending out your emails, service, ect.

Obviously you need to build a relationship. I kind of hate saying that because it's been said so many times these days.

You need to gain their trust, get them to like you. Get them wanting to open your emails.

Biggest things I see..

Use your real full name. And if it's hard to remember or pronounce use a pen name. Who's going to remember "John" or admin?

I signed up for a service several months ago, the guy sends emails from "Tim", really? Just about every time I don't realize who it is until I open the email. He does not make himself memorable.

You gotta email them regularly. It does not take long for people to forget you. Once they forget you, they either stop opening your emails, or mark them as spam. Plus if they stop opening their emails they will start going into the trash/spam/promotion folders/tabs and then they probably will never see them, let alone open them.

You can't go weeks or months between emails.

What do you send? Content? Promotion? Too much promotion?

What subject lines do you use? If they are deceptive or miss leading, they might stop opening your emails.

And speaking of subject lines, that is one of the most important parts, if it doesn't get them to open, well, they don't.

Emails should be consistent, your name website address, product name, or site name, ect.

Just a few ideas

If you want to PM your squeeze page I can check it out and sign up, see what's going. Not that I am an email expert, but might notice some clues

 

[MrT]

I think the first thing that needs to be asked is, is the list an opt in list or a cold email list? If it's cold and you've already been sending, your domain may be burned.

Have you been spamming a lot to your list, how often do you send, etc.??

Assuming everything is being delivered properly, I've found that title personalization increases open rates. Being a bit provocative or controversial is always good too.

Take a look at the "Viral" posts that get shared on Facebook... Look at how the click bait, reels you in and gets you interested. Try the same with your emails.

Of course, Ron shared very solid advice as well, you need to be giving value to your list. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about it a lot, has a book called jab jab jab right hook... would be a good read for you and for anyone really.

 

[elcidofaguy]

Some good advise above.. Here's a quick check list:

1) Ascertain how many open your emails... It could be you have issues with deliverabilty with not reaching the in-box but landing in the junk folder.

2) If its a low open email count test your email sending i.e. hotmail, yahoo and gmail... From my experience hotmail is a real pain to deal with...

3) Lower your spam score - always provide a clear opt-out link and avoid keywords which can trigger spam filters e.g. viagra, diet, $ etc..

4) Use anchor text for hyperlinks and not URLs..

5) Experiment with subject lines with increasing your open rate i.e. make it interesting, compelling etc...

6) Check your email header... Does it have SPF=Pass and DKIM=Pass etc... Do you see any rejections? If so you need to implement email security/authentication with setting up SPF/DKIM/DMARC... Consult with your email provider for guidance on that one....

7) Check the IP address associated with the sending of the email i.e. open the email header code and locate the sender IP... Check to see if it is on any blacklists.. If so then contact your email provider or consider moving to a new one...

That's a few things from the top of my head... If I think of anymore will let you know.... Hope that helps!

 

[Nytshade]

Great advise has been shared above but I'm surprised no one mentioned survey. You need to survey your list and find out why they joined your list and what were they expecting, instead of guess work.

A survey is all you need, simply give them something they can download for free after completing the survey. Use a really good subject line to make sure this email gets opened. Once you find out what they want then you just give it to them.

One other thing, avoid fancy templates use plain text or html editor. When you use templates your email goes straight in the promotions tab on gmail. Test your emails before sending them, never just send an email, always test.

Do some serious research on NLP email marketing you'll find some good tips on how to get your emails opened. Hope that helps.

 

[Princety]

Great advices and inputs above. It all depends on so many factors. Starting from the basic, the quality of the list will really make a difference in your open rate. The subject and other technicalities will follow, and are equally important.

Adding to what they mentioned, after implementing what they suggested. And, if you already built a significant list, you might want to start segmenting your list to even boost your open rate, so that only super interested and targeted people will open your email. That way, as I learned, ISP's start to respect your authority as an email marketer. Because people in your list opens, in turn, you gain credibility and following.

From 11% to 30% rate- will be great increase in open, plus you only send it to targeted people.

 

[FoxMetrics]

Send your emails on the same schedule every week and be consistent with it. They have found one off random emails do not do as good as a consistent schedule. As long as you are providing value people will be looking forward to hearing from you at that time. You want subscribers but you also want fans. Are you using an email marketing platform that is monitoring your bounce rates? Are you deleting or removing known undelivered emails or name with a hard bounce? Sometimes email lists get outdated and cluttered and that is affecting your open rate.