6 Killer Strategies to Increase Email Opening Rates
Effective, no matter what software you use for email marketing.
If you are doing email marketing for yourself or for your client, the opening rate is your primary concern I can see now. Because effectiveness counts on that. Factors that seriously impact your opening rate include import techniques, quality of email addresses, list growth strategy, segmentation, scheduling campaign, copywriting, and subject line.
Here they are.
1. Import email list appropriately, build list intelligently
Most of the time, we make mistakes prioritizing the quantity of the list over quality. Having a long list of email addresses should NOT be something you really want to focus on. Consider only active email addresses when you are adding them to your system.
Don’t just copy and paste email addresses when you’re uploading. Use .csv file that contains at least First Name, Last Name, Email Address. If possible, make sure you are uploading Date of Birth too.
Make sure you have a list growth strategy. Use popup form, sign up form, landing page so that you get emails from real people who are interested in your service/ products.
Email addresses of real people isn’t enough, you need really interested people…
You need to secure your email ist so that spambots don’t nest in your list. Use reCAPTCHA, else you will end up with malicious emails who will increase your bounce rate and maybe drag you down to get banned.
Also, you can enable double opt-in, it is a process that your customer must validate the email address he/she gives by confirming a link sent to their email address. Unless they confirm their email, the email address won’t be added to your system.
These strategies will help you build lists of emails from real people, really interested people.
2. Segment your audience, Send the right message to right people
If you’re an e-commerce business or in any business that offers products/services of various types, segmentation will help you a lot. For example, Jewelry, Shoes, Men, Women, etc. Or you can use predicted demographics.
You can segment them with a degree of engagement or locations too.
3. Send at the right time
In order to increase the opening rate, you need to know when your audience usually opens, schedule your email at that time. Use send-time optimization, which I usually use for my client.
4. The subject line, encourage them to open
Make your subject line, the salesman. Your customer reads it first. Make it appealing, write it in a way that your customer feels engaged.
What if someone calls a name in a crowd that’s yours. You pay attention, right?
Use a name in the subject line. I wrote like this, “Hey *|FNAME|* — what are you doing today?
See what Netflix does here.
5. Personalize the message, so it engages them
In the email body, instead of writing a message blindly, address your customer with name, and write in a way that you’re talking to him/her.
6. Keep your list clean
Check the report and delete bounce email addresses regularly and keep your list healthy.
To conclude, I must say, be patient in growing the email list. Having the right list is what you want to have than a big list of wrong people and pay for them. I’m sure your opening rate will increase if you can do that. Good luck!
