5 Ways To Increase Your Email Open Rates
Reading Time: ~5 Mins | Written By: Juliana Bermudez
Email is an important part of any marketing strategy but it can often be tricky to get eyes on your emails without knowing some of the key open-rate strategies. We have outlined below five of some of the easiest ways you can enhance your email experience to boost your open rates, and in turn, increase engagement and traffic to your website.
1. Keep your email list fresh and up-to-date
One of the most important parts of managing an email list is ensuring it's up to date and regularly cleaned of old and uninterested subscribers - especially if you have an old list that hasn’t been updated in a while. Regularly remove all subscribers who have never opened your emails, or haven't for the past 6 months or more. This ensures your emails are only being sent to those who are periodically opening your emails, and in turn, boosting your open rates.
We always recommend adding a newsletter signup form to your website to gather new subscribers, keeping your list fresh with those who have opted in to see your content. Additionally add any client emails you have manually into the list (with their express permission, of course).
As a bonus step - tag and segment your subscribers, allowing you to send more relevant emails directly to them when more timely and important news comes up.
2. Make your subject line stand out
Creating eye-catching subject lines can make a huge difference when subscribers are receiving dozens of emails a day. It's easy to enhance your subject lines by adding merge tags that include the subscriber's name to grab their attention, as well as emojis for a pop of colour when it's appropriate.
You can also generate more curiosity with your subject lines by including exciting and timely language. Share a sneak peek of what's included in the email while sharing that the information is time sensitive to generate a feeling of urgency. For example, if you were sharing an announcement of a sale running for one day only, your subject should look something like this:
“🔊 50% OFF Flash Sale ENDS TODAY, Chris! 🔊”
This includes the recipient's name, emojis, a sense of urgency, as well as information about what the email content includes so the recipient knows exactly what the email will contain before they open it. Just be sure to keep it concise!
3. Perfect your send timing & frequency
One of the most important parts of email marketing is knowing when to send out your emails, and how often. It's easy for subscribers to get email fatigue from too many emails being sent from one person or company, so striking the right balance is key.
It is recommended that you do not send out more than one email a week to ensure that you are still top of mind with your subscribers, but not to the point where it's too much. Practice quality over quantity and it will benefit you in the long run!
For timing, Mailchimp suggests sending your emails around 10am for each recipients’ time zone for best results. This is the same from Monday to Friday. Although this is a great place to start, it is best to take a look at the data from your previous email sends to find out when you get the most email opens and play around with what works best for you. This can change depending on your audience, business, and content. Jelly Academy’s own resident Email Marketer typically sends emails in the morning between 9am-10am when people are getting to their desks, and right after lunch time around 1pm-2pm, based on our past results.
4. Only include relevant and valuable content
When you are thinking about what to include in your emails, be sure to only include relevant information pertaining to the email topic and keep it concise. The more you add, the less your subscribers will read and the more they will skim. Add quick overviews and allow your subscribers to click back to your website or blog post to learn more on their own, and be sure your language is friendly and welcoming so they feel like they are receiving a letter from a friend as opposed to a business or organization.
By adding only important and valuable information in your emails, your subscribers will begin to know that when you do send an email, it is important enough to open and read. Ask yourself: what value does this provide to our subscribers? This goes hand in hand with your sending frequency because if subscribers only get one or two emails from you per month, packed with valuable information, they will be more likely to be excited about each email you send..
5. Use optimized images and always link back to your website
The more seamless your emails look, the less your subscribers will be distracted by the design and the more focused they will be on the important content within it.
This Jelly Academy Newsletter is a great example of optimized images creating a hierarchy, adding context, and helping to guide the eye throughout the sections of the email. This helps our subscribers review important information about resources and opportunities quickly and seamlessly. In addition, all images and call to action buttons are linked back to the website.
Ensure your images and graphics are sized correctly for email (800px wide) so that they are not pixelated or overtaking the email body. Images are very important for creating contextual clues to support your email content, as well as breaking up sections or large bodies of text to give readers' eyes a break.
It is also very important that you include links back to your website and resources so that your readers can learn more, and ultimately get in contact with, or purchase from you. Link all of your images and logos, and include buttons or hyperlinked text so they can find these links easily.
Try out these five strategies in your next email sends and see how your open rate percentages change for the better. Interested in learning more about email marketing? Check out the Email Marketing Module as part of Jelly Academy’s Digital Marketing Bootcamp.
