There’s not a magical solution to increase your email-open rate.
Rather, your current percentage—along with what it takes to achieve your goal—contains several factors.
A recent study from Smart Insights reported that the average email-open rate is 24.79 percent, but that number changes based on your industry:
- Hobby emails score highest, at 28.46 percent.
- Daily deals and coupon emails score lowest, at 15.22 percent.
- E-commerce emails’ open rate is also low, at 16.75 percent.
Ultimately, PR and marketing pros who want to increase their chances of success should focus on giving their subscribers what they want and love.
Here are seven ways to increase your email-open rates:
1. Create excellent content.
Aside from offering free stuff, you should deliver outstanding content to keep readers coming back for more. Your emails should contain three elements:
Brand awareness: Informative, interesting and engaging content that boosts your brand. The more time spent reading your emails, the greater chance your readers will recognize you.
Informing: Tell your subscribers what is happening in your organization or industry, which can trigger a purchase.
Shareable: Readers are more likely to share excellent content, potentially boosting your subscriber list and email-open rate.
Consider how many emails you send. An engaging and relevant weekly email can achieve a higher open rate than a poorly written daily email that simply promotes products.
2. Avoid spam folders.
Return Path reported that 21 percent of permission-based emails never make it to readers’ inboxes, and in the United States, 24 percent don’t arrive in inboxes.
In the U.S., the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act requires brand managers to follow these rules:
- Don’t use deceptive headers or subject lines.
- Provide an unsubscribe link and ensure it is working for 30 days after the email is sent.
- Include a physical mailing address.
Though there isn’t a magic formula to avoid the junk folder, these tips can decrease your chances of landing there:
3. Timing is crucial.
The average office worker receives 121 emails a day, so time your email to get seen before it gets buried.
The perfect timeslot depends on many factors, including industry, the nature of your email and your subscribers’ lifestyles. Many surveys suggest that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the most effective days to send emails, followed by Wednesdays.
Emails sent around 11 a.m. score high open rates, as does the window from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. However, the only way to find your sweet spot is to test your email schedule.
4. Organically grow your subscriber list.
If you work for a startup or a new organization, it’s tempting to buy an email list. Resist the urge and play the long game.
Purchased email lists can damage your sender reputation and potentially lead your emails to be blocked by Email Service Providers.
Instead, seek subscribers who willingly sign up for your emails. Follow these tips to find them:
Incentivize subscribers: Put a “gate” on your webpages that offers interesting content or an introductory discount in return for visitors’ email addresses.
Employ scroll-triggered pop-ups: The increasingly popular tool appears once a reader has read 70 to 80 percent of the selected page, showing an interest in what you have to say. Ensure this only pops up once per visit and never for people who have already signed up.
Competitions: To enter, visitors must include their details. The possibility of a great prize can create a good brand impression, too.
Social media signups: Facebook and Google+ offer quick and easy signup options, which can boost email lists by offering necessary information with the click of a mouse.
Create a preference center: Enable your potential customers to choose their interests and the number of emails they receive from you. This can manage expectations and ensure your subscribers get the content they want.
The more you can grow your list organically and tailor it to interested subscribers, the more you will see your open rate climb. An engaged list is a more profitable, too.
[RELATED: Learn how to create content that makes a difference to your bottom line at the Brand Storytelling and Content Marketing Conference at The Coca-Cola Company.]
5. Personalize your emails.
Personalization takes more than using your subscribers’ names. Instead, dive into your subscribers’ interests, hobbies, locations and more.
Most personalized emails are sent to specific segments, which enable brand managers to tailor emails to interests, not just names. Experian reported that personalized emails lead to 600 percent higher transaction rates than their non-tailored counterparts, so use this tactic to boost your ROI.
6. Make emails mobile-friendly.
More emails are opened on smartphones or tablets than on desktop, and it is more important than ever before to ensure your emails are formatted to mobile devices.
If a subscriber’s email looks untidy on his or her smartphone, it can leave a poor brand impression—and it might cause the reader to ignore all future emails.
7. Subject lines matter.
You’ve put a lot of work into creating an amazing email that’s personal, contains outstanding content and is formatted for mobile devices as well as desktop screens. However, if your subject line does not engage, inform and excite, you’ve lost the subscriber before he or she can even open your email.
Creating a short and balanced subject line can be more important than the email itself, because 35 percent of consumers decide to open an email based on the subject line alone. It can be the first—and sometimes last—brand impression you create.
Entice your recipients into opening your emails in less than 20 characters (and between 6 and 10 words) to avoid getting cut off on mobile devices. Personalize your subject line by including your subscribers’ interests, giving them a reason to open your email. Be careful with tone, keeping it friendly and occasionally using humor.
Carefully crafted subject lines can boost open rates by 22.2 percent.
Karl Kangur is the marketing director at MageMail. A version of this article originally appeared on the company’s blog.
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