Written by Mandy McEwen – Founder / CEO of Mod Girl Marketing
If you send email for your business, then you’ve likely spent time attempting to increase email open rates. But it’s not always as simple as changing a subject line or moving a CTA. The challenge of trying to increase email open rates can be frustrating, but the statistics show that it is worth the effort:
- Three-quarters of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to “good” ROI
- About 49% of businesses use some form of email automation
- 86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes
- Active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019
A “good” open rate and click-through rate for your email marketing campaign is relative, of course. Below you’ll see some of the industry averages so you can compare how your emails are performing:
Now that you have some idea of how you’re doing, here are 8 ways to increase email open rates and engage more prospects with your next email marketing campaign:
8 Ways to Increase Email Open Rates
1. Consider what type of emails you’re sending.
Not all emails are created equal. Consider the different types of content you might send your customers: newsletters, promotional content, welcome emails, birthday emails – the list goes on and on.
It is important to consider just how many emails you send, however. According to HubSpot, 78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many emails.
4 emails you should be sending customers, according to Shopify, include:
- The shopping cart abandonment email — which reminds users they still have items in their shopping cart 12-24 hours later and attempts to re-ignite interest in completing the checkout process and lists a few incentives (like free shipping or current availability) to inspire a purchase.
- The order confirmation email — which reassures customers that they are taken care of, thanks users for their purchases, and delivers an added incentive to shop again, such as a promotional code for a future order or customized suggestions on other products that may interest the buyer.
- The shipping confirmation email — which lets buyers know their goods are on the way, supplies additional information for tracking purposes, and includes product suggestions or an easy way of forwarding a link of the item purchased to friends.
- The customer feedback email — which asks buyers to take a survey or leave a review and offers some type of incentive to do so, such as entry into a sweepstakes or a coupon code for future orders. This is another method of customer retention, as it makes customers feel as though their opinions are valued.
These emails are all transactional emails, which not only help you increase your customer retention rates, but also receive 8x as many opens compared to regular marketing emails – making them something you definitely cannot forgo in your business.
2. Personalize it.
Your customer wants to read an email written for them – not written for your entire list. For example, include their first name in the email, or send them a promotion specific to their local store. The extra effort to set this up through email automation is worth it; personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.
You can also segment based on customer personas, geographic location, past shopping patterns, or customer action. There are plenty of platforms out there that automate the task of personalizing emails, such as Marketo and HubSpot.
3. Invest in quality content.
Without quality content, all of your other efforts to increase email open rates will lose their value, as your customers won’t want to actually read the email you got them to open.
The people opening your emails are looking for answers to problems, tips or tricks, intriguing information, money-saving deals, relevant promotions, and stories they can share with family or friends. Not sure where to begin? Check out these 19 best email examples for inspiration!
4. Nail the subject line.
Everyone will see your subject line, but not everyone will be compelled to open your email. To increase email open rates, you can try a variety of techniques:
- Use humor
- Ask a question
- Offer a discount
- Show scarcity in time or quantity
- Include an emoji
Yes, emojis can actually significantly increase email open rates; in fact, 56% of brands using an emoji in their email subject line had a higher open rate than those that did not!
5. Go back to roots of journalism.
Sensationalism has sold many a newspaper. Be provocative in your email subject lines and opening paragraphs.
For instance, Barry Moltz, a speaker who focuses on small business and entrepreneurship, wrote a piece titled “Marissa Mayer was Right: Why Employees Need to Be Back at the Office” that drew a lot of attention, including when it was sent via email to subscribers.
And, much like tabloid journalism, negative titles tend to get a lot of hits too, such as: “5 Reasons Why Stupid People Make More Money than You.”
6. Make it easy to share.
Integrating your email and social media marketing extends the reach of your emails beyond one reader.
When you make it possible to share your email via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels, you open your business up to a much larger audience and allow for another platform of communication, which offers more opportunities for engagement.
In addition to including a social share button in all your email messages, you can also share some of your email content on your social media sites, offer incentives for joining your social networking communities in your emails, and promote email sign-up on your social sites.
7. Don’t screw it up.
If your customers have trouble viewing your email, your efforts to increase email open rates will be wasted.
The reasons for email display errors are many, such as:
- Failing to add text to your images
- Failing to provide alt text for mobile viewers
- Making the subject line too long
- Embedding flash or JavaScript items directly into the body of the email
- Inserting fancy external style sheets
- Using super large and high-quality images that take too long to load
8. Optimize for mobile.
It’s not just desktop you need to worry about! If your email doesn’t display correctly on mobile, you might as well not send it at all.
Mobile is responsible for at least 50% of all opens, and emails that display incorrectly on mobile may be deleted within just 3 seconds. And more brands are starting to take notice, with emails becoming more mobile-friendly over the years:
Mod Girl Marketing Can Help You Increase Email Open Rates and Land More Customers
Mod Girl Marketing has a team of email marketing specialists, SEO professionals, marketers, copywriters, social networkers and industry consultants who work cohesively to support your brand and make your campaigns more effective. Contact us today to learn more about our email marketing services and how we can help your business increase email open rates and land more customers.
