There are several factors that play a role in whether or not your emails get opened. Let’s explore each of them.
Probably the most obvious problem is when your email gets sent to the subscriber’s spam folder. Since you’ve already gotten permission to send emails, and you’ve chosen one of our recommended email marketing providers, you’re off to a great start.
Here are some email marketing best practices to keep your emails from falling into spam folders:
Make sure all recipients have actually opted-in to receiving your emails. Seriously. We can’t emphasize this point enough.
Send your email campaign from a good IP address. That is an IP address that hasn’t been used by someone else who has sent spam in the past. Send emails through verified domains. Keep your email template code clean. Use merge tags to personalize the “To:” field of your email campaign. Show subscribers how to whitelist your emails, and ask them to add you to their address book. Avoid excessive use of “salesy” language (these are spam trigger words like “buy”, “clearance”, “discount”, or “cash”). Don’t “bait-and-switch” by using deceptive subject lines. Include your location.
Include an easy way for subscribers to opt-out of your emails. Almost all of this is handled when you choose a reputable email marketing service. Remove Inactive Subscribers to Keep Your List Fresh It’s important to email your subscribers on a consistent basis, so your list doesn’t go stale. Even then, over time, email subscribers still go stale.
Some people may have changed email accounts, or maybe they just aren’t interested in your brand anymore.
So to keep your list fresh and filled with engaged subscribers, it’s a good idea to periodically remove inactive subscribers. An inactive subscriber could be anyone who has not engaged with any email in the past 6 months or more.
But before you get rid of them, try sending one more email campaign to try to re-engage your inactive subscribers. For example, Carol Tice sends a last-ditch-effort email to her inactive subscribers that says, “Do I bore you?” and asks if they still want to stay subscribed. Some people respond, but all others get purged.
Another way to keep your list fresh is by checking in with your subscribers every once in a while to ask if they would like to update their information and their preferences. This way, they are reminded that they can take control of how they want to engage with you.
Timing can have a huge effect on whether or not your subscribers open your emails and on your conversion rate, so think carefully about what time and day you send your emails out.
You won’t be able to figure out the perfect time immediately but perform some A/B tests to identify which timeframes seem to do best and explore those in future campaigns.
But you may be wondering, has anyone else already done some tests that you can benefit from? Yes!
In a study by GetResponse, they found that Tuesdays have the highest open and click-through rates:
However, a study from Yes Marketing found that Saturdays are the best days for conversions:
yes marketing best time to send emails by day
The bottom line on email send time is this: imagine a day in the life of your particular audience. What are they doing in the morning, afternoon, and evening? What does their workday look like? How late do they stay up at night? How early do they rise in the morning?
All of these questions will help you decide on the best time to send your emails.
When it comes to email open and click rates, your subject lines are everything. Your job is to make your subject lines stand out.
Kitchen Remodeling MarketHere are some tips for crafting the best email marketing subject lines:
Entice curiosity, but don’t be too clever. You want to make them curious enough to open and click, but without being so cryptic that the subscriber hasn’t a clue as to what you’re talking about.
Include numbers. There is something about numbers that draw the eye.
Use a friendly and conversational tone.
Speak in the language and style that your subscribers use themselves, especially when talking with their friends.
For some great subject line examples, we’ve written a whole post on the best converting email subject lines.
When you draft your subject line and message content, it’s natural to think of the thousands of people who are about to receive it.
However, it’s far more effective to write as if speaking to an individual person, with a personal subject line and a personalized message.
To write this way, you’ll have to really know your buyer persona. You need to understand their problems, their desires, their values, their likes, and their dislikes.
If you are having trouble with this, send out an email asking for a quick five-minute chat. On the call, you can ask questions that will help you understand what your subscribers’ needs are, and how they think.
Spending a day or two talking with your subscribers will be time well spent because it will help you so much: not only with your messaging but also with creating or improving your products and services.
When writing your emails, put your corporate hat to the side and write like a friend. This is the only way to really appeal to your subscribers and get them to open and click your emails.
For example, a corporate phrase like, “We’re offering savings to our customers!” comes off as distant and stuffy.
A more friendly alternative could be something like, “you’ve gotta check out this deal…”
That makes the email seem a whole lot more personal and makes it less likely that your recipients will simply delete your message and move on.
Remember: in this age of information, everyone is looking for a reason to ignore your emails. They aren’t looking for a reason to read them. But if you appeal to them on a personal level, you’ll stand a better chance of getting that email opened.
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