Five ways to improve your open rates

Although email marketing has been proven to be the most cost-effective marketing methods, it is also easily disposable.

One of the greatest challenges that email marketers face is the fact that email recipients are able to delete a message never to be seen again with one click of a button. For this reason, they arguably have to work harder than marketers using any other platform to gain their reader’s attention as soon as possible.

Industry experts have written thousands of words worth of advisory articles on what makes readers open their emails. This article presents six suggestions for how to improve open rates.

1. Gain permission

This may sound like a no-brainer but users are far more likely to open an email if they are expecting to receive it. Any spam emails which miraculously make it past the spam filter are deleted without a second glance more often than not. Only send emails to those who have opted in to your campaign.

2. Consider your email alias

One of the first things that email users survey in their inbox is who their emails are from. Make sure they see your brand name and not an off putting address such as noreply@company.com – or even worse the name of a completely unrecognisable company employee.

3. Timing

Studies have shown that brands can dramatically improve their open rates by altering the time and date they send their marketing emails. Emails sent between Friday afternoon and Monday morning have traditionally poor open rates, as this is a time when users are keen to clear their backlog of emails as quickly as possible.

4. Catchy titles

The title is widely regarded as a marketer’s deadliest weapon when trying to convince readers to open their emails. It is generally advised for a title to include a reason why readers should open within the first half dozen words. It’s also a good idea to include the reader’s name in order to personalise the email and make it appear less spammy. ’Joe, claim your free £20 voucher now’ is a far better title than ‘List of offers for November.’

5. Great content

The best way to get great open rates is to create consistently engaging and useful content. If a reader manages to save money or gain insightful information from one email, the chances of them opening your next one are far higher.

Using this information can help transform a good email marketing campaign into a fantastic one.