Getting someone to open your email is no easy feat even for marketers. It is harder now more than ever before to cut through the noise of the world and reach the inbox of your target audience. The question is, what can we, as marketers, do to get our messages out there? And more importantly, what should we be doing to get those emails to be noticed and opened in the first place?
Here are our 5 easy steps that should help improve the open rates of your next email campaigns.
1. Complicated HTML vs. Basic Designs in Emails
When it comes to email campaigns, naturally, you will want to stand out from the rest of the crowd but sometimes less is more when it comes to design. People's inboxes are incredibly crowded and extremely competitive. With that, many try and stand out from the rest of the crowd. Some emails can be highly visual HTMLs, and others can simply be plain text, both of which have their own benefits depending on your message and how you want to portray yourself and your brand.
The design and writing of the email are critical. You don't want your emails to look like an ad or a huge wall of text. It's all about balance.
Typically, we find this format to be most effective when it came to our emails being opened:
Keep It Personal in Tone
Write your email as if you might a blog post or even if you were emailing a colleague or friend. More and more people take more personal approaches when contacting prospects. Remember, no one wants to be "sold" something. We're all human so speak like one.
Personalisation
This might seem a little similar to personal tone, but this does differ slightly . According to Epsilon research, they found that 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when their experience is personalised. That's not to say to stuff the whole email with personalisation but certainly look to tailor it to whoever you aren't targeting as much as possible.
Mobile Friendly
This is a massively important factor! More and more people are opening their emails by their phones. Research has shown when it comes to mobile devices, a whopping 81% prefer to open emails on their smartphones.
Here at Databroker, we often find that emails tailored to look like they have come from straight of our account manager's inbox perform better for some promotions than fully designed HMTL ones.
2. Time and Day of Sending Your Emails
Timing can have a huge effect on whether your subscribers open your emails. There is huge debate on when is the best time to send your emails to get the best open rates. For example, research from MailerMailer suggests that sending emails in the late morning, during work hours, gets the best open rates suggesting a 10am broadcast. HubSpot also found that late mornings tend to get the most opens and for the best results to send at 11am.
GetResponse, however, suggests 6am is a peak time to send emails followed by late in the evening from 8pm to Midnight. As you can see, it's extremely hard for marketers to truly know when the best time is to send an email. In order for you to find the best time for your campaigns start split testing.
It may take a while, but by collating the data you will not only be able to spot potential trends, but you will soon get a better understanding of when your emails are being opened and the best timeframes for your future campaigns.
3. Email Subject Lines
When it comes to email open rates, your subject lines are one of the most important factors to consider. If you are using the same subject lines over and over or using the same formula to create subject lines, chances are your email is going to get lost through all the noise. To break away from your competitors you are going to need to be more creative with your subject lines.
Some tips when it comes to creating / writing subject lines are:
Entice Curiosity
You want to make your target audience curious enough to open your email. The tricky part of this is not coming across as too clever or showboating. The other difficulty is not to sound too cryptic either. You do want to give a vague idea of why you are emailing your intended contact in the first place.
Screenshot from Optinmoster.com
Insert Numbers
There is something about numbers that draws people in as our brains are often drawn to digits. Lists are easier for our brains to process and using numbers within our subject lines for content like "5 ways to improve your open rate" can often give people an idea of how long your email might be, promising a quick and easy read.
Use a Fun, Joking, or Conversational Tone
Humorous subject lines can stick out from the dull and dry email subject lines we are likely to get through out day to day life. As mentioned earlier, be sure to use more conversational tones when writing your subject lines. Use the same language and styles that your subscribers would. No one likes to be sold to.
Screenshot from Optinmoster.com
4. A/B Components of Your Emails
Practice makes perfect, and the same goes for your email marketing campaigns.
A/B testing, or split testing, is a great way to see if your campaigns are engaging well with your audience in the most effective way. Almost anything and everything could be split tested when it comes to your emails from subject lines, time of day, CTA action, all the way to content and image placements. The variables are endless.
Testing, asking questions, continuously reviewing, and optimising wherever possible will always be the best of ways to improve your open rates.
5. Get Your Email Marketing Audience Right
At the end of the day, all the above reasons are secondary when it comes to improving opens rate. Arguably the most important thing to get higher open rates is to get the right data. Audience targeting allows you to reach businesses and consumers who may be interested in your business, product, or service.
Don’t just send emails to massive lists of people, not only will your email provider eventually flag you as a spammer with no targets, but you will also most likely get blacklisted by inbox providers as well – making it difficult to reach your audience even when you cleanse your list.
You should break down your data to send the right message to the right people. If you have considered your content and matched it to your audience, created an enticing and interesting subject line, more often than not you will see that your open rates will be significantly better. Would you open an email that you know wasn't written for you? Probably not, so don't make your audience go through the same thing.
Ready to Start Your Email Marketing Campaign?
Struggling to find the right target audience for you? Why not look into purchased email marketing lists? Email lists offer some fantastic targeting options and returns . They are very often some of the most cost-effective ways to generate leads and sales with short term campaigns. When used effectively, results often outperform traditional advertising.
To find out more about email marketing lists, contact us today and we'd be happy to provide more information on improving your open rates as well as finding you a viable list to market to.
