4 Tips to Increase Email Open Rates

Digital marketing is a key component of creating touchpoints for any business as technology continues to advance.

One of the oldest strategies to communicate that predates the social platforms we all engage on today is through email campaigns. Leveraging your email list to send promotions, discounts, and other information is an effective way to catch and keep the attention of your target audience. This method is simple and effective when it is applied correctly.

What is an Email Open Rate?

Sending a high number of emails doesn’t necessarily mean that your email campaign is working. One important KPI you should be looking at is the Email Open Rate.

The Email Open rate is the percentage of emails that were actually opened compared to how many total emails sent. This is the first step in getting your message in front of your audience. If they never at least open it, they never have an opportunity to click any of the links and convert.

Tips to increase your email open rates

Here are four tips that can help you improve Email Open Rate for your campaign.

1. Keep your list clean. After you’ve spent time and resources building a list, it is normal to be hesitant to start deleting contacts. However, if the contacts are not engaging with your campaigns, it is in your best interest to delete them. Now before you delete them, you can run a “reengagement campaign” simply asking if they want to be kept on the list or not. A good rule of thumb is to run this type of campaign every 6 months.  
2. Send stuff they actually want. Show your customers that their opinions are valuable, send them questionnaires to learn more about what their interests are and offer them the options to select how they want to receive the information. People like to feel that they are appreciated and will be more interested in opening the emails to see what they want to see.
3. Make your content concise and straightforward. The perfect email is the one that catches the customer’s attention only with the title of the email. Email can still be a tough sell for some people, so get to the point and make sure to capture their interest in the first few words.
4. Create anticipation. Finish your emails with a phrase of interesting information that will come in future emails. That way, the customers will be interested in reading the next email to find out about the information.