Ah, the elusive high email open rate.
That number that every email marketer and business owner wants so desperately to increase.
When more people open your emails, they’re actually seeing your message. They know about your sale, they’re consuming your content, they’re more likely to become a customer. And if they’re already a customer, they’re more likely to buy again.
Yet many emails, even the very first ones sending a new subscriber their promised lead magnet or coupon, go unopened.
Why don’t people open their emails and how do you persuade them to do it?
What Is an Email Open Rate and Why Does It Matter?
Let’s answer this question first.
The “average” email open rate is 20%. However, it can vary wildly, depending on the industry, the subject matter, and the sender.
Your email open rate is the ratio of the total number of unique opens (person opening your email for the first time) and the total number of emails that were delivered to inboxes.
So, if you were to send out 100 emails but 20 of those emails bounced, only 80 of your emails were delivered to their intended inboxes. Let’s say that of those 80 emails, 20 were opened by your intended recipients. That gives you an email open rate of 25%.
Here’s the formula: Email Open Rate = Unique Open Emails / (Total Number of Emails Sent – Total Number of Emails that Bounced)
25% = 20/(100-20)
(Thanks to the folks at aritic.com for this formula.)
This matters because, of the 100 emails you sent, only 80 of them reached their intended targets, meaning the email address was valid and there was an inbox for your email to go to.
However, the path of your precious email is littered with obstacles, including:
- Gateway filters
- Spam filters
- Being shunted to the “promotional” tab in Gmail
- Being overlooked by your subscriber
I could go on, but it’s a bit depressing.
If your email doesn’t reach your subscriber and they don’t open it, you’re not connecting with them, which affects your bottom line.
This is true whether your email is selling something, promoting a blog post, asking someone to sign up for a free consultation, asking them to reply with an opinion or whatever your call to action may be.
You want to your email to reach your subscriber’s inbox and you want them to open it, read it, and take the action you’re suggesting.
Here are the potential reasons that your email may never get opened and how to overcome them, so you can increase your email open rate and have your subscribers see what it is you’re offering.
Reason 1: Getting Through the Filters
Every time I think of a spam or gateway filter, I think about Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, standing on the bridge of Khazad-Dum, fending off the Balrog from the rest of the party as he shouts, “You shall not pass!”
But I confess, I’m a geek.
However, this is not dissimilar to what happens to your email when it goes through spam and gateway filters.
Those filters are looking for the “right” emails to let through, meaning the ones they believe your subscribers want to receive and legitimately signed up for.
If those filters encounter a “Balrog” email, their job is to prevent it from passing into your subscribers’ inboxes.
Issues those filters look for include:
- Your IP address and domain name: Spammers will game the system by using multiples of both of these. Spam filters look for the age of the attached IP address or domain, the sender’s authentication, as well as other factors.
- Your sender reputation: There are a lot of factors that contribute to, or can ruin, your sender reputation. I’ve seen accounts closed down by email service providers (ESPs) because the account in question was threatening their sender reputation. Your sender reputation can be affected by:
- Spam complaints or people complaining about your emails
- How your message is composed (formatting, etc.).
- The number of emails you send.
- Whether you’ve been blacklisted, or your ESP has been blacklisted.
- The content of your emails.
- Having all of the correct information, including an unsubscribe link, in your footer, as per the requirements of the CAN-SPAM act. (If you’re concerned, here’s a link to the compliance guide for businesses.)
- The promotional tab in Gmail: Lots of emails get caught in this particular trap. I’ve had friends who have been expecting personal emails from me, and when I checked with them to confirm they received their email, found it in the promotional tab in their Gmail accounts. Lesson one, always check your promotional tab if you use a Gmail address. Lesson 2, get your subscribers to whitelist you. (More on that below.)
How to Fix It
Step 1:
Always use a reputable ESP or CRM (customer relationship management software). Never send mass emails from your personal email account. (Yes, I know business owners who still do this. Don’t do that!)
The point of an ESP or CRM is to let you send the mass emails to people who have subscribed to your list, as per the CAN-SPAM requirements and to give people the option to remove themselves from your list.
(Okay, there are a lot of good things in an ESP or CRM that give you a lot of info on your subscribers that you can use to improve your marketing, but this is about your subscribers right now.)
Step 2:
Make sure your email contains all the necessary components to comply with the CAN-SPAM act, including:
- The physical address of your business.
- An unsubscribe link.
- Identify yourself or your business as the email sender.
Step 3:
Don’t give your subscribers a reason to complain about your emails and mark you as spam.
For example:
- Never buy an email list! No really, never ever ever. If someone hasn’t specifically opted in to receive emails from you, you shouldn’t be emailing them. Period. End of story.
- Send content that is relevant to your subscribers. No one will read your emails if you brought them in with a lead magnet about gardening, but then you send them financial advice.
Step 4:
In your very first email, ask your email subscribers to whitelist your email address so your emails get through. Every email client has a different process for this, but you can describe the basic process, then link to the instructions in a few of the major email clients, like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc. You can find a list that gives instructions here.
Reason 2: Subscribers Not Seeing Your Emails In Their Inboxes
This is a weird one.
Let’s face it, we’re all overwhelmed with emails every single day. If your inbox has 120 new emails in it, do you pay attention to all of them?
No. You probably scan them quickly, open the ones that may be important to you (if any) and then deal with the rest later.
Except later never comes.
Studies show that the majority of opens happen within the first hour of receiving the email. And if the email isn’t opened within the first 24 hours, the likelihood of it being opened at all drops drastically.
How to Fix It
Test to see what sending time and day gets the best open rates for your audience.
I know, this seems silly, but every industry and niche has its patterns.
Commonly, research shows that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days for email open rates.
Good sending times may vary by industry and niche, depending on when your target audience is working and when they check their email.
Sending your email before 10:00 am or after 4:00 pm is thought to be a good plan, as people are working between those times and are less likely to check their emails.
However, it’s easy for your email to get caught in the barrage of morning or evening emails and never be seen by your subscribers, so definitely test this.
Reason 3: Your Email Looks Spammy or Impersonal
This is far more common than you’d think.
An email that comes from “info@companyname.com” looks much less friendly and interesting than an email that comes from “tanya@companyname.com.”
Anything that makes your email look like it might be from a spammer, or might be something boring and not worth reading, will count against you when it comes to your email open rate.
How to Fix It
Make sure all of your emails come from an actual person at your company.
You’ll notice that all of my emails come from me. That’s because I am the person I want you to associate with my company.
If you have several people sending emails, have them use their own email addresses. It’s much more inviting to receive an email that has a person’s name attached to it than “support@companyname.com” or “sales@companyname.com”
Reason 4: You’re Not Emailing Consistently
Yes, I know I go on and on about this, but it’s because it’s true.
If you don’t email your subscribers regularly, they forget who you are.
Then they wonder who the heck is emailing them and why they’re even on this list.
That’s when they hit the “unsubscribe” link, or worse yet, the “report spam” button.
Sending regular emails that provide value and remind your subscribers of your existence is one of the keys to good email marketing.
How to Fix It
Establish when and how often you’ll email your subscribers in the very first email you send them. For that matter, you could include this information on the Thank You page of your lead magnet. That way, they know how often to expect emails from you and they’ll look for those emails on the appropriate day.
Stick to this schedule! I don’t care if you batch produce your emails every month or if you write them frantically the morning of. Email your list faithfully so they know you’re reliable and they look forward to reading what you have to say.
As silly as this may seem, my email subscribers know they’ll receive a blog post email from me every Monday and an exclusive email just for them, where I talk about ways to grow their businesses every Thursday. Because they know this schedule, they look for my emails, and they read them.
Reason 5: Your Subject Line Isn’t Interesting Enough
Much like a headline in a blog post, your subject line does need to catch someone’s attention and compel them to open your email.
When you consider how many subject lines your subscribers see in their inboxes every day, yours really does need to stand out. It also needs to be relevant to them and speak to their interests.
Your subject line needs to do 3 things:
- Tell your reader what they’ll get when they open the email.
- Intrigue your reader enough to click on the email.
- Give them a benefit to opening the email.
Yes, that’s a lot to fit into a few words.
And your subject line should only be a few words. According to a study by Retention Science, email studies with 6 to 10 words have the highest open rates at an average of 21 percent.
That being said, it’s okay to go shorter, or a little longer.
Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of your subscriber’s email client here, as well as whether they’re reading your email on desktop or mobile. Mobile tends to cut subject lines off, whereas desktop shows more characters.
How to Fix It
Write compelling subject lines.
“Duh. Thanks a lot.” I hear you cry.
Sorry to be blunt, but that is what it takes.
Here are a few tips on writing compelling subject lines:
- Use
questions as your subject line: If you’re on my email list, you’ll notice I
do this a lot. It makes you wonder what the answer is, so you’re more likely to
open the email.
- Use
exclusivity: People are more likely to click if they see “Just for you” or “Exclusive
offer.”
- Be outlandish: Have you ever clicked on an email just because the subject line was so crazy you had to find out what it was about? See, it works. Important warning – DO NOT deceive your subscribers! If you use an outlandish subject line, make sure it relates to the content of your email in some way. Otherwise, your subscribers will consider you an unreliable source of information and won’t open your emails anymore.
- Make
sure your words are relevant to your subscribers: Use the words your
subscribers use when they talk about their industry, their work and their
problems. The more easily your subscribers identify with your subject line, the
more likely they are to click on it.
- Be
negative: You’ll notice that the headline of this blog post, “The 6 Reasons
People Don’t Open Your Emails” is negative. (Granted, I promise to show you how
to fix the problems, but you get the idea.) We are all more prone to fear of
loss than we are to the greed of gain, so negativity attracts our attention.
- Use numbers: We are all attracted to numbers. We want to know the 6 reasons for or the 5 tips that. Numbers show that there are answers and there are a finite number of answers, which means we won’t get overwhelmed with information. Numbers indicate that there are “easy” solutions.
Reason 6: Your Content Isn’t Relevant to Your Subscribers
Remember how I talked about sending content that is relevant to your subscribers earlier in this post? This is a really big deal. If I started sending random recipes to my subscribers after years of sending them information to grow their businesses, I’d confuse the heck out of them!
Your subscribers opted into your list because they were interested in what you have to offer or say. Don’t let them down. Give them what they’re asking for instead of going off on weird tangents or making offers that have nothing to do with your business.
Trust me, if your content isn’t relevant to your subscribers, they’ll wonder why they opted in in the first place and hit the “unsubscribe” link, just to get you out of their inboxes and bring a semblance of sanity to their daily lives.
How to Fix It
Always, always send content that is of interest to your subscribers. Again, they signed up for your list for a reason. Help them fulfill that reason.
Add value to your emails. Help your subscribers solve their problems. (The problems you help them solve should be relevant to your product or service.) Give your subscribers reason to trust you and to want to read your emails.
If you don’t know what is relevant to your subscribers, or you’re running out of ideas, ask them.
Send an email that asks them to reply with topics they’d like you to cover or questions they have about your area of expertise/product or service. Ask them to fill out a survey to get more ideas on what to write about.
Make your content interesting. Don’t just write dry, factual stuff. Inject humor and your own personality. Let your subscribers get to know you.
You’ll notice I mentioned that I am a sci-fi/fantasy geek earlier in this post. If you read these posts regularly or you’re on my list, you’ll know about my cat Irusan, who shows up in both.
Finally write conversationally, as if you’re writing to a friend. Use “you” as often as possible. (Look at the paragraph above as an example of how to do this.) Make your emails easy and engaging to read as well as full of useful information.
Now Go Increase Your Email Open Rate
You know the problems you’re encountering in getting people to open your emails. You now have solutions to fix these problems. Go make it happen!
To make sure you take care of all of these problems, download the Email Open Rate Checklist so you have a handy reference as you’re making improvements.