Tips for Email Marketing Newsletters That Guarantee Open

Let’s face it: a majority of the emails you received are sitting in your inbox right now, unopened. In 2021, the average open rate is only 21.3%, and yet, email open rates are one of the most important variables to look at when measuring the success of your email marketing campaign. It’s typical for businesses to put ample time and energy into growing their subscriber list, but what good is your list if your subscribers don’t open your emails?

So, what inspires recipients to open emails in the first place, and how can you increase your email open rate? Let’s discuss.

Segment Your Email List

The first step to increasing your campaign’s email open rate is by segmenting your email list. Employing this practice alone will put you ahead of 89% of marketers who fail to take advantage of this practice. What is email segmentation, you ask? It is the practice of personalizing your subscriber’s emails to give them more relevant information. These segments ensure that the content you’re delivering appeals to a specific subgroup of people within your audience. The beauty of segmentation is that you can base your subgroup on virtually any criteria you choose, including demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral. All of which can be used to create email newsletters that guarantee opens.

A subscriber’s demographics could be their age or level of education, while their psychographic profile may include their personality traits and hobbies. You can even use your subscriber’s geographic data to alert them of products that benefit them based on their location. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to blast emails about going to the beach to people who live in a landlocked area.

The most effective criteria for segmentation is behavioral, which can help marketers take information like how long customers stay on a website, and how likely they are to abandon their online shopping cart and use it to their advantage. Behavioral segmentation can even separate those who have visited your site before from those who have not. Through email segmentation marketing, you can send emails tailored to appeal to each specific group, which dramatically increases your open rate.

Optimize Your Campaign for Mobile Devices

Another way to create email marketing newsletters that guarantee opens is to make sure your email campaign is optimized for mobile devices. Email open rates from mobile devices have surged 100% in the past ten years, and they aren’t slowing down any time soon. Despite this trend, only 20% of email campaigns are optimized for mobile devices, but 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices.

The easiest way to optimize your email campaign is to keep your email design clean and simple. Be careful not to add too many large pictures because large files can cause a site or email marketing newsletter to load slowly on mobile devices. You should also make sure you use attention-grabbing language and avoid lengthy paragraphs unless it’s part of your brand personality.

Another key to email optimization is to use compelling pre-header text. This is not to be confused with the subject line. The pre-header text is the first line of your email visible to the recipient, and it should complement the subject line.  Remember, most people checking emails from their phones are on the go, so you don’t have much time to grab their attention. Make it worth their while.

Make Your Headline Worth It

Before your subscribers see any of the other content in your email, they see the headline. It’s paramount to craft a headline that’s ideal for your target audience to increase the number of opens your campaign receives. Only you know the best way to capture your audience. You’ve collected the data and now it’s time to put it to good use! Likewise, there are a few tricks you can apply to nearly every email newsletter to increase your open rate:

• Most opened emails have a subject line with words like “awesome,” “secret,” or “e-sales.” It’s most effective to use phrasing that excites the customer and includes a call to action.
• Your newsletter is most likely to be marked as spam if you use words like “confirm,” “feature,” or “upgrade.”
• In addition, people are less likely to open emails that contain a question mark, hashtag, or emoji. A headline including emojis may appear desperate at best and could be reminiscent of spam at the worst.
• In the past, people were more likely to respond to emails with a personalized headline, but in this day and age, it takes more strategy than merely inserting your subscriber’s name for a higher email open rate.
• The most effective headline to guarantee email opens features a headline that’s short and sweet with about 6 to 10 words in the subject line. The header is your first impression, so make sure you put your best foot forward.

Timing is Everything

When crafting your email marketing newsletters, you shouldn’t forget the importance of sending your emails at the most reasonable time and day. For example, you wouldn’t send an email marketing newsletter out at 9 a.m. on a Sunday because it correlates with personal time. People are either at church, sleeping in, at a sports game, or enjoying time with loved ones, not focused on your emails.  The vast majority of people aren’t checking their email at midnight, so it would be unwise to schedule an email campaign at that time. According to Get Response, the best day to send an email is Tuesday, and subscribers will most likely to open your email at 10 a.m., just after starting work or at 1 p.m., when they take their lunch break.

However, it is crucial to consider your market audience’s behavior and tools like Google Analytics to ensure you get the highest open rate possible. Keep in mind that 23% of email opens occur within an hour of the email being sent. After that, the open rate plummets below 1%, so be sure to do some research and be mindful of timing when planning your next email campaign. Inspire your audience to strike while the iron is hot and boost your email open rate.

Related: When is the Best Time to Send an Email?

MailBakery

In a world where most people’s email inboxes are filled to the brim with unopened emails, this blog shares tips to put your email marketing newsletter ahead of the rest. By using email segmentation, a mobile-optimized campaign, a great headline, and ideal timing, you can skyrocket your email open rates and increase the success rate of your email marketing campaign to unprecedented heights.

If you need help crafting an email marketing newsletter, look no further than MailBakery. We design and code stunning email templates that are brand-specific and sure to convert. And if you have a vision, we can help you bring it to life!

Are you ready to work together to create something great? Contact our team today, and let’s get in the kitchen.