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February 17, 2016

Email Marketing | How to Increase Your Open Rates

Author: Valerie Baker

If you have heard that email marketing was a thing of the past, you heard wrong. Email marketing is proven to be one of the most effective marketing tactics there is! In fact, email marketing returns $44.25 for every $1 spent and still has one of the highest engagement rates and returns on investment of any marketing strategy.

However, not all campaigns yield the results marketers are searching for. If you or a client is having trouble effectively engaging with readers, here are some tips on how to increase your open rates:

Start with Quality Content

Quality over quantity all day- every day! When crafting your email marketing campaigns, be sure to offer something of value to readers. Starting with the subject line, you’ll need to engage the reader as soon as they check their inbox. Once they open the newsletter, you’ll need follow through with whatever it was that made the reader open the email in the first place. Be sure to stay relevant, and discuss topics relative to the reader’s interests. If you do these simple things and include a catchy call to action, free whitepaper, video, or audio download, you’ll be one step closer to generating more leads.

Craft your Subject Line Carefully

The subject line is probably the most important – being that it could make or break the success of your campaign. So, whatever you do, do not dismiss this section of your newsletter. Brand your subject lines when appropriate, such as an introduction to a new or returning product. The subject line must be crafted using powerful descriptive words to truly entice readers. Take your time, test different subject lines, get feedback from peers, and whatever you do, never mislead your audience.

Personalize Delivery

Depending on the web application you use for your email marketing, you can insert the person’s first name into the subject line. Since inboxes fill so quickly, you’ll want to make sure that your email stands out from the rest. By including the recipient’s name in the subject line, they will be more likely to open the email and want to read what is inside.

Send from a Person, Not A Company

When creating your email, you want to be as personal as possible. When you are deciding who the email is going to be from, consider a person, not a company. If you are the owner, be sure to personalize the email with a special note and/or signature. This simple touch will make a big difference, and will seem like the email is coming from an actual person, and not a robot.

Avoid Spam Filters

When creating your email newsletter, avoid words and symbols like $$$, FREE, cheap, earn $, FAST CASH, make $ order now, etc. The use of these phrases and symbols will be recognized by email applications as spam, most likely resulting in an unopened newsletter. Also, limit the use of exclamation points and excessive capitalization in the subject lines and email itself. Avoid spam filters and you will increase your chances of engaging with your reader.

Send Out Emails at a Consistent Time of Day

When creating monthly or weekly newsletters, be sure to establish a regular day and time of the week that you plan on sending out your email. Be sure to give yourself enough time before an event or holiday too, don’t wait until the last minute to inform people of what is going on, and see that you remain consistent in timing so that the people who are interested in your content can know when to expect your email. Also, avoid sending emails out first thing in the morning if aiming for businesses, for most people are trying to sort through their inbox at this time and are more likely to delete company newsletters.

Avoid Buying Subscribers

Although you might want to implement your email marketing campaign with a large initial audience, buying newsletter subscribers is not going to be valuable to long-term goals. If you are paying people to subscribe to your newsletter, they probably don’t care about what you have to say- so avoid this at all costs.

Segment Recipient Lists by Interest

Organizing your recipient lists can assist in providing more relevant content to your readers. Segment the lists based on interests, hobbies and even purchase history so that you can continue to provide recipients with information that they will be most interested in, hence higher open rates.

Adapt to Mobile

133.7 million people own smart phones in the US alone and 43% of all email worldwide is opened on mobile devices as of April of last year. Therefore, if you are using a web application for your email marketing that is not responsive or mobile-friendly, you will be missing out on about half of the audience you could be reaching. But don’t stress, most email marketing applications are already responsive, but it wouldn’t hurt to double check and/or tweak your current format.

Keep Tweaking

Last but most certainly not least, it is crucial to continuously monitor email marketing activity to be able to identify what is working and what isn’t. By reviewing open rates and your current strategy, you’ll be able to adjust future newsletter campaigns to make them even more successful. A lot of the times we think we do this, but we don’t. For the best email marketing results, you must continue to learn more about your audience(s) and what they like so that you can continue to provide content that they will actually want to read.

Increase Your Open Rates Today

Ultimately, you want to get your business noticed amongst all of the competition and clutter. Small improvements can result in significant change, especially if you review, evaluate and analyze your campaign results regularly. By adapting to what individuals are most interested in, the more likely they will want to interact with your email and go to your website- which is the whole point!

Too busy to manage your own email newsletters? Contact Atilus, internet marketing specialists, and start receiving the attention you deserve today.

Valerie Baker

Valerie is the Support Lead here at Atilus. Her background includes digital marketing and web development. She takes amazing care of our clients and assists with overall website updates and development.

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