Email marketing helps attract existing clients to your offers, but this is fruitless if you have low business email open rates. According to Smartinsights, the average email open rate is 16.97% as of 2022, with a varying click through rate dependent on your business size and industry. If your open rates are lower, then it’s time to improve them. Therefore, we have put together several methods to help increase your email open rates.
Measure your email open rates and make a plan
First, think about what your clients are after and if it is of value to them. Clients will have opted into your marketing because they are interested in updates, new offerings and more. Therefore, it is worth measuring the success rate of previous emails through an email marketing platform such as Campaign Master or Mailchimp, which shows the open rates and click through rates of your emails. You can then plan new email marketing campaigns based on what content has worked, as well as tweak any previous content you plan to market again in future.
Increase email open rates with enticing subject lines
Subject lines are the very first thing your subscribed clients will see, meaning these have to encourage clients to open the email. Think about what the email is about and why you are sending it, then craft an engaging subject line related to this. Is your aim to attract clients to your spa over the bustling festive period? For example, “Ready to relax with our luxurious spa?” not only mentions the idea of relaxing in luxury, but asks a question to entice the reader in. Other methods that work are including a deadline, a teaser or an exciting announcement. You can then combine this with pre-header text to create a formidable combination.
Create related pre-header text
Pre-header text is often the first line of copy that the email client will pull through to use below your subject line. This is useful to provide more information or intrigue when following on from your subject line, helping to boost email open rates. Following on from your subject line of earlier, your pre-header text could be “Unwind from the bustle of Christmas inside”, elaborating on the idea of relaxing over Christmas and encouraging clients to read. Ideally, both this and your subject line should be somewhere around 30-40 characters, as this is not only short and can be read quickly, but can be fully displayed in an email client without being cut off. Just make sure the pre-header is at the top of your email, typically hidden above the first image, or is in its HTML code so that it can be pulled through correctly.
Personalise your content to boost email open rates
Which of these are more appealing – “Dan, time to get pampered this New Year” or “Get pampered for the New Year”? The first subject line example shows the client’s name and is instantly more personalised, making it more likely the client will open the message. You can then use this in the body of the email too, signing off from an individual rather than the organisation for a more affable approach.
Personalising other aspects of your email can also encourage email open rates. Segmenting recipients via location, gender, client interest and more will help you personalise your emails to that specific group. This will help you tweak the email’s content and tone to increase the likelihood of clients clicking your offer or completing your call to action.
Remove inactive subscribers
Finally, before sending your new tailored email, it’s worth making sure all desired clients will receive it. Email platforms such as Campaign Master can measure what is known as hard bounces. These will inform you what subscribed clients have not received previous emails, due to permanent reasons such as an invalid email address. You can then cleanse your list of these inactive clients, decreasing the percentage of clients who won’t open the email and increasing the those who will.
Core by Premier Software® can set up marketing email templates that can then be sent to clients using marketing filters. Best of all, these emails can be automated at specific times to ensure you maximise their effectiveness. To find out how Core can help your business, click the button below.
