Did you know that 72% of people say they prefer to be contacted via email? A great, low-cost method you can use to help create engagement and conversions is with email marketing. Effective email campaigns can seem difficult to get right, but they don’t have to be. Whether you are just starting to implement email marketing you’re your overall marketing strategy or have using your email lists for years, below are some email best practices to improve your open rate.
What is an email open rate?
An email open rate is the number of recipients that open your email compared to the total number of people you sent your email to. Measuring your email open rates is an important metric to analyze in order to assess the validity and success of your email marketing strategy.
Apple’s impact on email open rates
Now that Apple launched its Mail Privacy Protection, it is also a good idea to track the number of mobile users (specifically iOS users) versus desktop users related to your emails. The reason?
On the surface, email open rates have increased 3.5% over 2021, however, this may not mean readers have opened said emails. Apple’s MPP blocks the ability to see information on how users interact with email (it’s an opt-in feature). Instead, the emails are pre-downloaded when sent which marks the email as opened—see how this could inflate the numbers?
If you don’t have many iOS users, it’s likely that your email open rates aren’t being as inflated as they may be if a larger percentage of your readers are doing so from iOS devices.
5 ways to strengthen email subject lines
We can improve the things we have control over and your email subject lines fall into that category. Make them stronger to entice users to want to open your emails time and time again with these tips:
1. Avoid spam-like words. Using words that appear disingenuous or spammy can land your email into the junk folder. Spam words you want to avoid include:
- Free
- Apply now
- Cheap
- Cash bonus
- Explode your business
- Eliminate your debt
- Compare rates
While there are no “magic” words for subject lines, there are a few words that have shown success in open rates and engagement. Here are some promising words:
- Names: personalizing a subject line with the subscriber’s name will help in getting their attention.
- Alert: emails with the word “alert” provides a sense of urgency and willingness to open the email.
- News: curiosity will make the subscriber open the email after seeing the word “news.”
2. Showcase value. Provide key points in your subject line and speak to your readers’ interests. Let them know exactly what they’ll get when they open your email. When you create your email, ask yourself: Who am I writing to? Put yourself in their shoes and think about their needs. What do they want to learn? What would be helpful for them to receive in email form? What would motivate a response?
3. Use targets and segmented audiences. Taking the approach of targeted subject lines for segmented audiences can help you achieve 760% more revenue than those that are sent to your entire email list. Breaking your audience into geographical locations, age, gender, interests and industries can help you create more focused subject lines to grab attention of these segmented groups. For additional information on segmented audiences, visit our A/B testing for the win blog post.
4. Keep it short and to the point. A Marketo Engage study found that subject lines containing four words received higher open rates. Subject lines should be a quick scan, if it’s hard to decipher what you’re offering, consumers don’t have time to engage or dig deeper. Conveying your message in a brief and clearly expressed manner is crucial. Practice getting your message across in a few words. Many third-party email software programs will provide character and word counts to help you.
5. Personalize. Email campaigns perform better when they’re relevant and personal. You can add this personalization right in the subject line or, within the body of the email. In order to make this work, collect data from your customers and prospects such as first name, purchase history or location. All of these can be used as a way to personalize subject lines and email content.
The most effective subject lines are brief, descriptive and compel your readers to want to learn or read more. Keep your target audiences in mind, test keywords and phrases, and keep an eye on your email metrics to analyze the success of your email subject lines going forward. As always, we are here to help, get in touch with us if you are ready to take your email marketing to the next level!
