5 Ways To Get People To Open Your Emails
If you’re like me, you start the work day by checking all the nonsense emails and deleting them so that you can focus on the important ones from clients, friends, and your crazy uncle and his latest forwarded Covid vaccine conspiracy theories.
So many of the emails we strike are the ones that businesses use to market to us, the consumers. Gmail knows this, which is why they’ve created Spam, Social, and Promotions folders to filter them out.
Why don’t we give these emails the time of day? Because they’re boring, unclear with their message, and they don’t speak to our pain.
The problem is that it works both ways: if your business is sending emails that check those unwanted boxes, then they’re likely getting tossed as well.
How then do you get people to open your emails?
Read on.
1. Intriguing Subject Line
If you’re accessing this blog because you opened my Constant Contact email, that means the subject line hooked you.
Think of a subject line as a movie trailer; if the preview is exciting, you’re going to want to watch the full film. If you want your audience to open your email, you better pique their interest. In fact,
69% of email recipients mark email as spam based solely on a bad subject line.
The best subject lines are descriptive, short (no more than 7 words), have limited punctuation, and use one ☝ emoji at a time to supplement words without replacing them.
For example:
2. Personalization
People are more likely to open emails that are addressed to them by name. Check out these statistics:
- 42% of consumers get annoyed when content isn’t personalized to them
- 72% of customers only engage with personalized messages
- 90% of customers find personalized experiences appealing
3. Writing Good Content
You got your recipient’s attention. Mazel tov!
But...don’t let them down with blah content. A bait and switch will direct them straight to the unsubscribe link. Compelling content like a blog post, video, service or product special will certainly motivate your customers and prospects to click through to your website to learn more.
4. Resending To Non-Openers
Even the emails with the most engaging subject lines get missed. There are several reasons: your contact simply didn’t see it; they accidentally deleted it; they were too busy to open it; etc.
In the marketing business, we refer to these folks as “non-openers”, which isn’t to email-shame them--it’s just what they’re called. Fortunately, email marketing tools have a resend-to-non-openers feature. Lest you’re worried about being perceived as harassing, allow Constant Contact to allay that concern:
“Of all the contacts who will open your email, 89% open within the second day of receiving it, and 93% open by the third day.”
5. Rinse and Repeat
Be disciplined and regimented.
You will build more audience engagement and increase your open and click through rates by sending the appropriate amount of emails at a consistent clip each month. It’s certainly okay to test out your email sends during different times and days of the week since content marketing is more of an art than a science.
Your audience--customers, prospects, colleagues--want to feel a sense of connection, and the more purposeful content you distribute, the more top-of-mind you’ll be.
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About the Author, David Telisman
I am a Writer and Content Creator, and I work with businesses to inspire their customers to buy from them. I believe that my clients deserve to feel proud of how their content marketing looks and what it says, and I deliver by providing expert content writing and email marketing solutions.
Aug 8, 2021 by
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