The Single Most Effective Way To Increase Open Rates
Ah, open rates…
That demoralizing metric marketers can’t seem to ever put a finger on.
Despite how many subject lines they try. Despite the landslide of emails they put out. It’s always the same dilemma.
One day they’re stoked as a fire… elated with the recent success of their latest ‘brilliant’ subject line idea — (50% opens on that bad boy!)
Other times they’re dismayed… forced to go back to the drawing board after the same genius subject line flopped & failed to deliver like last time.
And off they go.
Up & down… up & down those percentages go — like a never stopping rollercoaster.
And this cycle repeats itself, over & over… until they inevitably get hit with the same daunting question…
Why?
Why are my open rates so inconsistent?
WHY can’t I seem to get reliable engagement from my list?!
And well, I’m going to tell you why.
(You asked for it. So your wishes, my command.)
The real reason why you can’t get steady open rates is…
You’re ready for it?
Your Subscribers Don’t Care One Iota About You!
Wait… what?
That’s right. Exactly. As. You. Heard. It.
Typically when businesses run their email list, they put a greater focus on sales tactics & promotion… rather than building an actual relationship with their subscribers.
Now, there’s a reason why this approach is bound to flop from the start — but I’m going to let you guess why it is the case.
Picture this.
Imagine you’re at a club. You’re having a blast, enjoying yourself.
And out of the blue, one friend introduces you to one of his coworkers — his name is Steve.
You start doing small talk. Exchanging pleasantries. Nothing special.
But for some reason you can’t really explain, you start sensing something’s off with Steve.
The vibe is not right. And a weird feeling in your gut tells you to end with the chit-chat & buzz-off.
But regardless, you do not listen to this gut-feeling, and decide to stay with him & keep talking.
A few minutes into it… he drops the bombshell.
Steve is in MLM.
CRAP.
Steve starts rambling on & on about how amazing his kitchen products are… and now that your bias is confirmed, the only thing in your mind is to immediately evacuate the area.
But, like the true salesman he is, Steve will not let you go that easily.
He instantly tries to get a number out of you.
And you — not wanting to be rude & with intentions to pull out as quickly as possible — decide to comply & give him your digits.
Little did you know however, you would later regret that decision.
Because Steve proceeds to text you every single week to… “hear about you”.
Which is a nice way to say he’s starting with a bit of rapport upfront as a ‘decoy’ to later try to convert you into MLM. And you can sense this on the spot.
But of course, it isn’t always like this.
Steve is a human too, after all. Sometimes he does text you to catch up.
But it’s pointless. You’re already pre-framed.
Each time you receive a message from Steve, you can’t help but think he’s about to drill a pitch down your throat — even when it’s not the case.
So what do you do? You ghost him. And start replying less & less.
Until the day comes where Steve surrenders & decides not to text you anymore.
How unfortunate.
But hold on, let’s digress for a moment. Think about this.
Did you even take the time to check if Steve could offer any sort of value to you whatsoever?
Chances are, you didn’t. But who could fault you?
From the jump, all Steve did was sell you on MLM.
So to put it simply, this relationship kicked off on the wrong foot the second he got a chance to meet you.
If Steve had bothered to offer value to you first — instead of pitching like his life depended on it…
Maybe you would’ve thought differently of him.
Hell, who knows… maybe you would’ve been more open to reply to his messages — and even go as far as to purchase one of his products.
But no. Steve placed a bigger value on selling right away… than actually fostering a relationship.
Which is unfortunate, because if Steve had gone for the latter approach… his chances of selling you on his kitchen items would’ve definitely been higher.
Do you now see why this is an issue?
And get this: the example above bears no difference to what most businesses do with their list.
By placing a bigger weight on writing ‘killer subject lines’ & promoting… rather than adding genuine value to their list.
Which frankly, doesn’t even make sense.
Because at the end of the day, subscribers are people too — not numbers on a spreadsheet.
So just like any other contact on your phone, you need to stay in touch & nurture these relationships. Otherwise, you will lose them.
In fact, if you asked any of these businesses if they treat their contacts the way they manage their list… they would tell you: they don’t.
Which begs the question…
Why would businesses continue with this insanity — knowing that there’s a better way to go about things?
By building a real connection with your list, you get rid of the need to write a ‘super compelling’ subject line all the time.
Ideally, you’d want to reach a point in which your recipients love & trust your brand so much… they don’t even care about your subject line.
They simply see the sender name, and they open.
And in case you’re wondering…
Yes, this level of engagement is in fact possible. But it will not magically happen overnight — and specially not relying on ‘killer subject lines’ to carry the day for you.
Sidenote: And of course, we’re biased… but reaching this level of greatness is significantly easier when an Email Marketing agency — who’s already crossed through these roads — is holding you by the hand on each step of the way. But I digress.
And hey, we still don’t want to leave you empty-handed.
After all, there are several things you can do to start getting consistent open rates relatively fast — on top of placing a bigger value on relationships, of course.
So for what it’s worth, here are 5 quick tips to rescue your dying open rates before it’s too late.
- Write Like A Friend
As we’ve said in prior articles…
Oftentimes brands come off as too formal for their customers’ liking.
They write emails that sound more like a business letter rather than… an actual email.
Which is fairly easy to fix, but detrimental nonetheless. Because if you’re seeking to build a relationship with your recipients…
Why write as if you were making a letter for a group of shareholders?
Or worse still… writing as if you were the Professor of Neuroscience at Harvard (yup, we’ve seen those before!)
It’s counterintuitive.
Making emails with a friendly-tone not only is more readable, helps you build a connection with your subscribers… but it’s just flat out more profitable.
One email marketer at Foundr recently tested this idea — sending two emails to his list with separate Flesch-Kincaid (FK) scores.
The FK scale is a statistical program that measures how difficult a piece of writing is by giving it a grade level.
For instance, Academic and Scientific text is generally in the 10.0 to 14.0 range — while day-to-day dialogue tends to be graded at the 4.0 to 6.0 levels.
And well… let’s just say results were revealing.
And mind you, these two emails were selling the same product & the same offer.
Only difference? The writing style.
One was written in a friendly-tone. The other, more business-like.
But wait, what does this have to do with open rates?
Quite a bit, actually.
By writing simpler emails… you’re making it easier for your subscriber to want to read the next one. So overall, it’s a more pleasant experience.
Because frankly, who is dying to receive a complex email you can hardly even understand? Not many.
So keep it simple.
Don’t be afraid to write in first person or even inject some humor into the mix.
Trust me, your subscribers will appreciate it.
A good rule of thumb is never write an email you wouldn’t send to a friend — or similarly, never send an email you wouldn’t like to read yourself.
Keep this in mind & you will start writing emails that your readers will actually like to receive.
Oh, and if you’d like to see more examples on how to write better emails, check out our article on The Most Essential Flows Every eCom Business Must-Have. It’s full of great illustrations to fire up your creative juices.
Alright, let’s continue.
2. Provide Real, Genuine Value
Value is the cornerstone of every relationship.
If we didn’t think we could gain any value from spending time with someone… would we even bother at all?
Likewise, value doesn’t always have to do with monetary purposes.
We can offer value to someone by teaching him something, introducing him to our network, or even through entertainment.
Email is the same.
A lot of businesses have the misconception that you need to ‘teach’ all the time in order to offer value to their list — a belief that is simply not true.
You can provide value to your subscribers in numerous ways.
It could be by sending a link to your latest article. Or addressing a doubt he might have about a certain niche topic in one of your emails.
Heck, we’ve even seen companies offer value by simply staying in touch & injecting humor to their writing — simply to entertain their readers.
Options are wide-open.
So you truly never run out of emails that provide value to your recipients — of course, providing a semi-competent individual is handling your Email Marketing channel.
Truth be told, your emails should be offering so much value… your readers are eager to receive the next one.
Clenching their fist with anticipation — waiting to hear back from you again.
That’s how you skyrocket your open rates. Not through sales tactics. But through value.
Genuine connection & relish for your emails will beat ‘killer subject lines’ any day.
Almost to the point of making them irrelevant.
3. Always Welcome Your Visitors
Picture the following.
Imagine you were going to the house party of a mutual acquaintance with a friend.
(Let’s call this acquaintance, Lena.)
And you had your reservations at first — because you didn’t know Lena that well — but as your friend knows her & Lena is inviting you herself, you decide to go.
So you get ready, jump in the car, drive halfway across the city, and arrive.
You cross the front door… and nobody is there to greet you.
Kind of impolite, but okay.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
Turns out, you spend the entire night in Lena’s place… and she never comes over to greet you.
Not once.
No ‘hey what’s up’. No ‘nice to meet you’. No handshake. No nothing.
Worse still, your friend’s car broke down, and he couldn’t make it to the party. Thus, you’re left alone & alienated the entire thing.
What a remarkable Friday night.
But whatever. Party ends, and you go home.
Now, imagine this happened to you. Would you be looking forward to go to Lena’s place again?
Chances are, you won’t.
She didn’t even have the decency to say ‘Hi’ — neither during nor AFTER the party — so why bother?
Okay, fair enough. Now think about this.
Many businesses do the same thing to their subscribers once they sign up to their list.
How?
By not having a Welcome Flow in place.
That’s right. And even if their recipients don’t feel as alienated as you felt that night at Lena’s…
They are still missing out on kicking things off the right way with their recipients.
And this makes all the difference.
So let’s switch things around. Because your friend Lena? She’s a cool person. She would never treat you like that.
Instead of arriving by yourself and immediately becoming a shadow lurking in the corner of the party, Lena sees you enter the room and gives you a warm welcome. Not only does she tell you how happy she is that you made it, she also starts showing you around the place, introducing you to a lot of people you might resonate with.
Right away, you’re in the middle of it. The night, an absolute success. And by chance, one of the new people you met through her is still sober enough to drive & able to help with your friend’s car — so eventually he shows up as well.
Wouldn’t that have made a lasting impression on you? And wouldn’t you have been much more likely to go back to her place for a second time?
I bet it would have.
But sadly, things didn’t turn out that way.
Instead, Lena disappeared from your life — never to see each other ever again.
So all things considered…
One would think brands would capitalize on their opportunity to make a sound first impression on their subscribers. Yet you’d be amazed to find out it’s often not the case.
And let me tell you… this reflects on their open rates.
According to research carried out at SuperOffice, the average open rate for email hovered around 24% globally between 2015 to 2018.
2020’s percentage? 21.3%. And this number’s only going down.
So we encourage you to not be like these brands.
If you haven’t done so already, check the article where we covered how to make a killer welcome email. And greet your subscribers as it should.
This extra effort will not only show on your open rates… but on your bottom line.
4. Avoid The Dreaded Spam Folder
Sometimes a real connection is lacking.
But other times… your emails are just not being delivered.
Cue Email Deliverability.
Your Email Deliverability is all about reaching the target inbox. This only happens if you don’t land in the spam or promotions folders, and only if your email reaches its destination at all.
Any of the tips shared above will be useless if recipients don’t get your emails, so make sure to sort this out.
We already covered this topic in detail in one of our articles — so click here to discover how to sharpen your deliverability ax.
5. Clean Up The Mess
When it’s all set & done, sometimes there are subscribers who just won’t engage with your brand — despite all your efforts.
This is not your fault. Every single brand has these.
Matter of fact, list cleansing is a common dilemma in the Email Marketing world — one to which we dedicated a whole article to.
Some recommend keeping your contacts. Others opt to get rid of them.
We, on the other hand, advise something else entirely.
Instead of shooting the gun, and ditching a contact you worked so hard to acquire…
Why not try to win them back first?
Run some well-trusted re-engagement campaigns & do your best to recapture their trust.
If after running several of these campaigns — say, 4 or 5 — they still won’t engage with your brand, and you feel like removing them… then by all means, go ahead.
They’re occupying free real estate on your list, after all.
This is a tried-and-true method to instantly improve your open rates. Simply because you’re not relying on ‘flawed’ data anymore.
Instead, you’d only view the data of those subscribers who do engage with your emails. And therefore, your decision-making can be better informed.
But it’s your call — as always.
Alright, time to wrap it up.
Final Words
We hope this article has helped you realize the importance of providing genuine value to your list
Building real relationships with your subscribers is not only the best way to increase your open rates…
But it’s the only way if you’re planning to count on your list for the long haul.
However, all of these said — there’s still something you need to keep in mind.
The arrival of iOS 15 will single-handedly kill open rate tracking & bring a fundamental change to 20-year-old email marketing best practices.
Therefore, we had to write this article — because if we had just given the normal “include emojis in your subject lines”, and similar tips… you’d soon be wondering why your open rates are behaving so weirdly once iOS 15 hits its stride.
But relationships? That will always work. No matter what’s going on with the technical details, if people care about you, that will stay that way (if you don’t massively mess up).
We’ll be dedicating one of our next articles to address the iOS 15 topic — in order to help you prepare for the new changes coming at the horizon.
So make sure to stay tuned for that one.
Thanks for reading.
Read more on https://www.email-bullseye.com/blog
