Is email marketing part of your marketing strategy? If so, I bet you’ve pondered long and hard about how to get your emails opened.
Much of the problem you face is that, ultimately, the success of your email is determined by the type of day the recipient is having. So, it’s not surprising it can be a frustrating activity.
Boosting your open rates
There are 5 simple strategies you can take to give your open rate a bit of a boost. They aren’t new and they’re hardly earth shattering, but they do work.
1. When do you send?
Believe it or not, the day you choose to send your email will have a big effect on your open rate.
As a general rule, it’s best to avoid Mondays and Fridays. As you would expect, most people are either catching up on work from the weekend or they’re winding down in readiness for the next weekend.
Therefore, a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are the best days.
2. Frequency
Finding the right frequency is vital. Too many, and your readers will unsubscribe, too few and they’ll forget they did subscribe in the first place.
Once a month is usual for most businesses – often enough for you to have something to say that they will want to read.
3. Subject line
This is the first thing they will see when your email hits their inbox. If it doesn’t grab their attention immediately, they won’t open it. Of course, it also has to avoid the dreaded spam filter.
Another good tip is to include your company name. Hopefully your recipient will recognise it immediately and want to open it.
4. Who’s it going to?
Your email marketing list is a very important element of your strategy. If you have built your own list (rather than buying one it), you are for more likely to be successful.
Why?
Because you know those people want to receive your information. If you send out ‘cold emails’ to a faceless list, most of them are going to end up being deleted.
5. Tell them what they want to hear
Writing about things that interest you, doesn’t necessarily mean you will also be providing relevant information to your readers.
It’s a good idea to, every now and then, send them a short survey to find out what they want to read about. You can easily set up a free one online (e.g. through Survey Monkey). That way, over time, you will be able to tailor your emails to ensure they contain the sort of information your readers want.
Email marketing can be a highly effective way of marketing and communicating with your customers. By making a regular appearance in your inbox, you will keep your company’s name in the forefront of their minds, so when they’re ready to buy, they’ll get in touch with you.