Improving Your Email Marketing Open Rates

Despite the influx of social media, the use of e-mail marketing as a way to grow your business and stay in touch with customers is still extremely effective. The problem, of course, is that our e-mail inboxes these days are definitely not lacking in content.

If you want an e-mail campaign to be successful, it’s obviously essential that the intended recipient not only open the e-mails you send, but also act upon the content. While you can’t guarantee that this will happen with every single campaign and every single person, there are several tactics you can use to improve your success rate:

Be Consistent

If your company name appears in a person’s e-mail inbox one time, it’s easy to ignore. But as time goes on and your name continues to appear, even simple curiosity could break them down, resulting in an opened e-mail. The more consistent you are, the more likely this is to happen, especially if you couple it with special offers and news that they’re interested in.

Send Interesting, Relevant Content

If your target audience is IT professionals and you’re sending information that targets chefs, there’s little reason for the recipient to open your e-mail. Messages that are tailor-made to your intended recipients always work best.

Avoid Subject Lines that Denote Spam

Although it’s true that we all love free stuff or discounted items, seeing this information in a subject  line can be a turn-off to many readers because it feels like spam even when it’s not. Also avoid exclamation points, especially multiple ones, which have become a symbol of desperation in the art of marketing. Except on this blog, of course!!!!!

Don’t Use Long Subject Lines

While it’s tempting to include as much information as you can in the subject line, since chances are the recipient will at least read the subject before hitting the delete button, this technique can be a huge turn-off. Instead, stick with short and sweet.

Avoid Vague Reply-to Addresses

When sending an e-mail, use your own name or something similar as the reply-to address. When someone sees an e-mail address that includes a no-reply address, it seems to impersonal and will often lead to the deletion of your message without giving it a chance.

Use Humor

A lot of people react positively to the use of humor, so if you can make a person laugh or even chuckle, there’s a good chance that they’ll open your e-mail and act upon what’s inside. Act something funny in the message as well and you might just win them over completely.

Concentrate on Layman Terms

In your subject line and the body of your e-mail, avoid the use of technospeak that the reader might not understand. Break down any complicated concepts into their simplest forms and make any advertisements of calls-to-actions just as easy to comprehend.

Don’t use Negativity

No one wants to be pulled down when reading an e-mail, so make sure that your information (or sales pitch) reflects a positive attitude at all times. A potential customer won’t want to go any further with your company if he or she is too depressed to do so.

Write in a Casual Tone

If your e-mail sounds as if it’s being sent to a friend rather than to the masses, recipients are more likely to pay attention to its contents. Just think back to those call center telemarketing scripts you’ve been forced to listen to — no one wants those in an e-mail.

We can’t guarantee success with one hundred percent of your recipients in every e-mail marketing campaign, but if you follow these guidelines, you’ll definitely see improvements. Whether you make baby steps or dinosaur footprints, successful e-mails can help you move toward success.