It doesn’t matter how fabulous your email marketing and newsletters are if no one ever opens them. All that time (and let’s face it, none of us have enough of that!) you’ve spent carefully crafting your wording and finding the images and perhaps money you’ve been paying Mailchimp to send them could be going to waste if your emails remain unopened.

I was recently contacted by a small business owner who needed help sending her second email newsletter. She’d sent the first one a few months ago and it didn’t go as well as she’d hoped, so she reached out to me. After I’d performed some “Mailchimp magic” she sent it out yesterday. And 24 hours later it’s had over a 71% open rate, which I have to say impressed even me as that is unusually good!

Inbox brand recognition

It could be argued that just seeing your name in their inbox - even if they don’t actually open the mail itself - reinforces brand recognition and reminds them you exist for when they’re shopping for what you offer.

But don’t forget those algorithms

There’s definitely some merit in that and it can be true to a certain extent. However, algorithms learn the behaviour of mail recipients. That means that the less emails from you are opened, the less they subsequently reach inboxes and end up in the “other” or spam folders for other people too.

So obviously you want to make sure your open rate is as good as it can be.

What is a normal email open rate?

That depends on your audience but here’s what I would typically expect to see:

• General subscriber list where people have opted in themselves for e.g. your newsletter or a special offer = 25-35%

• Subscriber list of members who have paid to be there = 50-70%

• Purchased database of clients who have not proactively opted in (which is questionable in itself) = 0-10%

If you’re achieving those open rates then you’re doing OK. If you’re getting better than that on a regular basis - well done. Often your open rates may be better when your audience is small and contains friends, family and your mum but reduce as your list grows. That’s pretty normal.

It doesn’t matter what open rate you’re achieving, there is always scope for improvement though (unless you’re reached the heady heights of 100% consistently - has anyone ever?). Read on further for my tips on how to do that, but before we get on to that…

it’s not just about the open rate though. Are they acting on your Calls to Action?

A bit like brand recognition from seeing your name in inboxes, open rates in themselves are not necessarily a measure if success. Even if you’re getting a whoppingly amazing open rate that doesn’t mean people are taking an action. I see a surprising number of emails that are just words (and sometimes an awful lot of them) without a clear and obvious CTA . A call to action would typically involve clicking on something to:

• visit a specific page on your website and then take another action e.g. buy something or book up

• visit a landing page and register

• phone you

• reply to your email

• share your email or forward it to a friend

• go to your social media page and take an action.

I’ll talk more about Calls to Action in email marketing soon so be sure to subscribe to my emails at the bottom to make sure you don’t miss it.

7 ways to improve your open rates

There are all sorts of things and it depends on your audience but these should give you some pointers:

1. Increase your chances of being seen in the first place

There’s no point emailing when your audience is going to be busy doing other things. By the time they have a free moment other emails will have arrived in their inboxes pushing yours down the list.

Think about your customer avatar’s lifestyle and daily routine and find times when they’re less likely to be distracted, or even better bored and have their phone in their hand, or even better pondering the very thing that you are about to send an email about (think Friday night take-away). Schedule your emails to go then. Click here for more tips about timing.

And use an emoji in the subject field - it will make your email pop in their inbox.

Oh, and consider whether to add their first name in the subject too (although it can make you sound like a bit of a stalker sometimes) by including the merge tag *|FNAME|*.

2. Shelf-life and urgency

Faux-urgency is obviously annoying and will ultimately do you more harm than good like crying wolf, but people are busy and often don’t get around to doing things until the 11th hour. So introduce deadlines to your messaging and be clear about them in your subject or preview text.

3. Use both a person’s name and brand name as the sender

For example Claire Witz | MIB Network / Claire from MIB Network. That means it works on two levels - the personal touch and brand recognition. By coming from a person and not just a brand there’s also a small element of politeness insofar as your recipients would feel ok ignoring an email from a company but perhaps rude in ignoring an email from a person. That’s not always true but worth taking the chance.

4. Make good use of your heading AND preview text

The preview text is the wording that shows up in a recipient’s inbox just under the bold subject header, or after it depending on what email client they use. It can be hugely valuable in providing a little more info about the content of your email to tempt someone’s interest into opening it. You can get more ideas about subjects and previews in my other blog.

5. Be cheeky once in a while

It’s cheeky but starting your subject line with Re: once in a while can do wonders for an open rate because recipients instinctively think they must have been in a conversation with you already about it but just forgot. Definitely don’t overdo it and use it with caution though.

6. Take steps to avoid ending up in spam in the first place.

If your emails end up in spam folders then you might as well not bother sending them. Read my blog for tips on how to help stop that happening.

7. Segment

People are far more likely to open an email if it’s relevant to them. Understanding your audience and speaking to them is obviously key, and there’s a good chance not all of your audience is interested in quite the same thing. So how can you segment them and be more specific and relatable in your messaging?

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR NEED HELP?

If you need help with your open or click rates, or your email marketing doesn’t seem to be having any noticeable the results, then you know where to find me - just drop me a line. You can also sign up in the footer to receive exclusive Mailchimp tips, hacks and feature demos by email. And don’t forget I offer help and advice starting from a simple Power Hour (and-a-half).

Best wishes

Claire