Every email needs a ...

Clean List
A list with recipients who don’t open your emails impacts your open rate. Take a look at who hasn’t opened your messages in a while and segment them out. Send a specific message to that group to find out why they’re not opening; perhaps they’re getting buried in packed inboxes, or maybe they don’t find them relevant anymore. This gives you an option to change tack so they may start opening them again, and also removing those who are no longer interested.

Clear Objective
Every marketing email you send should have an objective. What do you want the recipients to do? Keep you in mind for their upcoming promotion? Take advantage of a product sale or discounted services that you’re offering? See that you’re a subject matter expert? Make sure that’s clear in the email, starting with the subject line. If your emails don’t have a clear point or don’t make it quickly enough, recipients will stop opening them.

Focus on the Sender, Subject & Pre-Header
The sender and subject line are the first elements of an email that will pique a recipient’s interest. Change up the sender name every few emails, and make sure the subject line is pithy and creative. The pre-header, the short preview of the email that shows up in an inbox in Gmail and on smartphones, should also grab their attention. Remember to avoid all caps and salesy words like “guaranteed,” “cheap” and “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Personalized Message
Your emails will have more impact not only when the content is relevant to the recipient, but if you address them by name. Emails obviously sent in bulk to a large list are a huge turnoff and can cost you opens. Use recipients’ first names in subject lines and greetings, provide insights and ideas that apply specifically to them, encourage conversation and ask for feedback.

A/B Test
Use A/B testing to figure out what recipients like to see, and therefore what will help to boost open rates. Choose one aspect to test at a time, perhaps the subject line, message layout, or the call to action, and send one version to half of your list and the other version to the second half. Then compare open rates and see which one fared better. Using your findings, you can further optimize your marketing tactics.

Relevant Landing Page
If your email includes a link to your company website, a white paper, a webinar – anything that navigates recipients to a separate location to pursue the call to action – make sure it takes them to the correct place. If the landing page link is broken or takes the recipient to a place on your website that’s seemingly unrelated, they’ll become frustrated. Annoyed email recipients delete messages without opening, unsubscribe or report them as spam, none of which improve open rates.

Reputable Source
Email service providers now have sophisticated filters to target suspicious emails and domain names and send them right to recipients’ spam folders before they even hit their inbox. That negatively impacts your reputation as a sender, and your open rate will drop if fewer and fewer people are receiving your messages. Your reputation will also be dinged if recipients start labeling your messages as spam. Make sure every recipient has opted in to receiving your messages. Don’t email one message to a large list; instead, segment the list for increased relevancy. And don’t mislead recipients with subject lines and messages that don’t relate – it’s frustrating, and they’re more likely to block you.

Watch This

In this video, JB Kellogg, co-founder & co-CEO of digital marketing company Madwire, offers seven tips for increasing open rates, from optimizing the subject line to verifying your domain to sending valuable content.