5 simple tips to improve your email open rates

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Email open rates are generally the first email marketing

metric that businesses focus on when it comes to the

success of their email campaigns.

There are 5 things that you need to pay attention to that

are impacting your email open rates and, consequently, the overall success of your email

campaigns.



These Include:1. IP Reputation2. List Quality3. Subscriber Engagement4. Message Content5. Timing



IP Reputation1While a bad overall reputation can almost guarantee low open rates among other things, a good reputation doesn’t guarantee inbox placement OR subscriber engagement.

Your IP reputation IS important. Watch it Closely!


proactive manageme

nt!

practice good list hygiene!

keep spam complaints

LOW

regularly monitor blacklists, blocks and bounces & resolve

any problems quickly



NOTE: Even if you are using an ESP, you’ll

want to pay attention to list hygiene

(although they typically have pretty strict

rules in place to guard against this particular

issue), spam complaints, and message

content.

Remember, if your email messages aren’t

making it to the inbox, your subscribers

can’t open your messages, read them, or

take action on them.

As a result, you can guarantee that your

email open rates will be low!




Are you uploading old leads?

Leads that you have purchased?

Co-reg leads?

(Or any other types of leads that did not

specifically opt in to your list or engage within the past 12-18 months.)

List Quality 2


Consider sending from different IPs/domains based on engagement AND

creating a re-engagement sequence for older leads.




Subscriber engagement includes opens, read rate, clicks, message

forwards, whether or not the subscriber archives your

message or forwards it, etc.

Engagement also includes things such as mass deleting, clicking

the spam button, etc.

Subscriber Engagement3



The less engaged your list becomes, the higher the likelihood that more and more of your messages will be filtered to the spam folder by the ISPs automatically.



TIP: Ask Subscribers to “Whitelist” You!

Resource: http://www.emaildelivered.com/whitelist-generator



TIP: Be sure to use the “From” email address that your emails come from in

the generator.



TIP: Consider dropping your less frequent openers to a lesser frequency

and/or putting them through a re-engagement series.



Split test subject lines… Subject lines are the single most important “content”

factor when it comes to improving (or even maintaining) your email open rates.

Message Content4



IMPORTANT: DO NOT use misleading subject lines simply to get the

open!

This increases spam complaints and can do more harm than good in the long term (not

to mention, misleading subject lines are a

violation of the CAN-SPAM Law).



Review your content…Make sure that your content is relevant to your

subscribers and in line with what was promised at the point of opt-in.



Test the days of the week and times of your emails.

What works for one marketer does not necessarily work for

another.

TEST FOR YOUR LIST.

Timing5



Overall Internet activity declines over the summer.

Open rates drop, interaction drops, etc.

People are simply not as engaged during the summer months.

TIP: Consider Time of Year!



Conversely, in the fall and winter, engagement tends to increase.

NOTE: There is more competition in the inbox, so you’ve got to stand out!

TIP: Consider Time of Year!



The major ISPs have posted best

practices. It’s best to review those at least

quarterly.

For a list of best practices by ISP,

visit: http://www.emaildeliv

ered.com/email-marketing-best-

practices

Bonus Tip: Always Follow Best Practices



One Final Note…



DOWNLOAD THIS INFORMATION IN:INFOGRAPHIC PDF

PPT SLIDES

For more information on how to boost your open rates and to stay on top of the best practices and insider resources: Visit:

http://www.emaildelivered.com/email-marketing/5-simple-tips-to-improve-your-email-open-rates

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