Despite the rise of social media, the humble email is still the go-to channel that many marketers choose to communicate with their audience, retain existing customers, and acquire new customers.

If you thought that email was dying, think again. It is estimated that there are 196 billion emails sent out daily! With numbers like that, you can see why email should be part of your digital marketing strategy.

But emails are only effective if they get opened! This post will give you some tips on how you can improve your email open rates.

What is an email open rate?

Email open rates sound pretty obvious to define, but it’s not as straightforward.

An email is only counted as opened when one of the following occurs:

1. The reader enables images in your email to be displayed in the preview pane or in a full view of the email.
2. The recipient clicks a link in the email.

How to calculate your email open rate?

Email service providers (ESP’s) calculate email open rate using the following formula:

The number of people who opened the emails divided by the total number of emails successfully sent that did not bounce i.e. failed to reach the recipient’s inbox for whatever reason (incorrect email address etc.)

Example: let’s say you sent 200 emails, of which 80 bounced (did not send). Of those 120 successfully sent emails, 60 are opened.

Your email open rate is therefore: 60/120 = 50% open rate.

How to improve your open rates

Now you know how to define and calculate your email open rates, here are some tips on how you can improve them.

1. Use a specific, personal name as your sender

The two things that people use to determine whether to open your email or not are:

1. The name of the sender
2. The subject line

Research on email subject lines conducted by Pinpointe marketing found that by using a specific personal name, instead of a general email address or company name, open rates increased by as much as 35%.

Just by using a specific, more personal sender name, you can dramatically increase your open rate. This is because emails sent from personal names are considered to be more personal and important to the recipient compared to emails sent with a generic company or business names which may be considered spam or advertising, and therefore not important enough to open.

2. Use 6 -10 words in your email subject lines

As mentioned above, in addition to the sender name, the subject line of your email is an important factor when it comes to influencing your readers to open your emails.

Your email subject lines are the same as headlines in an ad – they have the purpose of grabbing attention and making people want to read the rest of your message. Your email subject line should be compelling enough to grab your recipient’s attention and make them click.

An excellent report conducted by Retention Science found that email subject lines with 6 to 10 words deliver the highest open rate. This makes 8 words an ideal number for an email subject line, especially if your recipients are using mobile devices where the subject line character limit is shorter than on desktop.

A good rule of thumb is to write your email subject lines with mobile devices in mind, this will help you to avoid creating subject lines that are too long.

Click here for more tips on how to write email subject lines that increase your open rate.

3. Use the recipient’s name in the subject line

Although not as effective as it once was, using your recipient’s name in the subject line can still increase your open rate.

Emails that are sent with your recipient’s name in the subject line outperform emails sent without them. Again this comes down to making your emails more personal to the recipient.

The key to using this effectively is to incorporate their name in a well-crafted subject line, rather than just using “Hey John” for example.

Example: John check out our latest offers – 50% off everything!

4. Send your emails on Tuesday

Market research conducted by Get Response found that the best day to send emails in order to get the highest open rate is on Tuesday.

This is because on Monday people are catching up with things after the weekend and will likely have a lot of emails to go through, therefore they are more selective in what they open and read, etc.

Your email may not be considered priority enough to open first thing on a busy Monday morning. In order to avoid competing for priority on a busy Monday morning, send your emails on Tuesday instead. On Tuesday people are more likely to open and read your email as they have more time due to not having to catch up with as many things and other emails as they typically do on Monday, so it’s a good idea to schedule your emails to be sent out on this day.

5. 10 am and 1 pm are the best times to send emails

So we know that Tuesday outperforms all other days when it comes to email open rates, but is there a specific time that performs better than others? There certainly is. Studies have shown that email open rates increase around 10 am and 1 pm.

Again, this is probably due to people’s work schedules. Most people start work at 9 am and may take some time catching up with colleagues, grabbing a coffee, or having some breakfast, so by 10 am they have settled down and are more likely to be sitting at their desks going through their emails.

1 pm is an effective time as people have either just finished their lunch and are catching up on their emails, or they are just starting their break and are checking their emails whilst having lunch.

Summary

If you want to increase your open rates you should keep the following points in mind:

1. Use a specific, personal name as your sender
2. Use 6 -10 words in your email subject lines
3. Use the recipient’s name in the subject line
4. Send your emails on Tuesday
5. 10 am and 1 pm are the best times to send your emails

Test out the above recommendations and see if your open rate increases.

Of course, you have to keep in mind your target audience and market when it comes to creating your email campaign, so you may have to tweak and test some of the suggestions to tailor them to your niche.

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I’m sure you’ve probably heard the familiar saying:

“The money is in the list”

This saying is as true today as when it was first spoken, the money is in the list. But why is that?

Your list is your most valuable asset

When you have a significant list of people who have expressed interest in your products, services, or your niche – what you really have is instant highly targeted access to people who are most likely to buy from you and benefit from what you’re offering.

If you want to build a sustainable business then you have to start building your list.

I’ve seen so many people build huge followings on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and also on YouTube. Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, the most important thing you need to realise is that you don’t own those subscribers – Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube do.

Let’s say you have a successful YouTube channel with millions of followers. What would happen if YouTube decided to suspend your account tomorrow? You would lose your channel along with your millions of subscribers, and your business would go down the drain – UNLESS you had grown your own email list.

If you were smart enough to grow your own email list of these subscribers then it wouldn’t matter if Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube suspended you; you would be able to send out an email to your list and continue to communicate with them without those platforms.

This is why any sustainable online business is built upon the foundation of growing and owning your own email lists of followers, subscribers, leads, and customers.

When you own your list it is yours to keep forever, and you will not be at the mercy of Mark Zuckerberg or the ever-changing Google search algorithms!

Your list is traffic you own – it is yours and you get to choose how and when you communicate with your list.

Now that you understand the importance of building a list lets talk about four key things you need to start building your email list fast.

1. You need to understand your target audience

The first thing all good marketers need to understand is who their target audience is.

• Who are you trying to serve?
• What are their pain points and problems they want to solve?
• What are they interested in?

You need to have a good understanding of exactly who your target audience is. The best way to do this is to create a customer avatar or a fictional persona of your ideal customer.

Check out the example below:

When you truly understand your ideal customer you will be able to target them more effectively.

You will be able to create the content that they are looking for, and you’ll know what social media platforms they use, what forums they are a part of, what YouTube channels they are subscribed to, etc.

You’ll also know what sort of language to use and how to communicate with them when you write your sales copy, create your calls-to-action, and create your lead magnet.

“People like people who are like them” – when you can demonstrate that you understand them your target audience will be more reciprocal to you.

Create your customer avatar and add as many details as possible. Once you’ve done that you’re ready for the next step.

2. You need a lead magnet or “ethical bribe”

In order to get someone to give you their email address you will need to give them something in exchange – this will normally take the form of a lead magnet, which some digital marketers also call an “ethical bribe”.

A lead magnet is something you give away for free. It could be an ebook, report, free trial, webinar, cheat sheet, etc. In order to get the free lead magnet they will need to give you their email address and therefore join your list.

What sort of lead magnet can you offer that people in your target audience will find valuable enough for them to enter their email address in exchange for it?

If you have followed step number one and fleshed out your customer avatar you will have a good idea of what sort of lead magnet your target audience would benefit from. You will need to create the lead magnet, or alternatively, you can outsource the creation to a freelancer.

Once you have a completed lead magnet you now have something that you can offer your audience in exchange for their email address. When they enter their email address they are added to your list and they will be able to access the lead magnet via their email. But first, in order to capture their email address you will need a website or landing page.

This takes us to step number 3.

3. You need a website or landing page

Once you understand your target audience you will know where they “hang out” online, then you can target them with your ads or content to advertise your lead magnet to them.

When they click on your ads for your lead magnet they should be taken to your website or squeeze page. For those that don’t know, a squeeze page is like a simple one-page website that has one function – to capture someone’s email address.

Even if you’ve never heard of a sueez page, I’m sure you will have seen loads of squeeze pages before. They are also known as landing pages, opt-in pages, or lead-capture pages.

Check out this example of a squeeze page below:

When someone lands on your squeeze page they have two options – give you their email address or click off. If they really want your lead magnet they will opt in, if they don’t they will click off.

There are dedicated software platforms like LeadPages and ClickFunnels that allow you to create beautiful squeeze pages even if you don’t know anything about coding or design. Many of them are simple to use drag and drop programs which make the process easy for anyone.

Using these types of platforms is beneficial if you don’t have your own website. If you do have your own website then you can create dedicated squeeze pages directly on your site and drive your ad traffic to that page.

On your website you can also have different opt-in forms for different purposes e.g. you may have an option for someone to subscribe to your newsletter- this is another way to add people to your list in addition to your lead magnet.

Lead magnets are more effective in helping to build your list when compared to a standard newsletter, but if you have a website then you should definitely give visitors the option to subscribe to your newsletter and capture their email address.

4. Email autoresponder

When someone enters their email address they should then receive an automated email from you which will allow them to download the free lead magnet you promised them.

In order to do this you will need to use an email autoresponder, which is a software or platform that allows you to send out automated emails to your list. An email autoresponder will allow you to send out emails to people who opt-in for your lead magnet, send out daily emails, or send out emails to specific segments of your list – such as those who have recently purchased one of your products, or those who have viewed a webinar.

Effective email list segmentation is important – it will allow you to send out the right communications to the right people at the right time.

Once you have started to build your list and have been communicating with them for some time, you will be able to start segmenting them according to a number of different variables such as engagement (how often they open and read your emails) or buyers (people who have purchased one of your offers or a specific product) etc.

There are a number of different email autoresponder options out there to suit different budgets and business types, but they are all mostly SAAS companies (software as a service) which means you will have to pay for a subscription on a monthly or yearly basis. Prices will vary depending on the size of your list and the number of emails you send out each day/week/month.

The larger your list the more you can expect to pay, but overall they are all priced quite reasonably and there is an option out there to suit all budgets.

Aweber, MailChimp, and Send In Blue are just a few examples of well-known providers.

Conclusion

So those are the four things you need in order to start building your list fast.

These 4 things are:

1. You need to understand your target audience so you know exactly who they are, where they congregate online, what their pain points are, and how you can serve them.
2. You need to create an “ethical bribe” or lead magnet that you can offer your target audience in exchange for their email address. This should be something with high perceived value that will benefit your target audience.
3. You create ads that target your audience with your lead magnet offer, and you drive those clicks to your website or squeeze page where they can enter their email address.
4. You use an email autoresponder which will send out the automated email containing the lead magnet, and which you use to send out daily or weekly email communications, further drip campaigns, special offers, or purchase confirmation emails.

Those are the key tools you need. You may need further tools such as design software, or video editing suits if you want to create your lead magnet yourself, or you can just outsource those to a freelancer on sites like Fiverr or UpWork.

When you have the tools in place you need to know the strategy of how to target your audience with your ads, how to write effective ad copy, how to structure your email sequences, and how to create offers so that you keep your list engaged and are able to send out relevant offers that lead to sales.

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So many people ask “Is email still relevant?” and the simple answer is YES! Email is still one of the most effective ways for businesses to communicate with their audience, retain existing customers, and acquire new customers.

In 2019 there were a staggering 3.9 billion people using emails regularly. It is estimated that there are 196 billion emails sent out daily, of which 109 billion are business emails.

As marketers, we should be harnessing the power of email as part of our overall marketing strategy. In case you are still in doubt, here are 6 reasons why email should still be an important and fundamental part of your marketing strategy.

1. Email is still growing at a staggering rate

When social media first emerged and started to gain popularity, many people thought that it would seal the fate of email. But even with all the instant messaging apps and various social media platforms at our disposal, the humble email not only continues to survive but thrive!

According to Statista:

“In 2018, approximately 281 billion e-mails were sent and received every day worldwide. This figure is projected to increase to over 347 billion daily e-mails in 2023”

Even with the huge growth and popularity of workplace messaging apps like Slack and Teams, email shows no signs of slowing. With more and more people using mobile as their number one device for going online, accessing their emails has never been easier.

Most people will have their email notifications on and will check their emails regularly. Some reports suggest that 80% of workers check their emails after work hours.

Ease of access means more people are engaged with email than ever before, so make sure you are taking advantage of this by sending out regular email communications.

2. Email is economical and cost effective

Email is one of the most cost effective marketing channels at your disposal. Compared to channels like television, radio, or print media – emails are relatively cheap, easy, and super efficient.

With the press of a button, you can send out communications, offers, and personalised messages to your audience at a fraction of the cost of the other channels mentioned above.

Email providers and auto-responders are very cost effective, and if you are just getting started building your list you can sign up for free trials or open free accounts which give you monthly send allowances at no cost, up to a certain number of emails.

3. ROI is incredible

The ROI (return on investment) for email marketing campaigns is staggeringly high.

With an average return of $40 for every $1 spent, the ROI of email campaigns speaks for itself and looks set to increase in the future.

With more people globally using the internet, and an increase in mobile device use, there has never been a better time to use email as a marketing channel to communicate your latest offers and drive people to your website, sales pages, or social media profiles.

4. Send highly personalised  and relevant messages

People trust emails from businesses and people they have opted-in and subscribed to.

When you have someone on your list and you send them a relevant offer based on their preferences, likes, or purchase history, you increase the chances of generating a sale. People want to feel special; sending out personalised messages that are relevant to them makes them feel valued – and a valued customer is a happy customer.

According to the DMA segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue.

Developments in email platforms make it easy to send out highly personalised messages. Segmenting and targeting your list based on their previous purchases or online activity is a great way to ensure you are sending them only those messages that are highly relevant and of interest to them.

The more relevant and targeted your messaging is – the more you will resonate with your list, build trust, and increase the likelihood that they will buy.

5. Email is a great way to nurture leads

If someone has subscribed to your list but isn’t quite ready to buy from you, then email is a great way to nurture them until they are. By sending out relevant communications which add value you can keep them engaged with you or your brand without being too pushy in asking for a sale.

You need to demonstrate that you can give value to your audience members before you have the right to ask them to buy something. When they opted-in to your list they did so because they wanted something of value you were promising – a free e-book, report, webinar, template, etc.

Whatever free lead magnet you used, your subscriber exchanged their email details in exchange for the value that lead magnet would bring to their lives.

Now that you have them on your list your job is to keep delivering value to them. This keeps them engaged with you and makes them a lot more likely to say yes to your offer once you finally present it to them. The reason email works so well as a lead nurturing tool is that it feels more personal than other channels like social media.

By sending out regular emails, you can nurture these leads in a personalised and cost effective way until they are ready to buy.

6. Emails are highly measurable

With email marketing, there is no guesswork necessary. Regardless of what email software you are using, you can easily track the performance of every single email you send out.

You can track how many people opened, how many clicked on your links, how many unsubscribed, your ROI, how many sent emails bounced, and more.

These valuable insights allow you to make adjustments to your emails and campaigns.

If your open rates are low then perhaps you need to re-write, tweak and test your email subject lines to make them more appealing. If your emails are being opened but nobody is clicking on your link then perhaps you need to re-work your offer or look at how you’ve segmented your list.

If you have a high bounce rate (the number of emails that don’t get received due to it being returned by a recipient mail server) then you need to go through your list and do some data cleansing to delete old or incorrect email addresses. You may also want to make sure you are not sending emails to anyone who hasn’t given you their permission to send them marketing communications.

You may also want to consider a double opt-in process, where users are asked to confirm their email addresses via a confirmation message before they are added to your list.

Most email platforms allow you to run split-tests or A/B tests so you can test different subject lines, offers, and call-to-actions against each other to see which are most effective.

With the amount of accurate data at your disposal, email campaigns are easy to measure and enable you to make the necessary adjustments to ensure your campaigns are performing as well as they can.

Conclusion

So there you have it, 6 reasons why email is still holding its own against the many other channels at a marketer’s disposal.

The humble email is here to stay. Not only has email marketing survived the advent of instant messaging and social media, it has thrived and continues to grow year after year.

Email is still regarded as one of the best channels for communicating with your audience, nurturing leads, and driving traffic to your website or offer. In the B2B world email is king. In the B2C world, it is still hard to find a more reliable and consistently performing channel to acquire, engage, and nurture leads than email.

With its fast and easy delivery, low costs, and high ROI – email marketing should be a solid part of your marketing strategy.

Building your list allows you to create traffic you own – the holy grail of all types of internet traffic. Building and growing your email list is one of the most valuable things you can do, and will be an asset that will serve your business for years to come.

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