What Are Effective Tactics to Increase Email Open Rates for a Marketing Technologist?
Martech Interviews
What Are Effective Tactics to Increase Email Open Rates for a Marketing Technologist?
In the quest to boost email open rates, we've gathered six proven tactics from seasoned marketing experts, including CMOs and Digital Marketers. Ranging from updating and purging email lists to optimizing emails for mobile viewing, discover the strategies that can revolutionize your email marketing campaigns.
- Update and Purge Email Lists
- Personalize Subject Lines and Content
- Highlight Benefits in Subject Lines
- Increase Opens with Follow-Up Emails
- Choose a Friendly Sender Name
- Optimize Emails for Mobile Viewing
Update and Purge Email Lists
Keeping your email list up-to-date is one strategy I've noticed works incredibly well to increase email open rates. In doing so, I mean to make sure that the people receiving your emails are genuinely interested in hearing from you and to routinely purge inactive subscribers. Similar to organizing your closet, you keep the items you use and discard the ones you no longer need. Because they actually care about what you have to say, subscribers on your list who are actively engaged are more likely to open your emails. Make sure the correct people are receiving your emails and are looking forward to them showing up in their inbox by prioritizing quality over quantity.
Personalize Subject Lines and Content
I’ve found a great way to increase email open rates is by personalizing subject lines and email content. By addressing recipients by their first name and tailoring the content to their specific interests or previous interactions, the emails feel more relevant and engaging.
For example, instead of a generic subject like 'Latest Updates from Write Right,' we might use 'Hey [Name], Check Out These New Writing Tips Just for You!' This makes the email feel more personal and increases the chances of it being opened. We also use A/B testing to try different subject lines and sending times. This helps us find out what works best and keeps improving our strategy.
Using this mix of personalization and data-driven tweaks, we’ve consistently boosted our open rates. For instance, after implementing these changes, our open rates went up by 20%, showing that people are more likely to engage with content that feels tailored just for them.
Highlight Benefits in Subject Lines
The one most important tactic would be: Share the benefit first.
Make it about the reader. Keep it precise. Show them that you value their time.
Make sure to share the benefit in the subject line, cover or hint at the how in the preview. Finally, blend the gif/image in the email banner with the promise of benefit.
By doing this, marketers and brands make the emailer more about the receiver and less about themselves. This makes the campaign work negatively with the receivers. Often, it leads to more unsubscribes or spamming issues.
For example, if you are sharing an email about your brand winning an award, it is amazing, but a receiver will expect you to share the benefits it would bring to them. How will that impact them, or what more can they expect from the service provider?
Is it coming with any offers or freebies for celebration? If not, the marketers need to think about engaging their email receivers. So, pick up a subject line that underlines how this achievement will impact them. How, directly or indirectly, they get benefited.
Increase Opens with Follow-Up Emails
From my experience, many recipients don't open their email on the first send. I've found that following up within three days of the initial email, and then ten days after the first follow-up email, is optimal to increase open rates. Another reason this works so well is that it covers three different days. So, if a recipient is always away on a Tuesday, they may open it on the Friday or the following Monday.
Choose a Friendly Sender Name
As a digital marketer, I understand the importance of making sure that your audience is always excited to hear from you, and this is why using a friendly sender name is one tactic I use to increase email open rates for my brand.
The trick is to understand that a friendly name is familiar, easily recognizable, and people are always excited to hear from them (it's why we don't always save the names of our friends and loved ones with formal titles on our mobile devices). The fact is that the name of the sender is one of the first things people get to see, even before they open an email in their inbox, and I have learned that the name they see is one of the major ways people determine whether or not they should open an email in their inbox.
This approach has proven to be quite effective for me because it has helped me present my brand in a friendly light, which has, in turn, helped keep our audience excited to hear our latest announcements and updates through our email messages.
Optimize Emails for Mobile Viewing
Optimizing our marketing emails for mobile has been the most effective strategy for boosting our email open rates. At TrackingMore, we understand that our target audience (decision-makers at e-commerce, logistics, and supply chain companies) are busy people who maximize the technology available to them to get work done. Optimizing our emails for mobile and timing when we send them to coincide with their coffee and lunch breaks has enabled us to increase the email open rate by over 10%.
During these short windows of time, we know that many decision-makers are using their phones to communicate with their customers or receive updates on their industries. Sending a mobile-optimized email at such a time coincides with them using the mobile device, thereby increasing the chance that they will open it for a read-through.
