By far one of the MOST frustrating things about email is hitting send on the perfect email is for it to end up gathering cobwebs in your subscriber’s inbox – worse still, dying a death in spam.
Your open rates are key to a successful email strategy, because it doesn’t matter how brilliant your email copy is if no-one is seeing it.
I get asked all the time about how to improve open rates, so here are five common areas that I look at when I run email audits for my clients so that you can check your own emails.
Spammy content
This is the definition of falling at the start line, because your open rates are NEVER going to improve if you’re not even landing in your subscribers’ inbox.
Sitting in spam amongst the “you’ve won a free house” phishing emails is not good for anyone. It’s going to affect your deliverability for future emails, and your subscribers won’t see it – and by opting in they have explicitly asked for emails from you, so your job is to get those to them.
Spam filters can be triggered by anything from too many pictures to using words that are typically associated with bulk emails, so make sure you’re avoiding these mistakes. (I find this resource by HubSpot, really helpful for checking which words could trigger spam filters, but you also want to keep checking as these change regularly)
Subject lines
So you’ve made the inbox, but your subscribers are hitting delete faster than they’re choosing their regular coffee order.
One reason emails are ignored is because your subject line is just, well, boring. Your subscribers scan their inboxes to find things that interest them, and if your subject line doesn’t immediately scream I AM FILLED WITH VALUE, why should they spend time reading?
I dig into some of my favourite subject line hacks in this blog here, but my top tip is to always keep an eye on emails that you open.
Personalisation
Still sending from support@, hello@ or marketing@ ?
People like to hear from people, and even if they know that the email in their inbox is bulk mail, they’re far more likely to be intrigued if the name of the sender is in the from address.
That being said, it’s all dependent on your audience, so make sure you’re testing which works better for your company, using a name or a generic mailbox.
Consistency
A less talked about but equally important reason for your emails being ignored is that people just do not hear from you enough. If you’re not sending emails on a regular basis, your subscribers will very quickly forget who you are – there, I said it.
In order to keep your open rates high, keeping consistent with your emails is key. Remember you’re sending to a person, so it’s important that they feel like they know you in order to spend any time reading what you have to say.
List building strategy
Heard the phrase talking to a brick wall? Well that’s what you’re doing if you’re sending messages to people who aren’t interested in what you have to say. And how do we get around that?
We make sure our email list building strategy is tailored to attract DREAM clients to sign up to our email lists.
This is why I always say quality over quantity when you’re thinking about building your email list. (Shameless plug: this is exactly what I help my clients with in my List builder Intensives.)
Yes a larger audience usually means more people to sell to, but if they are people who would never be interested or who just aren’t an ideal fit, you can wave goodbye to those sales.
#Toptip: Focus on building a list of engaged subscribers, and ensuring disengaged ones are being filtered out.
Ready for the next steps? Work with me!
Transform your email marketing with an email intensive which covers everything you need to build an email list overflowing with dream clients.
Let me take care of the tech whilst together we create a customised email content plan to start converting your audience into clients.
This package includes a full audit or set-up of your email tool, complete tech configuration for one automated sequence and a 60 minute content strategy session (including planning your next lead magnet!)
