If you poke around on the web you’ll find average email marketing rates run 10% to 15% on average and 8% for massive low engagement lists. For new knowledge follow to the link. You might think it would be hard to adjust your strategy to get higher rates of say 20% to 25%.
What if I told you you could get open rates of 40% to 50%? Here’s 10 tips to drastically improve your open email open rates.
1) Write provocative titles
Writing a provocative subject line in your email can prompt people to open your email, just make sure you don’t disappoint with the email content and call to action associated with it. Questions are always good. See this article on How to write great email subject lines
2) Send rare and high-value offers and content
“How to make your dog behave with one phrase” is far better content than “how to buy a jug of milk”. One is very compelling and would make people (who own dogs) excited, the other is pretty mundane. “How to make your husband behave using one word” would also be another great topic. Let us know if you figure that one out.
3) Personalize
Address the subscriber by their first name and relate to them like a friend or familiar person. Getting emails from teams or brands rarely creates a connection. Use a smart CRM system paired with an email automation system like Infusionsoft to ensure that wild cards are used to pull firstnames from your database for each recipient of your emails.
4) Consistency
If you send consistently great emails that people believe have high value, you will train them to to open your emails as soon as they see them. People associate your content as useful and they rarely fail to open them.
5) Sell less, give away more
Never hard sell to your list. In fact rarely sell to your list. Send them helpful high quality content more often than selling to them. A suggested ratio is 1 offer for every 10 emails. Some email marketers are more aggressive with one for every 7 emails. If your list’s engagement rate is low look at what offer you are sending and scale it back to only the best offers with less frequency.
6) Engage your list
Ask your list for feedback, interaction and action. Get them to share themselves and share that content back with the list. I like asking people to fill out polls and then give the tallies back to the list. Or ask people for comments about a contentious issue and share that back.
7) Exclusivity
Make people on your list feel like they are part of a special group. Name the group they are part of. Ensure they feel like an insider and are getting exclusive content for their (and their listmates’) eyes only. Feeling part of an exclusive group creates loyalty and drives engagement.
8) Cull your list
Ensure that people who are on the list want to be on the list. Give your list easy ways to unsubscribe and ask them to unsubscribe if they don’t find your content useful. You can even use smart CRM and automation tools to ask people who do not open your emails if they still want to be on your list.
9) Give them cool stuff
Offer them early access to stuff no one else has seen. Maybe an early copy of a book. Or a rough cut of a great video. Design content specifically for them.
10) Never charge them full price
When you offer a product or service to the list, make them feel as if they are getting the deal of the century. Cut them the best deal you can and only offer that deal to the list and nowhere else.
