The success of an email marketing campaign depends on the email open rates. Emails are 40 times more effective than social media in attracting new customers to your business. This shows the significance of investing in email marketing. However, this is not enough. You need to create email messages that appeal to the user.
How to Increase Email Open Rates
- Create an enticing subject line
- Make it valuable
- Personalise the message
- Create cliff-hangers
- Avoid being one-sided
- Make it short and concise
- Make it readable
- Be consistent
8 ways to Increase Your Email Open Rates
As of now, consumers open between 15% and 25% of promotional emails. From a marketer’s perspective, this is far from impressive. To make it worse, only a few of the readers reply or click on links in the emails.
Despite the low open rates, email marketing generates an ROI of 4300%. If you implement smart strategies, your email marketing campaign could transform your businesses.
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Setting the Stage
Most email marketers convince people to subscribe to their mailing list by offering lead magnets or frequent content updates. You should ensure that you deliver the lead magnet within minutes after the individual signs up. Most email marketing platforms have an auto-response feature just like web design platforms that you can use to provide such content.
The time you take to deliver the magnet has a significant impact on the decision of the subscriber. If you send it immediately, they will know who sent it. However, if you delay the response, even for a few hours, it is not likely to bode well with them. Always ensure that you fulfill your promise swiftly.
You should also make your intentions clear. What you say in your first follow-up message influences the open rates for future emails. If your offer indicated that you would send regular content, the subscriber expects frequent messages from you.
The challenge, however, is if you initially offered a free download. The subscriber might not expect subsequent messages. In this case, you should use the follow-up email to introduce yourself and define your objectives. You should also include a snippet at the footer of every email to remind the reader why they are getting emails from you.
Here is an ideal example from Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks email series.
Enough said, here are the effective methods of increasing your email open rates.
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Create an Enticing Subject Line
After setting the stage, it is time to get started with email marketing in Singapore.
Your subject line should grab the attention of the reader.
Use Numbers
Numbers are specific, easy to read, and captivating. According to The New Yorker, numbers make subject lines outstanding. Using numbers in your subject line is an excellent way of increasing the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.
Induce Curiosity
When you are curious, you will keep on going until you discover what you are after. If executed properly, inducing curiosity can be useful. The secret is to be specific about an event or a result, but be vague about its cause. This will encourage people to read on to find out the reason.
For instance, you could write ‘How this strategy increased my conversion rates by 330%.’ In this case, the subscriber will open the message to know the strategy behind the increased conversion rates.
Keep it Short
Overall, short headlines perform better than long headlines. First, they are not shortened by the browser. Second, they induce more curiosity. Lastly, a short subject line is often clear, while long ones can be ambiguous.
Test Different Subject Lines
Ensure that you test different subject lines. The easiest way of doing this is by sending emails with different subjects to small sections of your subscribers. You can then pick the most effective and send it to your full list.
You can also use the split testing feature provided by your email marketing service. For instance, if you use Aweber, click on the ‘Create a Split Test’ link.
You can then specify how many variations you wish to create. In this case, we chose two.
The next step involves choosing the percentage of your subscribers you want to send a particular message. It must add up to 100%, so you should create an even split.
The last step is editing and sending the two (or more) variations of your emails with different subject lines.
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Make it Valuable
Always remember that people listen to your pitches because they want to get something valuable from you. If you pitch straight away, too frequently, or too hard, you can turn away a potentially good customer.
You should always focus on giving value to your subscribers. Over time, they will start trusting your brand. Once the trust is built, you can then pitch for sales. People find it easier to buy from a brand that they trust and adds value to their lives.
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Personalise the Message
The key to a fruitful friendship is having similarities, shared interests, and knowing the needs of each other. If you want to increase your email open rates, you should form a friendship with your subscribers.
You can build a friendship using the following tactics.
Share Interesting Personal Stories
You can connect at a personal level with your subscribers by sharing stories about yourself. Keep in mind that the message must be valuable. If the reader can relate to your story and get value, they are likely to respond positively to your pitch.
Address an Individual
Nobody likes to be talked to in a formal tone. Your emails should be conversational, similar to your blog posts. Use words like ‘I’ and ‘you’ in your message. You can also include slang and a few questions.
All your messages should be personalised – write as if you are addressing a specific individual. The tone should be friendly.
Do not rush it
Do not be eager to share your personal stories right away. Take time to build trust by offering value first.
Create Cliff-hangers
A cliff-hanger is when something unexpected happens, creating suspense. It is commonly used in TV shows to get viewers to watch the next episode.
You can use this tactic to boost open rates for your email marketing in Singapore. Consider every email you send as an episode. At the end of every message, include an impressive metric. For instance, you could write ‘how I increased my web traffic by 250% in four weeks.’
After this, include a teaser. Tell the reader that you will reveal the secrets behind your achievement in the next message. This is a smart and effective way of ensuring the subscriber reads the following email.
Take a look at this example from Bryan Harris.
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Avoid being One-sided
As a marketer, you should always value the opinion of your subscribers. Your emails should not feel like a one-sided conversation where you do all the taking. Always try to engage your readers.
Many marketers in Singapore do not know the right way of involving subscribers through email. These are the reasons why your subscribers are not responding to your emails.
They are afraid to be wrong
Some subscribers might fear giving out incorrect answers, as it creates the impression that they are dumb. The best solution is to let them respond anonymously. For instance, if you are conducting a survey, you should include the option of leaving out the name.
You can also ease the fears by sharing your first answer to the question, especially if you were wrong. Tell them that very few people get it right at the first attempt.
The Answer is Obvious
Asking obvious questions cannot increase your engagement levels. Instead, focus on posing questions that serve a purpose.
The Question does not Concern Them
If you want your customers to respond to your emails, ask relevant questions. Asking irrelevant questions can drive away subscribers.
They Feel Insignificant
This is the most challenging part of engaging with customers. You can, however, overcome it by targeting specific groups in your mailing list.
For example, you could write ‘if your website averages over 5,000 visitors monthly, what are you doing to generate more traffic?’
If your email has a question, make it clear to subscribers that you will read their emails if they respond. You should also respond to subscriber emails, as this is the best way to build a lasting relationship.
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Make it Short and Concise
This rule is flexible. Some marketers get impressive returns despite writing very long emails. If you are going to write an email exceeding 1,000 words, make sure that it has valuable content. Otherwise, keep it short and concise.
Also, if you want to maintain high email open rates, ensure that you do not flood your subscriber’s inboxes with lengthy emails. Nobody has the time to read long emails every day.
Another reason for writing short emails is that long emails consume time. You need that time to focus on other marketing strategies to improve your business.
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Make it Readable
If your emails take time to load and are hard to read, the recipient will delete them. Here is how to make your email readable.
Minimise Images and Fancy Formatting
You should keep images and formatting at a bare minimum in your emails. According to HubSpot, emails with many images have a reduced click-through rate.
The most significant problem with images is that they slow down the loading speeds, especially on mobile devices. They also serve as a distraction from the textual content and hyperlinks.
Make it Responsive
The majority of your subscribers access their email inboxes on mobile devices. Ensure that all your emails are optimised for mobile.
Firstly, the line length should not exceed 500 pixels so that it renders correctly on small screens. Make sure that there are a few or no images. Use dark text with a white background, as it is difficult to read white text on mobiles. You should also minimise HTML because many mobile email apps cannot recognise this format.
Make Links Visible
In most cases, you want readers to click onto embedded links in the emails you send them. Your links must be easy to see.
Moreover, links can be hard to notice if the reader is using a mobile device. To increase their visibility, always use a bigger font or bold your links. You can also put them on a separate line.
You could also put a single link multiple times in one email using different anchor text. Take a look at this example from Quick Sprout.
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Be Consistent
Immediately after a customer confirms the subscription to your mailing list, inform them how frequently you will be sending them emails.
Ensure that you maintain consistency. If you fail to send emails over an extended period, your subscribers will forget about you. According to Express Pigeon, marketers who send four emails monthly get higher email open rates than those who send one message every month.
After grabbing the attention of your readers, you want them to take further action. The link you provide in your email should redirect customers to a valuable post. If it opens a low-quality post, you will lose the trust of your subscribers. On the other hand, quality content will make subscribers loyal to your brand.
Honesty is crucial – you should not risk losing subscribers by being deceptive. You might get low engagement at first, but it will grow as you get better.
The Best Time To Email A Person In 2022
As of today, timing is everything, and when I say “timing,” I mean finding the optimal moment to send emails! It’s time to rethink the idea that your email marketing should be sent out at random.
In addition, here, we simply reject the concept of chance. For the correct day and time to deliver your email marketing, you need data.
As a result, we’re going to figure out the best time to send your messages based on actual facts.
What’s The Point Of Sending Emails?
Using data to decide the best moment to send an email is essential. Email campaigns must have all the proper ingredients, including converting email text, appealing images, attention-grabbing subject lines and creative CTAs.
All of these pieces must be placed in the appropriate order to achieve high open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.
Your subscribers, on the other hand, receive a slew of emails on a daily basis. Consequently, even if you produce the best newsletter for them, they may not see it.
Email marketers aren’t slackers when it comes to devoting time and effort to developing the ideal email marketing plan.
Take your email sending seriously since it will assist in the following ways:
- Land your message at the right time for your intended audience.
- More people will open and click on your email marketing messages.
- The total bounce rate should be reduced.
- Email delivery and sender reputation can be improved by better practices.
Email marketing now provides the greatest return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every dollar spent. So, do you see why it’s so important to deliver your messages at the right time?
A Survey Of Industry-Specific Email Benchmarks
Email engagement is influenced by a variety of factors,
but here are some of the most significant ones to consider:
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The Age and Gender of the Customers
When it comes to keeping your email list active, consider the average age of your users. The 8-9 am routine is ideal for older audiences that have to get up early and check their email before going to work.
College students, on the other hand, might not check their email until the afternoon or even in the middle of the day. The behaviours of different genders of subscribers also vary.
Examine the lifestyles of single women and working moms with children when designing your product line for these groups.
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What Will Be Used by the Recipient?
Users of desktop computers and smartphones interact in quite different ways. Users of mobile devices may access the internet on the go, read the news, send and receive emails, and even shop.
Your customers will only buy from you if you send them responsive email marketing campaigns. A bad email design might cause readers to mark them as spam or even delete them, so it’s important to keep this in mind when sending out promotional emails.
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The Time Zone Of The Email Recipient
Keep in mind that your U.S. subscribers and European customers have distinct time zones. As a consequence, you won’t get the same results if you send an email blast to everyone on your list.
Increase your open rates by using segmentation and marketing automation to send messages at the right time to your target demographic.
With that in mind, let’s look at some more data to see what the optimum time to send is and which days to avoid.
Sending Emails at the Right Time
Businesses need to keep up with consumer trends in order to decide the optimum time to send emails.
The following are some of the most interesting results on email sending times:
- Between 9 and 10 a.m., open rates increase by an average of 21.35%.
- Between noon and 1:30 p.m., open rates are at their highest, with an average of 22.19%.
- Afternoon: open rates rise between 5 and 6 p.m.
- Three distinct periods of the day, each having a high open-rate average, are represented below.
- The optimum periods to deliver a campaign are 9-10 am and 1-2 pm, with 1-2 pm gaining the lead.
Sending A Campaign At The Worst Possible Time
There is no optimal time for any sector, thus it is important to know which time slots have the lowest open rates. We may deduce from this data studied by Moosend, Hubspot, GetResponse and Wordstreams,
that the worst times to send a text message are:
- From 7 pm until 5 am according to Moosend.
- 6:00 pm until 5:00 am as stated by Hubspot.
- 6 p.m. To 3 a.m., according to Getresponse.
- Four hours until four o’clock in the morning, Wordstream claims.
There Are Several Reasons Why Your Emails Aren’t Getting Open
Open rates that initially dropped and then stabilised indicate that you’re doing something right if you’ve been sending emails for some time. However, if your open rates have consistently fallen below the norm and are continuing to do so, there may be problems with your campaigns as a whole.
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Your E-mail Used An Excessive Number Of Outdated Buzzwords.
Email open rates are negatively impacted by some keywords (buzzwords), which should be best avoided.
Examples include “affordable,” “support,” “reminder,” “daily,” and so on.
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Your Email Has No Personalization
Emails that look to have been authored by a human rather than an automatic system are more likely to be opened and read.
Recipient behaviours and habits might be used in the subject line to create a more personalised message. According to studies, personalised emails have a 20 percent higher open rate.
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Recipients Aren’t Getting Enough Out of Your Work
Use an intriguing subject line or offer to get them to read your email. Make the subject line more urgent by providing the recipient with something of importance or something that is pertinent to them.
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Insufficient Testing Was Performed By You.
The best way to figure out what works with your receivers is to experiment and then try some more, despite the fact that there are general rules.
A smart tip is to test out a range of subject lines and observe which ones garner the most recognition from your recipients if you send out a lot of emails. The audience for each event is unique. So, find out what resonates most with your audience.
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There Is A Lack Of Urgency
This week, exclusive offer, first come, first serve, and other such phrases in the subject line improve the probability that emails will be read and responded to.
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Avoiding Negative Connotation Is Essential To Your Campaign’s Success
Email recipients are less likely to read a message that has a negative tone. As much as possible, avoid negative connotations in order to keep the average open rate graph upward.
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You Didn’t Indicate A Single Thing
Utilise data obtained from the recipient’s previous purchases, browsing history, and hobbies. Using this data, craft a compelling subject line for your email.
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Your Language Was Nasty
Using full capital letters and exclamation marks in the subject line will make it look pushy, unfriendly, and even offensive. Subject lines that are sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive should be avoided. Avoid seeming too aggressive.
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Excessive Detailing
The next time you send them an email, they’re less likely to open it if their expectations weren’t satisfied. Those who do not find the content intriguing will stop reading your emails.
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Useful But Incoherent Information
Information that is both valuable and amusing may not be of benefit to the recipient. Having subscribers from a variety of demographics on your email list increases your risk of this.
Emails that are more relevant to a smaller group of people on your email list are more likely to be opened by those people.
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Your Email Frequency Was Too High
The fewer emails you send to a person, the less likely they are to be opened. For example, high-value material is an exception. More emails are sent when subscribers to an email campaign are less engaged.
Subscribers to your email list should know just how often they can expect to hear from you.
Asking your subscribers number of times they received the content they were looking for is the best way to illustrate. Unless it’s really necessary, you don’t need to email them every day.
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An Unsorted Email Addresses Collection
As a general rule, if you send identical emails to all of your subscribers, you will see poorer open rates than the market average.
If you want to get the most out of your email marketing campaign, divide your list based on factors such as interests, past purchases, and demographics like age and gender.
Instead of sending out mass email blasts, the idea is to send targeted quality emails to split subscribers so that the content of the emails is more pertinent to each individual.
Segmented marketing achieves 15% higher than non-segmented in terms of average open rates.
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It’s Possible That Your Customers Have Lost Interest In Receiving Your Emails
When a reader’s lifestyle, career, or priorities change, they may no longer be interested in receiving your emails. Over time, this may occur.
If your subscribers don’t want to hear from you, they won’t open your emails. If you utilise this service, more people will mark your email as spam instead of unsubscribing.
If you have a big number of inactive emails, your open rate email marketing statistics will decrease. Unclean and outdated email lists can cause low open rates, rejects, spam alerts, and the labelling of your communications as spam.
Most Frequent Questions Asks
Frequently asked questions about the best and worst times to send your campaigns are answered in this section.
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What is the optimum time of day to send an e-mail?
Morning hours, notably between 9 and 11 a.m., have been shown to be the most effective for email transmissions, according to research. If you don’t want to reach your audience in the morning, sending emails between 1 and 2 p.m. is an excellent option, according to the research.
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When is the worst possible moment to send a campaign?
Email delivery is at its weakest between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. After-work email subscribers are unlikely to engage with your communications, and even if they do, they’re unlikely to make a purchase.
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Which day of the week is the worst for email delivery?
Saturday is the worst day of the week for email open rates according to studies, with an open rate of just 17% and a click-through rate of 2%. Saturday’s revenue per recipient is also considerably smaller, at less than $0.15.
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Can you send emails during the night?
Emails sent late at night are less likely to be opened or read. Email open rates drop dramatically after 6 p.m., therefore it’s advisable to send campaigns as early in the day as possible if you must send an email campaign late at night.
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When is the best time to send emails?
It is a bad time to send emails since open rates are low and revenue per recipient is low. When it comes to email delivery, Sunday appears to be marginally better than Saturday.
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How many emails a month am I allowed to send?
Aim for 2-5 emails per month for optimal email marketing frequency. The more campaigns you send, the more likely your audience is to identify you as a spam email.
If you send less than two campaigns every month, your email subscribers will either forget about you or unsubscribe from your list, which is not good for your business.
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Which day of the week is better for sending an email?
Sending an email campaign on a Monday or Friday will result in a congested inbox and unresponsive subscribers, according to email marketers. Open rates of up to 18% are possible on Mondays and Fridays. When this is the case, the day with the highest average open rates is the one to choose.
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What is the formula for determining an email’s open rate?
If you’re working with a reputable email service provider, they’ll keep track of your campaigns’ email open rates for you. In order to determine how many individuals opened the email, divide the total number of emails sent that did not bounce or fail to reach the receiver.
A good illustration of this is when you send out 1000 emails and only 200 of them arrive.
Let’s say 400 of the 800 emails are read.
Hence, the open rate is 400/800 x 100=50 per cent.
This indicates that the open rate for emails is half of what it used to be.
Conclusion
Email marketing is by far the most effective form of marketing in the digital world. If you are looking to increase your email open rates, keep the eight reasons mentioned above in consideration. That said, they are guidelines, not rules – you can adjust them to fit your context.
You might find it challenging as a beginner, but you will eventually get better. As is the case with other marketing strategies, ensure that you continually measure the performance of your email marketing campaign. You should also adjust your campaign to meet the needs of your target audience. This way, you will attain a higher email open rate and generate record profits.
Get in touch with us for professional advice on how to create and execute a successful email marketing campaign in Singapore.
