11 Valuable Tips To Increasing Your Email Open Rate

At some point you have probably struggled with ways of increasing your email open rates so here are 11 tips that will help you out.

1.  First of all CONTENT is KING.  If you are constantly asking your list to buy, they will eventually unsubscribe.  At least that’s what I do anyway.

A few examples of great content are:

1.    Information– Company, Product(s), Pay Plan, Founders, The Leaders, The Corporate Team, Etc.

2.    Education– Generic How to or Specific How to

3.    Inspiration– Human Interest Piece (struggle to success stories, breakthrough stories,etc)

4.    Entertainment- Videos, Blog posts, or emails of real life funny things, get togethers,candid event interviews or conversations, etc

5.    Promotion- Discounts, Bonuses, Freebies

2. Use Your Real Name. You are trying to build a relationship with your subscribers right?  Let them put a name with your face.  After all, who would you rather receive an email from…a friend or a business?

3.  Use Your Real Email Address – what happens when you write from “[email protected]”?

No one replies right?  As a blogger and marketer, you want your subscribers to know you are a real person and they can connect with you.

I have also found that a paid email has a better open rate than a free account. 

A free account is gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.  It’s best to purchase a domain and create a email forwarding to another account….even a free account. 

This can easily be done with a GoDaddy domain and I’m sure it’s just as easy with other domain providers.

Emails are by people, from people, for people.  People connect with people, not with inanimate objects.

Whatever you fill the “from” line with, be sure to keep it the same as much as possible. This trains your reader and spam filters to expect the email from the same sender.

4.  Use Clear Subject Lines – 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. Don’t confuse your reader.  Let them know in the subject line what’s inside.

What you say in the subject line is very important and has a major impact to your email deliverability.

Over 35% of SPAM is detected from an email’s Subject Line.   Your email subject line bears most of the responsibility of getting your email open rates up where they should be.

Here are a few things to remember:

* Don’t Spam – Tell your reader what they will read and don’t trick them into opening the email.

* Don’t Yell – Using all CAPS sometimes implies yelling.

* Numbers Do Work – Numbers increase engagement so don’t shy away from using numbers in your subject line because they wil improve your email open rates.

5.  Use Power Words In Your Subject Line 

Some examples are “guaranteed, “secrets”, “discover”, “unleash”, “off-limits”, “proven”, “you”, “invitation”, “introducing”, “new”, “update”, “special”, and “we”. When possible, use the person’s name.

Sensory and emotional words attract more attention and will increase email open rates.

6.  Use The Word “YOU” instead of I. “You” is one of the most persuasive words in the English language.  This will help build a stronger relationship and make your reader feel like you are talking directly to them.

7.  Use The Power Of P.S.- Remind people of a deadline. Or repeat what they stand to lose if they don’t take up your offer. Always continue to provide a benefit.

8.  Have A Personal Welcome Message – When someone opts in my email list, they immediately receive a welcome email.  Almost always, this email will contain a personal welcome video from me…here’s an example < < – –  Even if you don’t include a video, it’s still important that they receive a personal message from you.  At that point, you can let them know when to expect emails from you and also ask them to “whitelist” your email.

9. A/B Test Your Subject Lines.  A/B is based on the very simple idea of having two ideas, and letting your audience tell you which one they like.  

Another way to perform testing is through Seed Accounts. Set up “seed” accounts to test your inboxing to improve your email open rates.  

Set up at least 4 test accounts. One each for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, & AOL. Make sure you receive a test email to at least 3 out of 4 of the seed (test) accounts before sending the actual email.

Test, test & test again until they inbox.

10 .  Know Your Market – 

-Getting the Right People in front of the Right Message at just the Right Time.

-Know the conversations taking place inside the mind of your prospect.

-Your product is not your product… your real product is people. Know your prospect, better than you know your product.

-Learn more about people than you learn about your product and you’ll have just learned more about the REAL product that you market.

-Your market is change….people who want to change their life, income, and/or circumstances.

-Formula For Effective Sales Copy: Problem, Agitation, and Solution.

11.  Be Consistent-Email your readers regularly.  You should be providing them with “value” and they will look forward to your emails.

One way to do this is to email them your blog post.  You are providing great content on your blog so sending this to your readers will get them the opportunity to get to know you better.

If you do not have a blog, you are already missing out on a great opportunity to make money online by blogging.

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