10 keys to improving your email open rates

Are your open rates and email clicks starting to decline? Perhaps it’s time to rethink your send strategy. We’ve pulled together a list of key tactics designed to improve your deliverability, email opens and general engagement with your content.  From subject lines to personalization tokens, keep reading to learn some important do’s and don’t’s that can have a direct impact on your email campaign results.

DO…

…include unique content in your mailings that provides value to recipients and entices them to further engage with your brand.

…find an email format that works well for your regularly recurring emails, such as monthly concert or event updates, and keep the layout consistent with each send.

…run A/B testing to determine what factors, such as alternate subject lines for the same email, improve your campaign performance.

…segment your email sends for a target-based approach. Doing so allows you to tailor campaigns to specific groups within your mailing list based on a number of characteristics, from age, gender, geographic location, or even based on the type of emails they’ve opened from you in the past. This type of personalization strategy can improve your open and click rates.

…use personalization tokens such as First Name or include Dynamic Content when appropriate to give your mailings a more personal feel. This tactic can be highly effective in boosting open rates and strengthening the recipient’s connection with your brand.

DON’T…

…send the same message time and time again when running a campaign with multiple mailings. Without variation in text and graphics, the emails can seem stale, which could lead to a drop off in open rates.

…completely reinvent your recurring emails each time you send. Not only will the constant changes to the layout take up time and resources, but it could confuse recipients.

…limit A/B testing to only one or two mailings; it can take longer than that to determine the results of any changes to your strategy.

…send every mailing to every single person in your database. If a contact opted into one of your subscriptions and you email them with unrelated content, this can affect their trust in your brand and also increase your mailing’s chances of being marked as spam.

…increase your mailing frequency beyond the expectation you’ve set with your subscribers. Too many emails can result in unsubscribes, decreased open rates, and the increased chance of your messages being marked as spam.

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