Email marketing is considered a science in its own right given the different experiences and formulas that result.
Web marketers have nowadays at their disposal many tools that allow them to refine their strategy and reach the customers. Among those tools, we find the open rate, a logical continuation of the rate of deliverability. We have already mentioned the subject in the previous article.
What is the opening rate ?
The opening rate, as its name suggests, is the percentage of emails opened by recipients. This is the result of the ratio between the number of open mails on the number of mails delivered.
The calculation of this rate is automatically delivered by the autoresponder software such as GetResponse or Aweber for instance.
When you launch your email campaign, your software inserts an invisible 1-pixel image into the email in question. When the mail has been opened on the recipient’s computer, the image has been downloaded and sent back to the router. Even if the process does not indicate that the email was actually read, it already allows to appreciate the number of people who were interested in the purpose of the campaign. In each campaign, you can evaluate your effectiveness and improve your approaches.
Techniques to increase your open rate
In the first place, we must not neglect the phase of segmentation of these contacts. From this point, you have the first opportunity to customize the content of your emails.
Indeed, an email will not be perceived in the same way according to the age, the sex, or the socio-professional category of your list of contacts. Take the time to group contacts according to their affinities as they will be more sensitive to a message that seems to be personally addressed to them.
Then, it is verified that the emails are open if the mentioned object is interesting. Forget the usual object line. If there is one stage where you have to spend time, it is on the subject line of the email.
According to one study, an email with an interesting object line has an additional 26% chance of being opened. In addition, a personalized message has a 10% chance of becoming a conversion.
Feel free to send personalized emails via your autoresponder on the occasion of birthdays for example. This method can be as old as the world, but still remains effective.
Learn to put yourself in the customer’s shoes
The success of an email with a good open rate also depends on the time of sending. Timing is everything as one says. This is also true for emails.
Is your contact better able to open the morning, or late afternoon emails? Have you taken into account the time differences between you and your many customers? Once again, you should not neglect the segmentation of your emails. Even for this little detail.
If despite these tips, you are not satisfied with the open rate, don’t give up. The only risk is that your emails will be sent in the spam folder. As long as you are not in this situation, keep trying and keep track of your statistics. Make reminders. Test. Sometimes, by simply changing the subject of your email, you can gain new openings. In the process, you can also change the timing. A/B tests are also very useful to discover what works best.
Be careful not to drown your recipient under a stack of emails since you don’t want your contacts to unsubscribe.
Understanding the open rate of your emails is important because with a few small settings in your autoresponder, you can refine your emails and make them more and more attractive. As a result, your subscribers will be more and more likely to open your emails. As a result, they will be exposed to your offers and will more likely buy the products or services you offer them.
