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You’ve worked hard to consistently create and publish new editions of your newsletter.
While it started slow, you’re finally seeing an uptick in your email subscribers. Great!
But here’s the catch: a hike in subscriber count can easily slash (or stagnate) your open rates, leaving you scrambling for answers on how to increase my email open rate?
Even the most seasoned creators struggle to crack the code for how to improve open rates. Let’s face it, if subscribers don’t even open your emails in the first place, it’s difficult to create an impact and nudge them to take action?
You can improve email open rates with the right tactics without breaking a sweat. We’ll walk you through 10 proven tactics to maximize your open rates and scale your email marketing efforts. But first, let’s talk about some essentials.
What is an email open rate, and how is it calculated?
Email open rate refers to the percentage of users opening your email. It measures the number of people who view your email instead of adding it to the pile of unread emails or sending it to the trash.
More accurately, the open rate considers an email as opened only when the graphics load for the recipient. The email is still counted as unopened if the graphics don’t load.
Open rate is a key metric for your email marketing performance because it indicates the number of recipients who found your email interesting enough to view it. However, since the introduction of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection policy, creators have considered open rates alongside other engagement KPIs to assess their email performance.
Here’s the standard formula for calculating open rates:
Number of users who open your email / Number of users who receive your email x 100
What is the average email open rate?
Our email marketing research suggests that creators’ average email open rate stands at 43%. Multiple factors, such as your email marketing provider, deliverability rate, and subscriber count, can affect this average.
Can choosing the right email marketing provider impact my open rate?
One of the most common concerns among creators launching their first-ever email marketing campaign is the choice of email service providers. Do open rates vary for different email marketing providers? The short answer: yes.
Dylan Redekop, an email strategist, explained the difference he found when switching from Substack to Kit. His open rates shot up by 15% from the very first email.
How can I improve my email open rates?
We’ve closely studied factors affecting email open rates to curate this list of 10 best practices to increase your email open rate even when you keep adding more subscribers. Let’s break down each of them.
#1: Focus on quality: keep your email list lean
Subscribing to newsletters is the easy part. The trouble begins when these emails crowd your inbox every day.
For creators, the first rule of thumb to improve open rates is to consistently purge their email lists and remove those who don’t engage with their emails. Kennedy, the host of Email Marketing Heroes, explains why creators should regularly clean up their email lists.
Be very quick to remove people who are not engaging with your emails, and you’ll see your open rate go up. It sounds like a false economy, but the people who aren’t opening your emails are damaging your ability to deliver. You tend to end up in a vicious circle with fewer people opening your emails because your emails aren’t even getting delivered!
Track engagement to identify subscribers negatively affecting your open rates. Keep an eye on hard bounces—when the email address is invalid or doesn’t exist. This will reveal all the dead emails that don’t exist anymore.
While this exercise can significantly reduce your number of subscribers, it’ll narrow down your list to people who genuinely want to hear from you.
Set up automated workflows to clean your list in a consistent cycle. Customize your email marketing platform to automatically create a list of non-engaging subscribers and dead emails and delete them from the list. According to Reece K, an email copywriter and creator, this can save you a lot of time and improve your open rates.
Remember to give non-engaging subscribers a heads-up before removing them from your list. Schedule this templated email every three months to let your subscribers know they’ll stop hearing from you.
Here’s how Jason Bradwell does it for his newsletter, taking a casual and empathetic tone:
Besides purging your list, you can also use a GDPR-compliant email verifier tool to validate all new subscribers. This will reduce the chances of adding invalid or wrong addresses to your list, keeping it fresh.
#2: Segment your email list
Your subscribers are fed up with the marketing noise in their inboxes. You have to do something extraordinary to stand out in this clutter and make your voice heard. Properly segmenting your email list is an excellent starting point for that.
Segmented emails show subscribers how well you know them. They deliver a resonating message and create an immediate impact with the subject line itself.
Here’s how to increase open rates on emails with strategic segments:
- New users: Welcome new subscribers with a brief note and give them a glimpse of what’s in store. It’s a great way to introduce them to your newsletter and create some juicy context, so they open the next email. You can also create an onboarding drip sequence to send them all the essential information, like your best-selling products and popular newsletter editions from the past.
- Buyers and non-buyers: Separate those interested in buying your products from those without buying intent. Send different emails targeting these segments. For example, give buyers more details about your offering and convince them to make a purchase. On the flip side, you can entice non-buyers with promotions and coupons.
- Unengaged: Segment all the inactive subscribers and create emails tailored to reel them back in. Make them more involved in your newsletter with compelling subject lines, useful freebies, and anything they’d like to get their hands on.
- Loyalists: Reward your most loyal subscribers for their continued support of your brand. Segment them into a separate category to send customized offers and more exclusive newsletter editions to make them feel special and appreciated.
Case in point: Drip’s revamped email marketing efforts. In their efforts to unlock the secrets of how to get more email opens, the team segmented their subscribers into the top and middle funnel categories using a lead scoring system.
This segmentation tactic increased their open rates by 123.74% because they tailored their emails based on the level of engagement.
Chase Dimond, the founder of an e-commerce email marketing agency, offers more insights on segmenting email lists.
#3: Avoid spam filters at all costs
Spam filters can make or break your email open rates. These filters analyze your content to assess whether it should land in a recipient’s inbox or the spam folder. They check your emails for certain signals to categorize them as junk or normal mail.
Avoiding spam filters can improve your sender reputation and maximize deliverability, naturally increasing your chances of a higher open rate.
Follow these proven tips to steer clear of these filters and reach your subscribers’ primary inbox every time:
- Build your list organically with people who consensually subscribe to your email
- Add your name in the ‘From’ section instead of adding your company name
- Include your email in the ‘Reply to’ option to let subscribers talk to you
- Segment your list and create customized emails for each segment
- Verify your email address and choose a trusted service provider
Use this checklist to ensure your emails pass the spam test and land in the right place.
#4: Send your emails at the “perfect” day & time
Much like social media posts, there’s an ideal day and time to send your emails and achieve great engagement. You’ll find ample research on this subject to strategically decide the timing and schedule for your newsletters.
Here are the best days and time slots to send newsletters according to different studies:
- According to Sendinblue, Tuesday and Thursday are the perfect days, and 10 am or 3 pm are the ideal time slots
- According to HubSpot, Tuesday is the perfect day, and 9 am to 12 pm is the ideal time slot for the US time zone
- According to Salesforce, Monday and Tuesday are the perfect days, and 8 am to 10 am is the ideal time slot
You can experiment with different times and days to decide what works best for you. Remember that the timings for the maximum open rate differ for people in varied age groups and regions. Analyze your subscribers’ demographic makeup when creating your schedule. Your niche is another key factor to consider when choosing the timings.
#5: Make your subject line stand out
The magic formula to multiply your open rate is your subject line. Your newsletter’s subject line will give subscribers a taste of what’s inside. They’ll hit view only if your subject line piques their curiosity. How to nail your subject lines and intrigue your readers? Try these tips:
Experiment with different types of email subject lines
Try out different subject lines to see what resonates the most with your subscribers. Evoke varied emotions and understand what works for your audience.
Subject lines that generate curiosity
Capture a reader’s attention in a second by teasing them about your message. Give them something compelling enough that they can’t resist opening your email to check out what’s inside. Here’s a perfect example of intriguing readers with a witty and crisp subject line.
Personalized subject lines
Give your subscribers a reason to open your email by adding personal details. Use segmentation to the best capacity and create personalized subject lines based on behavioral parameters. This email by Harvest ticks off the boxes for customizing your subject lines to increase email open rates.
Subject lines announcing free offers
Who doesn’t like a free gift? Add a free offer or a coupon in your subject line to get maximum opens from interested buyers. Uplers did it superbly with this funny yet enticing subject line.
Humorous subject lines
Nothing does the job better than funny and relatable subject lines. Make your readers chuckle, and they’ll be amused enough to open your email and find some more laughs. Here’s a wonderful example by Drizly showing how it’s done.
Shocking subject lines
Amaze your readers into opening your emails with an unbelievable subject line. Make them open your emails to double-check the facts and find the truth, like this one by Parcel. It creates suspense around the email and builds readers’ expectations to read something surprising.
Write an enticing preheader text
Sparking your readers’ curiosity doesn’t end with subject lines. Work some of that magic in your preheader text as well to make it catchy and persuasive to make readers click.
Tease at your email’s content, connect the dots in your subject line, or leave the sentence incomplete—just make readers curious to look inside.
A/B test your subject line and preheader text
Don’t settle for one good subject line and preview text. Create multiple combinations and run A/B tests to determine what would resonate with your audience. Your email marketing tool will check your subject lines and preview texts among some users in every segment and pick the best-performing as the final combination.
#6: Pretend you’re writing to just one person
A large chunk of your email marketing performance depends on how engaging your content is—whether it leaves readers excited for more or turns them off. Looking for a secret sauce to make your emails more exciting? In two words: add personality.
Adding your personality to your newsletter can spice up your content and differentiate it from other creators.
One of the most effective ways to infuse your personality into your content is to convince yourself that you’re writing to a single person. Instead of thinking of your hundreds and thousands of subscribers, address your message to just one reader.
This creates more scope for personalizing your emails with specific details, like their name, targeted CTAs, and similar information.
#7: Write like a friend
When you write to a single person, it helps to think of them as your friend. Even if your email goes out to a set of strangers, pack your insights with warmth and care like you’re speaking to an old pal. Follow these tips to add a more friendly appeal to your newsletters:
Use a human sender name
This one’s a no-brainer: capture your subscribers’ attention and build an instant connection by using your own name in the email. Drop your brand name and remove the guesswork by letting them know who this message is from.
Brendan Hufford explains how adding your own name can impact your open rates.
Use humor to your advantage
Add lightweight humor to your emails like you’d banter with a friend. Use GIFs and pop culture references to make your point humorously. Skip the marketing speak and give your readers something relatable—and they’ll come back for more.
Terry Schilling does a great job adding life to his emails using some wit and humor. Here’s an example from his year-end recap.
Use emojis
Get the best emojis to convey your feelings or thoughts on a subject. Add a pop of color to your emails with the right set of emojis (used sparingly). Olivia from Girls in Marketing presents an excellent example of how emojis can level up your emails and make them easier to digest.
#8: Always deliver high-quality content
You’ve nailed your subject line, preview text, funny tone, and choice of emojis. But your newsletter is still not quite there yet. What’s missing? Your copywriting quality.
You need a high-quality, value-packed, impactful copy to win a positive response from your subscribers and maintain a consistent open rate percentage. Learn and practice writing email copy to design a seamless process of researching, drafting, and editing your emails.
Don’t forget to proofread your emails
Remember that the devil lies in the details. So, once you’re done with the draft, proofread it for grammatical errors and typos. Go deeper to review the flow of your ideas and overall structure. Identify gaps in your content and anticipate readers’ questions to add more content.
#9: Optimize your emails for mobile
With so many of your subscribers likely checking your email on their phones, optimizing emails for mobile is a non-negotiable step. But don’t leave it as an afterthought in your content creation strategy.
Consciously iterate your copy and optimize your design to look good on mobile. Test your emails for readability and scannability on smaller screens to deliver a frictionless viewing experience.
Joe Portsmouth emphasizes the importance of designing emails for mobile to increase your open rates.
#10: Never buy your email list!
While all the above factors will help you improve email open rates, one step can tank all your progress: buying an email list.
Buying email lists is a shortcut to increasing your subscriber count. You may win some new subscribers, but this tactic can cause more harm in the long run. It’ll negatively impact your sender’s reputation when more and more people delete or archive your emails. This will also affect deliverability, sending your emails straight to the junk folder.
More importantly, adding more people to your list without their permission can only lead to lower open rates. People would hit the unsubscribe button faster than you think, eventually collapsing your entire campaign.
What are other email marketing metrics to monitor?
While these tactics will set you up for success in increasing your email open rates, you should also track other email marketing KPIs to assess your performance.
Keep your eye on the click-through rate to see how many readers engage with your emails. The bounce rate and the number of unsubscribes will indicate any early red flags to address. Besides, your email sharing and list growth rates will reveal your subscribers’ positive responses to your content.
Ready to start improving your email open rate?
To get started, the first thing you need is an effective service provider built just for creators like you.
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