3 Ways to Boost Your Email Open Rates

You always want to maximize the impact of sending emails to your customers, because it takes a lot of time and planning to put them together for distribution. Remember that even if someone doesn't open the email, at least they are seeing your company's name as the sender. Of course it's better if they open it, but you are creating exposure just by sending it.

Craft a great subject line
First, you need to get through the spam filters for the email providers. To avoid having the emails trapped by the filters, avoid words like "sale", "free", or "deal", and never use all caps or exclamation points. These words can automatically trigger your email to end up in the junk folder.

Share something in the email that will appeal to your customers. Offer them value for their time by helping to solve a problem they may be experiencing. Subject lines that pose a question or indicate there is helpful information in the email will have much higher open rates. Adding urgency can also help you stand out, so don't be afraid to mention limited time offers.

Provide a tip or a best practice that will be useful to your customers and prospects. They will begin to view you as an authority and will be more inclined to go to your company when they need the products and services you offer.

Vary the times you send your emails
There is no perfect time to send an email. In fact, you can leverage the time that was spent developing the emails by sending it out to everyone, then resending it with a different subject line at a different time and different day to anyone that didn't open it the first time.

People have their own habits, depending on their workloads. We find that the group of people that opens emails on Tuesday mornings isn't the same group who opens them on Friday afternoons, yet the open rate can be very similar. There is no magical time to send emails, but you may find there are better times for your audience. Just keep experimenting!

Vary the content and make sure it looks professional
There's no easier way of burning through your list than sending out the same email repeatedly. It won't take long for your audience to stop opening emails.

Is it easy to develop emails? Well, all the email services say it is, but it sure can be obvious when an email was put together by someone who didn't know what they were doing. The information can be valuable, but if it looks unprofessional, chances are the value will not be recognized. Invest a little more by having your emails professionally developed. The content and design will be better, and your response rate will improve, too. The result is that your customers will buy more often, so the investment will be recouped many times over.

Another common mistake is to send only promotional emails. Informative, interesting emails may not directly sell your products, but they are promoting your company and its credibility. If your customers come to trust your advice, they will think of you when it's time to purchase the products and services you offer.

Personalized emails are a great way to sound less formal and reach your customers on a more emotional level. Use the proper code to automatically insert your customer's first name at the beginning of an email. Test the emails before you send them to make sure the "from" line is properly coded to display your company name. Also, test your emails on mobile devices before they are delivered, to see whether they are showing up correctly on phones and tablets, too.

Do you need help developing effective emails and sending them on schedule?