How to Increase Email Open Rates

Look, I won’t beat around the bush. You can write the most badass email on the block. But if no one is opening that email, all that effort you’ve put into writing it was kind of for nothing. Hard truth, but the truth. 

If you want your audience to read your emails (aka your marketing materials), take action, and ultimately become your customers, you need to convince them to open your email! 

More opens equals an increase in your email open rates equals win. 

Wait, Becca, what the hell is an email open rate?

An email open rate is the percentage of the total times your subscriber opens your email. Basically, it tells you how many people are actually seeing your email content. Now, math is NOT my jam, but if you want a little formula to help wrap your head around this:

email open rate = unique opens / (sent emails-bounced emails)

What’s important to remember about email open rates is that they are a key starting point for comprehending how your email campaign performs or if it’s even working at all. For a base of reference, open rates between 20%–40% are typically viewed as average.

Write Better Subject Lines

I write emails for a living, so I understand that the first tip on increasing your email open rate might also be the hardest. But your email subject lines make or break your email campaigns. 

Think about it. Your subject lines are the first thing your audience sees when they open their inbox. If your subject line sucks, why in the world would they click through to “learn more”?

Some great subject line strategies include teasing them to click through (without sensationalizing the topic), piquing their curiosity with exciting announcements, listing out or number topics, and commanding them to take action. 

At the end of the day, you want your email subject lines that drive them to take action – aka click through to read your email.

Send The Right Stuff At The Right Time

This one is easier said than done and requires a little more A/B testing. But you can start by asking yourself these questions: 

• How often am I emailing my list? Is it too often or too little?

• Do I want to increase my web traffic?

• Do I want to increase my email open rates?

• What time do I send my emails?

All of these questions can help you pinpoint your email marketing strategy and give you a direction to start your A/B testing. If you’ve sent all your emails at 8 pm and only 10% get opened, try a different time and check how your emails did. This goes for the day of the week, too!

It can be hard to figure out how many emails you should send to your audience. I’d say once a month is too little, and 20 a month is way too much. Again, testing out the frequency of your emails is definitely a step in the right direction. Even better? If your email marketing platforms allow this, let your audience choose the frequency they hear from you! 

Keep Your Email List Clean

Like your social channels, your email list should be made up of people who actually want to read your emails and interact with you! Don’t let those ghost subscribers drag your open rate down.

On average, you lose about ¼ of your email list every year. That means 1 out of every 4 people don’t want to read your emails anymore. And that’s totally okay! Those same people are the ones that are driving down your open rate. 

You can either straight up delete these people (which I don’t recommend as your first choice) or send them a “win-back” email campaign to bring them back into your lair and get them re-engaged with your content. If they don’t bite, cut those inactive subscribers loose!

You can also periodically check in with your subscribers and straight up ask them if they want to unsubscribe or not. Give them an option to update their preferences and end it with a nice note like, “No hard feelings. You can re-subscribe at any time!”

And don’t worry too much about getting rid of those inactive subscribers. When you have the right freebies and programs in place, you should be replenishing your list with users who genuinely want to read what you have to say—hello, increasing open rates!

Hopefully, these three tips on how to increase email open rates were helpful and get more eyeballs on your emails (and on the offers you sell). Have questions? I have answers. Send me a DM or email!