I was recently asked to review best practices for open rates and provide that research to a client. I figured we could all benefit from what I found out by studying not only historical data for high-traffic clients but online research as well.
1. What Device are they opening the email with?
Many people now get their email on their phone. If they tried to open one of the emails from us on their phone, didn’t like the way it displays, they might not continue to open other emails from us in the future, set them aside to open later on when they’re at a computer, and then forget.
Check many devices to see how your emails display in the minimal space provided for on iphones, tablets and android devices.
2. What Email Address does the email appear to be coming from?
You actually have TWO pieces of information that you present whenever you send an email – the subject line and the email address.
People more often open email that appears to be from a person, such as JohnQEmployee@company.com, over emails that appear to be from a company-positioned email address, such as Contact@company.com or another impersonal address.
You’re “realer” with a name than a position.
3. What Time of Day is it?
Contrary to a great deal of opinion, morning is the worst time for someone to find your email in their box. Any time that means that your email won’t be seen until 8-9 the next day also reached abysmal open rates compared with a time where you’re the only email in their box.
Very few people read each and every email regardless of arrival time, as proven by open rate statistics. If you send when everyone has full inboxes, your email is far more likely to be deleted without being read.
Why fight with competing “headlines” in an overful inbox. Consider breaking out your lists by time zone and sending when that person will likely be in the sweet spot time wise. While most emailing system don’t really make it easy to apply that level of control, it is likely help.
Mid afternoon (after the morning’s “email clean-up/delete fest” is usually the best time for getting your email opened and read and acted on. Noon to two is the sweet spot. Three to four is almost as good.
Note: One client does have a historically amazing morning open rate. Especially on Mondays because he posts a Monday morning article to his blog and everyone on his list knows and expects it to arrive in their email inbox on Monday morning.
4. What day of the week is it?
Tuesdays are well regarded. Not sure why, couldn’t find stats. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday historically have great open rates by hearsay, but apparently as long as it’s before the end of the workday.
A study that I thought made sense stated that it really doesn’t matter what day of the week as long as it’s not the one everyone else is doing.
Monday followed by Wednesday have worse open rates historically in the data I’ve seen.
Conversion rates are considered best on Sunday, but that depends on industry. Sunday is supposedly best if you’re in a business that appeals to women, and Friday is supposedly best if you are business to business…
So much of the data about days of the week is hearsay, though, that it’s hard for me to trust it. I’d posit that the day of the week doesn’t matter as much as a time of day, and the perceived amount of ‘free time for reading email’ that the person feels they have.
5. How long is the Subject Line of the email?
From 4-15 characters was opened twice as much as anything over 50 characters long – according to a few different sources. The sweet spot appears to be about 20-30 characters in length from the data I’m looking at.
Try to create subject lines between 4 and 7 words long.
6. What Subject Lines are you using?
Make sure your subject lines:
- Have relevance – Your email subject line and the content should both clearly be about your company and about the person getting it. The words you, your, and yourself are considered clinchers.
The mantra here would be “It is literally all about the reader“. - Have value – The email subject line and the text of the email itself make good by being interesting to the reader, being unique from everything else you’ve written him, and from everything else in his inbox, and by offering something he sees as useful to him.
“What’s in it for my reader?” is the mantra here. - Are Honest – Make sure that somehow the subject line matches the content in some way. Make sure that you don’t try to trick him into opening an email. You can fool someone only a few times before they stop listening or opening emails. Including a number of facts appears to boost open rates. “10 tips” etc.
“Would this have made me feel tricked if I were my reader?” is this one’s mantra. - Seems Scarce or Urgent – Make it seem pressingly important or time sensitive. Make it seem as though there is a crucial reason to open this without making it also seem that you’re falsely panicked. Time sensitive offers (with at least a three day build) or exclusivity to this particularly high breed of readers can increase open rates.
Scarcity, exclusivity, urgency or providing a reason to rush make a huge difference. “A few seats still available if you qualify – today only” will probably make him look.
The mantra here is applicable to many many kinds of marketing and is “How can I make my offer have more apparent urgency than my competition?” In the case of email open rates, your competition is the remainder of the inbox (and the ads in the sidebars of the mailbox… - Engages him – Yeah, you’ve heard this before. What does that buzz word “engage” mean? It means it makes your reader actively participate somehow. This can be because he’s curious, and there is a mystery to unravel, or because understanding the purpose of the email makes him have to perform an action, or because you’ve made them laugh, or otherwise makes them feel like a “part” of what you’re doing.
Some people engage their readers by puzzling them, making them a bit confused and then unraveling the confusion before the end of the email… I’m not sure whether this is a good practice to always engage in. Used “wisely and not too well” this is gold.
You can also engage your reader by asking a compelling question that makes him think, and teach him something or impart knowledge during the process of selling him. That way, he always comes out of your sales pitches a little wiser, and he’ll remember that.
The mantra here is “How can I get my readers to enjoy actively participating?” but another mantra here is “What’s my reader’s ‘take away’ knowledge?”
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I’ve tried to provide a simpler version of all the combined knowledge on the web right now relating to email open rates.
CAVEAT: If you send emails “too often” to the same person, by their own estimation, your open rates will suffer no matter how you apply the above good practices, and even if you keep yourself off the undeliverable/blacklists.
This “too often” consideration varies by industry and by “loyalty” rates. If your email list is of a driven, passionate variety about the services or products you provide, then you can email them far more often than if your service or product doesn’t generate a great deal of fervor. Know your public and test on a small number of people what happens when you send more often.
There is really no reason not to split-test everything. With email it’s incredibly easy to split test, and I recommend you go absolutely hog wild split-testing everything you can.
Open rates are not deliverable rates or conversion rates. The above is not about the other two. Just open rates.