Email Marketing- Are You Optimizing Your Open Rates?

email marketing

If you don’t feel that you’re reaching your potential with email marketing, chances are that there are improvements to be made to your subject lines. After all, what good is having a list of subscribers if your emails never get opened? Having your subscribers look forward to receiving and opening your emails is a skill just like any other aspect of internet marketing. While all of the big names in the industry have huge email marketing lists they also have tried and tested ways to maximize their open rates.

The Biggest Names In Email Marketing Not Only Have Huge Lists But They Have Ways To Maximize Open Rates

As far as I’m concerned the subject line of an email has greater importance than even a headline of a sales copy. Visitors can look past a not so catchy headline by simply scrolling down the page. I know it seems like such a small action but the fact that your subscribers have to click on the email to read the rest of it can be a huge deterrent in getting it opened. Their attention has to be grabbed and you only have a handful of words to do so.

Your Email Marketing Subject Lines Should Always Be Completely Original

Your subject lines should always be completely original. Chances are great that yours won’t be the first marketing email that your subscriber will have received, what is going to make you stand out from the crowd? Why is your email so worth their time that they will open yours and not the ones from the 5 other marketers sitting in their inbox?

There’s even a chance that you’re promoting a product launch and someone else has sent your subscriber the exact same offer that you have. Now that I’m a bit further along in my IM career, I won’t even consider opening an email that has a typical subject line. Like many of you that are reading this, I’ve basically become immune to them.

I automatically presume that it’s coming from an inexperienced marketer and I can’t hit the delete button fast enough. Being unoriginal will have a direct negative impact on the amount of money that you make through email marketing.

Give an incomplete thought. This strategy gives you a little bit more room to work with. The idea is exactly what you’re thinking. Start a thought and leave your readers wanting more. It brings a mysterious element to your email marketing that will get your readers’ curiosity running wild. Once you get that first click to bring them into your email you’ve accomplished the first step in getting a conversion. You now have an infinite number of options to convert them into either a buyer or subscriber or whatever your goal may be.

Don’t be afraid to get a little funny. I get it, not everybody is a comedian. In fact I would consider myself far from witty. It’s even tougher to be comical when you have fewer than ten words. But it’s imperative to add some personality that won’t go unnoticed. Anything that you can say to be unpredictable will work to your advantage. Say something shocking or just be completely bizarre and create some intrigue. Hopefully you’ll already have a strong enough relationship with your followers that they won’t actually believe that you are a lunatic but I wouldn’t exactly call it a thin line to tread. If you’re having trouble with this you’re not alone and you can give my next email marketing tip a shot…

Come Up With a Catchy Subject Line First and Create Your Email Accordingly.

I recently got an email from a fairly well known IMer with the subject line “The secrets to marketing that my dog taught me”. Call me a skeptic but I’m not buying the fact that his dog was the breadwinner of the household and giving him crash courses in online marketing. Obviously he came up with a creative subject and integrated a marketing tip about how his puppy is a master at persuasion and get’s whatever he wants etc.

One final thought. This should go without saying but the last thing that you want to do is to act deceptively. Nothing will make your list unsubscribe faster and with good reason. It’s blatant disrespect and unacceptable in a business relationship. There is an enormous difference between being clever and blatantly lying. Any email that starts with a “Re” before the subject that I know isn’t a real reply will immediately get an unsubscribe from me and probably a poor review of his or her services somewhere on the web. Be respectful of your followers’ time and they’ll reciprocate.

This has been a guest post by who is the webmaster for passiveeprofits.com