2014 Email Open Rates Report
Here’s what you just downloaded. Engagement with sales emails is contingent upon various factors – region, industry, and the overall makeup of your buyer context. To help provide an overall understanding of the trends impacting email open rates, we reviewed 6.4 million emails. The resulting report is by no means concrete benchmarks to live by; however, this should provide insight into factors impacting sales email open rates. Here you’ll find: • When you should try sending your emails. • What words to try in your subject lines. • How to write sales emails people want to open. While the first two sections reveal the new data, the last chapter provides a template for writing effective sales emails.
Sample Size: 6.4 million one-to-one emails from Signals users. Signals is a free tool for sales professionals to track who is opening and clicking their emails. The emails in our data set were individually sent from salespeople to their respective prospects.
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WHEN YOU SHOULD TRY SENDING YOUR EMAILS. Share this:
80% fewer emails are sent over the weekend, but they have a 10% higher chance of being opened.
Open Rate Total Sent
Share Stat: Overarching Insight: ü Email open rates are drastically higher over the weekend, although far fewer emails are sent over the weekend. ü Email open rates correspond with the number of emails received that day. For example, more emails are opened towards the end of the workweek while fewer emails are sent during this time.
Sales Takeaway: Experiment with sending your emails over the weekend. Don’t completely transition to this strategy, but test varying times to see what works.
50% of all emails were opened within the first 24 hours.
Time Since Email Sent In Hours
Share Stat: Overarching Insight: ü 50% of all emails were opened 24 hours after the email was sent. ü ~80% of emails were opened within 12 days of the email being sent.
Sales Takeaway: Email open rates don’t necessarily increase in the first 24 hours by adjusting the time you send it. An email sent at 7 AM and an email sent at 4 PM should both receive 50% chance of being opened within 24 hours of delivery. For reps selling to international markets, this should help you breathe a sigh of relief that email opens are more contingent on the first 24 hours of send than the specific time sent.
Start testing your email open rates by scheduling them at different times. With Signals for Gmail, you can easily schedule your emails. Test various days and times to see what works best for your buyer context.
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Customize the exact time your email reaches a prospect’s inbox.
WHAT WORDS TO TRY IN YOUR SUBJECT LINES. Share this:
Emails with “you” in the subject line were opened 5% less than those without. 70%
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Without "You"
With "You"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Pleasure discussing future goals with you today. ü Are you still interested in our service?
Sales Takeaway: With one-to-one email correspondence, the prospect likely knows you are already talking to them specifically. “You” is a nice touch, but try testing specific prospect names for true personalization.
Emails with “free” in the subject line were opened 10% more than those without. 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Without "Free"
With "Free"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Sam, are you free to chat this week? ü Feel free to reach out with questions from today’s call.
Sales Takeaway: While various theories dictate that using the word “free” can land your email in spam filters, our data showed that emails with “free” positively impacted open rates. Try this word in the sales context to see how it works for you.
Emails with “quick” in the subject line were opened 17% less than those without. 70%
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Without "Quick"
With "Quick"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Let’s connect for a quick call on this? ü Rachel, have time for a quick conversation?
Sales Takeaway: Creating a sense of urgency is a valued sales tactic, but the word “quick” doesn’t seem to help evoke such. Try being more specific in your emails with something like, “Let’s connect for a five minute call on this?”
Emails with “tomorrow” in the subject line were opened 10% more than those without. 70%
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Without "Tomorrow"
With "Tomorrow"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Guru, can we talk tomorrow? ü Look forward to reviewing the proposal tomorrow.
Sales Takeaway: While “quick” had minimal impact on urgency, the word “tomorrow” invites a certain time sensitivity. A prospect may be interested in opening it just to see what could be happening the next day.
Emails with “meeting” in the subject line were opened 7% less than those without. 70%
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Without "Meeting"
"With Meeting"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Scheduling our next meeting. ü Next Step: Pricing plan review meeting.
Sales Takeaway: As Jill Konrath often says, today’s “frazzled customer” is too busy ad has plenty of meetings. Using such diction presents your subject line as a necessary email, possibly making it unappealing to open.
Emails with no subject all together were opened 8% more than those with a subject line. 70%
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Without "(No Subject)"
With "(No Subject)"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Simply don’t include a subject line.
Sales Takeaway: Surprisingly, emails without a subject line were just as effective as those with an actual subject line. Without a subject line, prospects simply see a preview of the email body. Now it’s likely that these emails were after a sales rep had already connected with their prospect – not their first email outreach.
Emails with “fw:” in the subject line were opened 17% less than those without. 70%
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Without "FW:"
With "FW:"
Share Stat: Sales Use Case: ü Any email forwarded and the subject line is not changed.
Sales Takeaway: An important engagement metric for sales email success is seeing if a prospect is forwarding your email around their company. But when it comes to the emails you send, including the “FW:” may decrease open rates. Try changing your subject line of that forwarded email all together.
WRITING EMAILS PEOPLE WANT TO OPEN. Share this:
The email subject lines we’ve seen work. The data reviewed provided key insights into what timing and words impact email open rate trends. Now we’d like to dive into some best practices we’ve seen work in the sales funnel.
Email subject line variations to try:
ü Mike, quick question for you. ü [Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch. ü Ideas for [thing that is important to them]. ü Question about [recent trigger event or goal they have]. ü Thoughts about [title of their blog post]. ü Have you considered [your thought or recommendation].
The email opening lines we’ve seen work. How many emails do you reply to that begin with, “My name is ...”
Likely not many. Instead, start off by saying something about your prospect instead of yourself.
Opening line variations to try:
ü Mike, I noticed you ... ü [Mutual connection] mentioned ... ü Saw that we both ... ü Congratulations on ...
The email body copy we’ve seen work. Now, your body copy should relay your value by connecting you to your prospect – and be sure to avoid generic value propositions. We’ve found that asking questions works incredibly well in prompting a response.
Sales question variations to try:
ü How, if at all, would you like to improve your strategy? ü Is [benefit to them] a priority for you right now? ü Do you have any unanswered questions about [topic of learning]? ü Are you after a lifestyle business, or world domination? ü Are you alone on this? ü Has it always been this way? ü Would it be nice, or does it have to happen? ü What would you do if you were me? ü Was this all your idea?
Thank you for reading. Special thank you to: Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist, for analyzing the Signals data set. Michael Pici, Expert Sales Professional, for providing his best practices
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