13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
Kevin Ocasio
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails As marketers, we communicate with our prospects by emailing them after they have subscribed to our email list. Sending out emails is easy. However, there’s no use having a huge email list if you can’t even get your subscribers to read your messages and perform some desired action. What happens among marketers most of the time is that they keep firing away emails without seeing conversions. If you want your campaigns to attain results and have better ROI, you need to change the way you craft and deliver your emails – from writing better subject lines to working on your timing. Below, I’ve listed 13 effective strategies to help you get your subscribers to open your emails more often. If you’re ready to change your outcomes this time, read on.
1. Avoid SPAM trigger words. You may not be aware of this but yes, there may be words in your email that trigger spam filters, causing your emails to land in your recipient’s spam folder. Spam filters do not only assess your email subject lines. Instead, they look at every email message as a whole – including your content. HubSpot and Mequoda suggest these spam words to avoid in your emails:
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
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2. Do list segmentation. You need to slice your email list into different groups for the reason that not all your subscribers are the same. For example, if you sell clothing, you have customers who are petite and plus-sized. These are two different kinds of customers with unique needs. According to MailChimp, list segmentation improves your email open and click rates because you are able to deliver more relevant messages. Your messages will be tailored according to your recipients’ individual preferences.
3. Ask yourself if you would want to receive the emails you’re sending out. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you were the recipient of your email, would you consider opening it? Ask yourself if your emails are interesting, personal, free of spelling and grammatical errors, written in shorter paragraphs, and respectful.
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails Here’s an additional resource for you: 7 Qualities of a Good Email
4. Write great subject lines.
According to Convince & Convert, 35% of email recipients open email messages based on the subject lines. Moreover, 69% of recipients label an email as spam after reading the subject line alone. These facts mean one thing: Your email subject lines matter A LOT. They’re the first thing people read so make sure you create a good first impression. Below are some suggestions for better subject lines: Add numbers. Think of your list posts. If they worked great for your audience, they’ll have the same effect for your email subject lines. Ask people questions to spark their interest. Keep your email subject lines under 50 characters. Avoid using ALL CAPS and exclamation marks. Using all caps makes your email subject lines difficult to read. Exclamation marks look spammy. Use the words “You” or “Your” to be more personal.
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails Include verbs or action words.
5. Have a publishing schedule. Being consistent in sending out your emails is very important. People are expecting from you and the least thing you would want is to disappoint them. Copyblogger mentions that you need to tell your readers what your publishing schedule will be. Make sure to stick to it. If you feel ill or are planning to have a long vacation, schedule your emails or outsource email marketing to someone reliable. That person can be someone from your team or a virtual assistant from Fiverr or OnlineJobs.ph.
6. Keep your messages short and simple. Remember that you’re not the only one sending your prospect emails. Many other brands are competing for your recipient’s attention. Avoid wasting your reader’s time. Get your messages across immediately by writing short emails that are skimmable and easier to read. Don’t be afraid of more white space. Use shorter sentences and paragraphs. Take advantage of numbered lists and bullet points.
7. Call your recipient by his or her name. Dale Carnegie once said, “Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” A person feels more enticed to read your message if your email subject line includes his or her name. Also include it your email copy.
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails For example, if your recipient’s name is Tiffany Joy, write in your salutation “Hi Tiffany Joy” instead of just writing “Hi reader” or “Hi friend.” To make sure that you don’t miss following this important tip, add a name field in your landing page as you collect your visitors’ email addresses.
8. Send a follow-up email.
It has been found out that if your recipients are going to read your messages and act on them, they’re going to do it within the day. If not, you need to do a follow-up. Your recipients are busy. This makes them ignore your emails or save them for reading at a later time but forget to do so. A follow-up email shows that you are making an effort to communicate. Try rewriting your subject lines to get people’s attention this time. Be creative. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action. Read: 75 calls to action to use in your email marketing campaigns
9. Use email retargeting. 13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
Email retargeting does wonders for improving your email open and click-though rates. You may be wondering – how does email retargeting work? Your email messages include a tracking pixel which allows your readers to see online display ads after they’ve opened them. Exposure to your ads helps people to remember your brand more. So the next time you send them emails, you can expect better responses.
10. Do A/B testing. Create two variations of your emails. Send one variation to a group of subscribers and the other variation to another group. Wait and see which of your two emails gets the best results. When doing A/B testing for your email campaigns, you will need to test the following: Subject lines Inclusion of visuals Length and tone of your copy Call-to-actions Sending time Background colors Inclusion of video 13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails Kissmetrics recommends that you do A/B testing early and more often to achieve the best outcomes.
11. Optimize for mobile. Research shows that 74% of smartphone owners use their devices to read their emails. In addition, nearly 70% of emails opened in Gmail and Yahoo are done via mobile devices. Since mobile responsiveness is so important these days, you need to use an email marketing service that enables you to send mobile-friendly emails. For this matter, we highly recommend AWeber. AWeber offers about more than 700 mobile responsive email templates that fit your subscribers’ screens – no matter their size and device.
12. Use keywords.
Business Insider recommends the use of keywords for your email subject lines. This makes sure that your all your recipients, especially those who get tons of emails everyday, are able to easily search your buried messages using your keywords.
13. Know the best times to send your emails. 13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails Based on 10 email marketing studies conducted (by MailChimp, GetResponse, HubSpot, and more), you need to prioritize your send days in the following order: Tuesday – The best day for sending emails. Thursday – Make this your second day if you send out two emails in a week. Wednesday – Always ranks second place many times. When it comes to specific hours, 6 am, 10 am and 11 am are popular.
Final Thoughts Take a good look at your email analytics now. Are you getting the results you desire? If you think you need improvement, refer to this list. Change your approach. I hope you’ve found today’s blog post useful for your email marketing. D o yo u ha ve mo re tips to sha re? Feel free to l ea ve a co mment bel o w!
13 Tips For Getting People To Read Your Emails