8 Ways to Improve Your Email Open Rates With Personalization

 

Email marketing is still an effective strategy, but anyone who does it must implement tactics to improve the email open rates. Open rate or, read rate is, of course, the percentage of people who actually open the emails and engage in them instead of deleting or ignoring them.

 

New email marketing methods must include a lot of personalization. Not only does the subject matter have to be personalized, but the body of the message has to be personalized as well.

 

The following are 10 ways that you can personalize your emails to increase your email open rates:

 

 

1. Tell Your Friend A Secret

 

One way you can add a little smidge of personalization to your email marketing methods is by acting like you’re telling your friend a secret. Your email recipients will be more likely to click through your email if there’s some sort of enticement attached to it. These type of subject lines are great for telling secrets:

 

– I / We had to tell you this…
– Did you hear about this yet?
– Here’s the real secret to X

 

They can pique a potential reader’s interest, thereby increasing your email open rate. If that person recognizes who you are in the “from” section and then you send them a compelling subject line like that, they’ll most likely read it if they’re interested in you and your product. Your first body line has to get right to the point, however. You don’t want to draw them in and then bore them to death. Make it choppy and direct.

 

 

2. Ask A Question

 

Asking a personalized question is another way to raise some interest and increase your email open rates!

 

– How do you feel about this?
– Do you like these features?
– Are you available for this event?

 

All of those subjects will cause a person to wonder what the sender is talking about, but again, they work in conjunction with the “from” line. If the person doesn’t really have interest in the sending party, then that person will be less likely to open the emails.

 

 

3. Use Contractions To Increase Your Email Open Rates

 

Contractions may drive the proper English enthusiast crazy, but at the end of the day, you need them. Terms like can’t, won’t and don’t just put you on a whole different level with your prospects compared to formal words like, cannot, will not or do not. Other more personal contractions are: I’m, you’re, you’ll, we’re, etc. It’s a good idea to use them so that you seem more personable and human. Contractions create a sense of equality, friendliness, and closeness. If your recipient feels like you consider them an equal, they’ll be more likely to open and click through your email.

 

4. Flower The Subject Line

 

Complement the customer in the subject line. This is a great way to improve your email open rates! People love compliments and feeling like they are that one special customer out of millions. If you use something like, “To our favorite customer,” you can’t send it to everyone, however. That’s the catch. Use it sparingly and know who you are using it with.

 

 

5. Include the Recipient Name In Subject Line

 

Something as simple as dynamically using the recipient’s name in the subject line can be an effective strategy as well to raise email open rates. The chart below from Experian Marketing Services, and expanded upon by Marketing Sherpa, displays the positive impact this minor change can have in different industries.

 

6. State The Purpose In Less Than 25 Words

 

The first few lines of the email body are important, so you want to make sure that you get them out in the beginning. Some people have mobile phones or desktop email applications that let them read the first two lines of an email before they decide if they want to read it. Take advantage of that and make your email directly related to whomever it is that you’re addressing. If you want your email open rates to increase, make sure you have something interesting and valuable to say!

 

 

7. Use An Attractive “From” Name

 

Some people decide whether they want to continue clicking through an email by simply looking at the from name. What you use for the from name depends on what you want to convey to your potential or existing customers.

 

You could change it to suit each batch of emails if you want to get really personal. You could put your company’s name on it. It really depends on the message that you need to convey.

 

 

8. Handcraft Each Email

 

One of the best ways to keep your email marketing campaign personalized is to not send bulk emails. That may seem like a foreign concept, but it could work for you if in a small business. If you craft every email from scratch, then you know that they’re coming out with unique elements each time, and you’re doing more than changing one or two words.

 

It could really make a difference in how your clients and potential clients trust you and receive the information that you send them.

 

The greatest benefit to this approach can be that your emails are much less likely to be caught up in a spam filter. Sending bulk emails can often be filtered at the server level, especially at government organizations and bigger businesses with tight firewalls.

 

 

Conclusion

 

These eight suggestions will help you to get more people to read your emails and increase your email open rates. Remember, people get hundreds of emails that have spam content. Yours has to stand out and appeal to them, in order to improve your email open rates.

 

 

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