Low Email Open Rates? It May Not Be Your Subject Line
Are you stressing over your email open rates?
During my time as a copywriter at a B2B marketing company, nothing brought us more angst than low email open rates. It was the first metric we noticed after we sent out an email, and the first we stressed out over.
"The open rate is only 5%," the account manager would announce. "I'm going to resend it with another subject line to see if that helps."
Sound familiar? The subject line is usually seen as the cause of – and solution to – all of life's open rate problems.
If the open rate is bad, the subject line wasn't interesting enough.
If the open rate is good, the subject line was interesting enough.
But get this: it may not be the subject line at all.
There are several other factors that can affect your open rates:
Time and day of send
Frequency of send
The quality of your contact list
How you're segmenting your list
Your customer engagement level
The quality of your email content
Your from name
The preview/preheader text
Trying to boost your open rates isn't as simple as changing one thing. It requires a long-term strategy that involves testing, list hygiene, and building a relationship with your audience.
But since this is a copywriting blog, I'm going to focus on what you can change copy-wise (other than your subject line) to help boost your sagging open rates:
From name
This is the easiest thing you can change RIGHT NOW that will directly impact your open rates.
Your from name is the first thing your audience sees when scanning their inbox. According to Campaign Monitor, 68% of Americans base their decision to open an email on the from name.
But many marketers and business owners don't put a lot of thought into their from names. They just set it as their company name for all emails and forget about it.
But if your open rates aren't where they should be, try A/B testing your from name. You can test your current from name versus:
A personal name (alone or with your company name)
Split testing by Pinpointe marketing saw up to a 35% improvement in open rates when a person's name was used in the from name vs. a general address or a company name alone.
Using a name will make your audience feel like you're sending them a personal message, rather than just a promotional email. Just be sure the copy inside sounds like it's coming from the sender – such as writing in the first person or adding their name to the signature.
Use a personal name alone only if your audience recognizes it. If not, you can add your company name after it or use "The [Company Name] Team".
Here are some examples of personalized from names from my inbox:
Jameson Fleming, Adweek Senior Editor, Memberships
Matt Murray, WSJ
Neal from Upwork
The HubSpot Team
Your company name + a descriptor
This will help your audience know at a glance what the email is about and whether they should open it. Does it contain offers? Is it a newsletter they subscribed to? Here are some examples I pulled from my inbox:
HubSpot Blog, Marketing
Muse by Clio
Healthline: Wellness Wire
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova
Michaels Rewards
Glassdoor Recommendations
No matter which option you choose, remember that your from name's main job is to clearly identify the sender and build trust with your audience.
Preview/preheader text
The preview (or preheader) text is shown right below the subject line in the inbox view. Typically, email clients will display the first line of live text from the email here – though specific preview text can be coded. If you want to optimize your open rates, you should always write specific preview text for each email.
Think of your preview text as a second subject line – or an extension of it. Since your subject line will most likely be cut-off in the inbox view (especially on mobile), having an extra line of text below it gives you another chance to grab your readers' attention and persuade them to open your email. If you're not optimizing your preview text, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your open rates.
Here are a couple things you can A/B test with your preview text.
Moving the offer from the subject line to the preview text
If you feel offer words like "FREE" or "Save $25" in your subject line are triggering your readers' spam filters, try putting them in the preview text. Here are examples from Old Navy and West Elm:
As you can see, they chose to be more general and personable in the subject lines while providing the specifics of their offers in the preview. The two work hand-in-hand to pique the reader's interest.
Using personalization
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened, according to data from Campaign Monitor. Personalizing your preview text can also help increase open rates by making a direct 1:1 connection with your contact.
Here are a couple examples of preview text personalization:
Try testing your contact's name at or near the front* of the preview text to see if it makes a difference in your open rates.
(*Placing it near the front will guarantee it doesn't get cut-off in the inbox view. It won't do you any good if your contact can't see it!)
Email content
Delivering content that's relevant and engaging is essential to obtaining (and maintaining) good open rates. If your audience isn't seeing the value of your content, they may not even bother opening your emails after a while.
If you're seeing declining open rates over a period of several weeks or months, it may be time to reevaluate your content and segmenting strategies.
This isn't an easy or quick fix, but it's worth the effort. It will not only boost your open rates, but it will also help boost your click-through rates and customer engagement levels. Your business' success depends on delivering the right email content to the right audience at the right time.
Start by performing an audit of your current email content. Ask yourself:
Am I delivering the content my audience expects?
If your contacts signed up for offers, are they getting offers? If they signed up for a newsletter, are they getting a newsletter? When your contacts gave you their email addresses, they did so expecting specific content in return. Sending them content they didn't expect – or want – can hurt your open rates.Is the content targeted?
Do you send the same content to everyone on your list? If so, it may be time to start segmenting. This can help you develop content that's targeted to that segment's specific needs and goals. For instance, you wouldn't want to send the same email to prospects that you send to your current customers. They are on two opposite ends of the buyer's journey. Your contacts will be more likely to open and read your emails if they know the content will be relevant to them.Is the content easy to read?
The average human attention span is about 8 seconds. That's not a lot of time to grab your audience's attention and deliver your message. If your emails are too much of a chore to read, your contacts may choose to skip over them.
Clear, scannable email copy is key. A copywriter can help you craft easy-to-read, engaging emails your audience will look forward to opening.
Keep things in perspective
Before you embark on open rate optimization, check to see if your open rates are really that low. Depending on your industry, 15% may be considered above average. Check the current benchmarks to see how your open rates compare.
Also, consider the source of your contacts. You'll get better open rates if they subscribed to your list. Using a third-party contact list is an instant open rate killer. You may have fewer contacts by asking them to opt-in, but you'll end up with a more engaged audience.
What if it is the subject line?
Though I focused on the non-subject line reasons for your low open rates, it could very well be that your subject line is the problem. After all, the subject line is a major factor your contacts consider when deciding whether or not to open your email. But since subject line optimization is such a huge topic on its own, I'm going to dedicate my next blog post exclusively to that.
