How To Get MORE People To Read Your Emails

I’m hearing a lot of small business owners talk about how their email open rates are plummeting recently…

Which got me thinking that maybe yours are too… and I want to help!

I remember this happening for me a few years ago, when Google added the social and promotional tabs to their email platform, and seeing a 5% open rate decline. OUCH! 

BUT It’s f’ing frustrating right?!?! You work so damn hard to build your email list, spend a lot of time and money on to do it, and then you can’t even get the people who want to hear your message to see it.

Listen, I get it.

BUT you have a choice. You can either sit around pouting, or you can do something about it!

If you choose the latter, which is THE SMART CHOICE, you can these ideas to help you bump up your email open rates and get your message in front of more people who need your help:

1) Write Stellar Subject Lines

The number two thing that will get someone to open your email is your subject line. Yes, you read that right – number two. Number one is their relationship to you. This means that your subject lines need to be damn good!

Here are a few ideas:

• Subject lines that sound like something your friend would write to you get higher open rates (Example: Trying to get in touch…)
  
  
• Subject lines letting the reader know they are getting a case study that they can learn from to benefit in some way get higher open rates (Example: CASE STUDY: How I turned $6.99 into $16,500 using this easy FB Ads trick)
  
  
• Subject lines that speak to specific results get higher open rates. (Example: Jane just lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks. Here’s HOW…)

To make it easy for you, here are a few of my highest open rate subject lines of all time that you can swipe and use in your marketing RIGHT NOW: 

• Geez, I am so sorry, [contact first name]
• gentle reminder – one last time 
• I saw this on Facebook and thought of you…
• From Zero to 50k – Meet Everett 
• Introduction… 
• (Time Sensitive) Did You See This 
• I’m Coming To Baltimore! 
• any plans September 18th?
• This Really Pissed Me Off 

2) Talk To Your List Like You’d Talk To A Friend

We have all heard the saying, “People buy from people they know, like, and trust.”

One way to position yourself as someone your audience feels like they know, like, and trust, is to speak to them like a person they know, like a trust… as a friend perhaps 🙂

This is very easy to do by writing your emails as you would write an email to a friend who would be an ideal customer or client for you.

You can even use informal language, abbreviations, or symbols in your emails if you really want to do this right.

When I write my emails I pretend I am writing to my friend Cheri who owns her own interior design company and is constantly investing in herself and business to up level her success. I write the email that I am going to send out to my community to her, and then reread it to make sure it truly has the right tone and language.

 

3) Test Your Time

The number one question I get asked most about email marketing is when should I send my emails?

It’s a smart question because the time and the day you send your emails does matter, especially when it comes to your open rate.

BUT there is no perfect day and time that works for everyone. It requires testing different days of the week and times of the day that you send your emails – over a period of time.

It’s a little tedious, but the information it yields could drastically increase your reach, which will have a domino effect in increasing your results.

Hope these tips help you with your email marketing open rates.