Creating and sending great looking emails that don't get opened is always disappointing! We want to help you avoid that, so here are some tips and tricks to increase your open rates.
A KISSmetrics article says this about email frequency that increases open rates:
Stage 1: Value Addiction (days 1-15)
Send more often in this phase than any others, but DON'T sell your product until the end of the phase. Just provide great content that will educate and engage your users.
Stage 2: Sticking (days 16-35)
Slow down your sending frequency, but you can start selling your products. Just remember, they probably won't buy yet.
Stage 3: Rapport (days 35+)
Slow down some more, deepen your connection with your subscribers by providing increasingly segmented content over a longer period of time.
Stage 4: Loyalty (customers)
Keep about the same sending intervals as the "Rapport" stage, and remember to continue giving great content to your loyal customers.
* You can adjust these time frames as needed to fit your specific business, while keeping the concept in mind.
Some other things to remember:
Take a look at what your recipients see. Sender, Subject Line, Preview Text – would you open it? Send from an individual, not an "info@" or "company@" address. Personalizing your subject line gets a 17% higher click-through rate according to MarketingSherpa.
Avoid getting sent to SPAM. It's impossible to know every criteria email clients use to determine SPAM, but there are some things you can do. Be cognizant to send only to opted-in contacts, segment and tailor your messages to each group of recipients, avoid using too many images, double-check your spelling, etc.
Segment! Any good BenchmarkONE user knows that we are passionate about this one. Use tags to help send the right information to the right people at the right time.
Test, Track, and Adjust. Look at your handy email metrics in BenchmarkONE and see what emails are getting opened the most. Ask yourself: Are they text-based or image-based? What day/time are they being opened? Which emails are doing the best? Mimic those.
In the end, perfecting email deliverability can be a bit of trial and error. Take the time to figure out what YOUR prospective customers do – it's worth the effort!