Companies are writing tons of emails every day. Worldwide, 269 billion emails were sent and received each day in 2017. That figure according to Statista, is expected to grow to almost 320 billion daily emails in 2021.
Breaking it down even further, according to Radicati there are 124.5 billion business emails sent and received each day in 2018. Whilst with consumer emails, there are 111.1 billion emails sent and received each day.
With all of these emails being sent, how can you ensure that yours gets clicked open every time? Even when you do get your email opened, how can you get the reader to click on the call to action so that your email converts?
In this blog post, we shall be looking at these questions further and how you can improve your stats.
Subject Lines That Improve Your Stats
Your first stat that you will be looking at are the open rates. Subject lines are the ultimate decider if your email will get opened or sent to the bin. Here are 2 strategies to get your email opened by your subscriber so you improve your stats.
Strategy #1 Personalization
To start with you need to look at your opening statement to your email subscriber, your subject line. A great opener or closer for a subject line is the use of personalization.
At the time people choose to subscribe to your email list, ask for their first name.
Why?
Getting the subscribers first name, you can craft subject lines to include their first name. By adding the first name, email subscribers are more likely to pay attention to the subject line. It can leave subscribers feel that the email is for them and not for the masses. Therefore, they are left feeling intrigued as to what you have to say to them and open your email.
Just by adding this small touch to your subject line will help improve your stats. So add the first name wherever it fits naturally. Start, middle or end of the subject line, it doesn’t really matter. What is important, it is in there and naturally fits the copy within the whole subject line.
Strategy #2 Use Powerful Copy
In creating a good subject line, you have to use clever words that get your subscriber’s attention and make them want to open the email. To make your copy more powerful, here are over 100 words that will improve your open rates.
Here are 3 useful tips as to how you can use these words and get email opened every time.
Useful Tip #1 Curiosity
Provoking curiosity in the email subject line always works wonders in improving your open rates. An example of a subject line using curiosity and personalization is “Is this the hottest career in digital marketing [NAME]?
Beware, do not write anything too obscure or you will end up lost forever in the spam folder.
Useful Tip #2 Urgency
Urgency, scarcity or FOMO (fear of missing out), whatever you prefer to call it, it works wonders when improving your open rates. Adding urgency to the subject line compels the reader to take action immediately. Not wait around for hours or days until they can get back to it.
Useful Tip #3 Relevance
Your subscribers are only interested in one thing. They are interested in themselves and what is currently trending affects them. Add how the email is relevant to them in the subject line and you will have an increase in your open rates.
6 Mistakes To Avoid In Your Subject Line (At All Costs)
It is all well and good to discuss what gets emails opened. But there are mistakes being made in subject lines that get 69% of emails reported and sent to the spam folder.
Mistake #1 Generic Subject Lines
Subscribers do not respond well to emails that are sent to everybody in a one-size fits all approach. Which is why you want to use personalization always in your emails subject line.
Mistake #2 No preheader text
Preheader text is the text below or next to the subject line as the image above shows.
Preheader text is your opportunity to hook your email subscribers’ interest with these extra characters as to what the email is about and why they should read it.
Mistake #3 No Mobile Optimization
81% of people are now regularly checking their smartphones for emails as it is easier than ever to have conversations with people via email.
Avoid making this mistake by making mobile-friendly emails. When creating your emails, preview as to how it would look on a mobile. If you can’t read the subject line and preheader text clearly, then edit it until you can. This is what will make or break your success at getting more open rates by mobile users.
Mistake #4 Shouting At Your Subscriber
Nobody likes to be shouted at and this includes your email subscriber. You may be wondering how you can shout at an email subscriber. But this is possible as the image below shows.
When ALL CAPS are used in a subject line, you give the impression that you are shouting at them. Therefore, you will end up being perceived as rude, possibly reported or moved to the spam folder.
Mistake #5 Use Of Special Characters
ALL CAPS is not the only mistake to avoid, special characters are also a big no as the image below shows.
In particular, characters such as $ # @ & among many others should be left off the subject line. Otherwise you could find the email being deleted rather than increasing your open rates.
Mistake #6 Keep It Short
Business owners and consumers are busy people. Too busy to read a novel, they just want you to get straight to the point in a clear and concise way.
As the image shows 6 – 10 words are the optimum amount of words to be used in a subject line to increase your open rates. Another takeaway from the above image is that the more words you write the less likely it is you will get any opens. So always keep your subject lines short with every word being well thought out to increase open rates.
Subject lines are your first point of contact with your email subscribers. Avoid all of the mistakes that were mentioned and use the 3 tips to increase your open rates.
Boost Your Click-Through Rate With Power Words
Click-through rate is measured by when an email subscriber clicks on your call-to-action within your email. To increase your click-through rates by improving the whole copy throughout your email not just in the call-to-action.
Power words are words that copywriters and marketers use to grab the reader’s attention from the beginning and keep them reading to the end. They are using words that trigger an emotional response
Therefore, to use this fact in your favor you need to understand the psychology of power words in emails.
3 Essential Components Of Better Email Psychology
#1 Don’t Be Formal
Unless you are writing to another business where there is a need to be formal, you should always be writing an email like you are writing to a friend. Setting this tone in your email, will leave a more relaxed feeling and help you engage more with the reader.
#2 Have Visuals
Having visuals in emails increases click-through rates by 127%. Start your email with a visual such as GIF, video or image will help the reader understand exactly what the email is about and entertain them.
#3 Keep Your Content Short
As with your subject lines, you want to keep the email itself short as people are busy. Get straight to the point in your emails by having 5 or 6 sentences that don’t go too deep with lots of information they don’t need.
Getting straight to the point you will keep the reader engaged and click-through to your offer, which is your entire goal.
Conclusion
To improve your stats you need to look at the words you use. In improving your click-through rates, you want to have subject lines and preheader text that speak to your individual email subscriber. Always personalize subject lines so you don’t lose email subscribers with blanket one-size fits all subject lines.
In all of your copy whether in your subject line or main body of content, keep it straight to the point and be conversational with them. After all, you are talking to another human and they want to feel that they too are talking with another human, not a robot.
When you use all of this advice you will see a dramatic improvement in your click-through stats and open rates.
