How to Increase Email Open Rate: Tips for Bloggers

Are your subscribers opening your emails? If they’re not, they’re missing out on your great content and you’re missing out on creating relationships and making money. This post will show you easy tips to increase email open rate.

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Why is email marketing important for bloggers? The answer is: lead capture. You work hard to get traffic to your blog and it goes to waste if you’re not ready to capture those readers, build a relationship with them and make money. That’s why email marketing for bloggers matters.

If you’re just getting started with email marketing, be sure to also read:

• Why Email Marketing for Bloggers Matters (and How to Start for Free)

• Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers

• What to Send Your Email List: Email Marketing Tips for Bloggers

If you begin to master lead capture and start building a list, the hours you spend creating free incentives and writing email content, will then be all for nothing if your subscribers don’t even open your emails.

With this post, I will clarify what a good open rate is and then show you how to increase your email open rate with good email deliverability, click-worthy subject lines and other proven strategies.

What is a Good Email Open Rate?

The first thing to understand about email marketing is that not every subscriber is going to open your emails. Out of the people who actually receive your email, your open rate is the percentage of those subscribers who opened it.

You don’t have to do the math though because your email marketing account will show you that info, along with your click rates and unsubscribe rates.

The average open rate for email marketing is around 17-23%. If your rates are in this range, you’re probably doing just fine. And if they’re higher, pay attention to what’s working and keep it up!

My average open rate is a very healthy 30% right now and I send weekly broadcasts to my list, plus the occasional extra emails with special announcements.

Read on for easy tips to increase your email open rates and reach more of your subscribers.

How Email Deliverability Can Increase Email Open Rate

Before I show you how to get your emails opened, let’s make sure your emails are hitting your subscriber’s inbox in the first place.

You have to start by making sure you have a decent delivery rate. If your emails end up in spam folders, you won’t be creating a relationship with your readers and you won’t make money blogging.

The following tips will help improve email deliverability. Then we’ll talk about how to get your readers to open those emails.

Choose a Reliable Email Marketing Service 

Using a reputable email marketing service for bloggers is the single best thing you can do to improve your email open rate by avoiding spam folders.

Email marketing services like ConvertKit, Aweber, and MailerLite work hard to make sure they are white-listed with the big Internet Service Providers and email providers like Gmail. 

I use and recommend ConvertKit. To learn more about email marketing services and how to pick the best one for you, read Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers.

If you’re just getting started with email marketing read Why Email Marketing for Bloggers Matters (and How to Start for Free) to understand the many benefits of email marketing for bloggers and how easy it is to get started.

Set Expectations for Your Subscribers (and Honor Them) 

Let your subscribers know from the start how often they can expect an email from you. In your confirmation email for new subscribers, you can spell this out for them.

Make sure it’s clear on your blog, in your opt-in forms and in your emails what you write about and who you write for. Going off-topic will get you more unsubscribes, especially if you do it often. Give your subscribers exactly what they signed up for, and they’ll stick around.

You can set expectations by including a “coming up next week” section at the bottom of your emails so subscribers know when to expect your next message with a sneak peak to get them interested.

Honoring expectations will help increase your email open rate, keep your subscribers away from the “mark as spam” link and reduce unsubscribes. Together, these factors will improve your email deliverability and the likelihood of showing up in your reader’s inboxes and not their spam folders.

Once you’ve set clear expectations, do your best to keep your promise and email your readers what they expect to receive, when they expect to receive it. 

Read Easy Guide to Choosing a Blogging Niche + Free Workbook

Clean Up Your List Regularly 

Another factor that affects your email open rate is the amount of cold subscribers on your list. It’s a good practice to clean up your list on a regular basis, at least once each quarter. If you have subscribers that haven’t opened an email in 90 days or six months, chances are good they are no longer interested in what you have to offer. 

A smaller list who is paying attention is much better than a large list of subscribers who don’t open your emails!

ConvertKit

Check the help section or knowledge base of your email marketing service for info on how to go about removing inactive, or cold, subscribers.

ConvertKit makes it easy to clean up your list of cold subscribers, which they define as anyone who has been subscribed for at least 30 days and hasn’t opened an email in the past 90 days. If you use ConvertKit, read Cleaning and Managing Your List for instructions.

You can avoid a growing number of cold subscribers and unsubscribes by building a targeted list from the start:

• Offer free incentives that are a perfect match for your readers
• Be sure your freebie fits the type of content they’ll find in your emails
• Never buy a list of subscribers, nor add people who never gave permission
• Use double opt-in to further ensure your list is high quality
• Segment your list as needed to get the right content to the right subscribers

Craft Compelling Subject Lines to Increase Email Open Rate

The most important part of every email you write must be the subject line. If you can’t get your subscribers to open your emails, it really doesn’t matter how good the content inside is because no one’s going to read it. 

Many bloggers put energy into writing great email broadcasts and then just slap a subject line on it at the end, like an after-thought. Since it’s the first thing your subscribers see, you’ve gotta make it strong and interesting enough to get that open.

It Must Be Short Enough

You want your readers to see the entire subject line in their email list before they click it. Try to get your point across in 50 characters or less. Pay attention to how your subject lines look on mobile.

Find Great Ideas from the Emails in Your Own Inbox

If you’re like most mom bloggers, you’re already on a bunch of subscription lists. If you’re not, I recommend you subscribe to a few leaders in your niche (as well as my list, of course!)

Free Weekly Checklist for Bloggers

Notice the email subject lines that inspire you to open the email. Start a notebook or spreadsheet of the best subject lines you find. Then use the list as a guide and adapt the style of the best subject lines to fit your own topics. Return to your list of subject lines and use them as templates to craft email subject lines that fit your own content.

For more ideas on what to email your list read What to Send Your Email List: Email Marketing Tips for Bloggers

Use Variety in Your Subject Lines

Mix up your subject lines. Some can be direct, such as “10 Best Ways to Get More Traffic” and some more vague to really pique curiosity such as “Whatever You Do, Avoid this Common Mistake!”.

Experiment with different styles. When relevant, use subject lines that are timely to the season or current events.

You can use A/B testing to try out different subject lines for the same email. If you utilize the “Resend to unopens” feature in ConvertKit, change the subject line the second time around to increase email opens.

Read Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers

Avoid Spammy Language 

Try to avoid using the kinds of words we all associate with spam emails. Words like sale, discount, coupon, free, limited time offer and reminder are overused. Even if they don’t trigger a spam filter, and actually make it to your reader’s inbox, these subject lines are more likely to be ignored.

Consider Personalizing Your Email Broadcasts

Studies show emails that are personalized in the subject line get opened more often. I’m not a fan, but you might want to experiment with this strategy. Just don’t overdo it. Use it when you really need them to open the email. 

The Worst Possible Subject Lines (Do Not Use!)

Please, for the love of all that’s holy, do not ever – ever – write a subject line like this:

Newsletter for August

Julie’s Blog Newsletter

Latest Newsletter

New Blog Post

Unless you are my BFF (and I feel bad for you) there is absolutely no chance I’m going to open an email with a painfully dull and uninviting subject line like this. Subject lines like these are a perfect example of ignoring the reader’s needs and interests. If you do that, no one will want what you have to offer.

Always, with everything you write on your blog, social media and email marketing, keep your reader in mind. What solution is she looking for? What need can your content fill? Make sure to have her interests in mind when you write your email subject lines and you’ll increase your open rates.

Read What to Send Your Email List: Email Marketing Tips for Bloggers

Create Anticipation with Teasers to Increase Email Open Rate

As you wrap up one email, mention what’s coming in your next email. This can arouse the reader’s interest so they’re looking forward to the next email from you. 

You may experiment with a vague teaser or a more direct preview. See what best grabs your reader’s attention. 

For example (in the baby niche), if you write an email about why cloth diapering is great, the next email might be about your favorite cloth diaper products. You may end the email with something like: “Keep an eye out for Thursday’s email. I’ll share my TOP picks for cloth diapering success. Don’t toss the disposables before reading this!” 

Then the next email might start with “As Promised…” which piques interest even if the subscriber didn’t open the previous email.

Get More Opens with a Series

You may be able to inspire more readers to open your emails when they’re marketed as being a part of a series. You can offer a series as an opt-in incentive, or even occasionally as part of your broadcast strategy.

Make it clear that each email in the series is related. Set the expectation by letting readers know how many emails are coming in the series, and if they’re coming more often than your usual schedule.

Towards the beginning of each email in the series, reference a previous email by subject line, to encourage them to go back and read it. End each email with a tease of what’s coming up in the next email in that series. If it’s a topic your audience really enjoys, you could get a huge boost in open rates.

Pay Attention to Patterns to Increase Email Open Rate

It’s important to experiment and pay attention, to discover what works best for your list of subscribers.

Study past emails you’ve sent and look for patterns. Note each broadcast’s open rates, click through rates and unsubscribes. If a large percentage of readers opened the email, that’s a good indication they were interested in the topic. If they clicked links inside the email to read additional content, that’s even better.

On the other hand, emails with a low open rate or unsubscribes, indicate the topic was a poor fit for your audience, or the email subject line was misleading or boring. 

Does a particular topic do really well, or really poorly? Is there a particular day or time that gets better results for you? What kinds of subject lines get the most opens?

Every list is unique so it’s important to study what works for yours. Make note of patterns as you continue to grow, and use that information to increase your email open rates in future broadcasts, series and campaigns.

With a higher open rate, you will have more opportunity to create connection with your subscribers, draw more traffic to your blog and make money.

Grow Your List with List by Number

If you’re struggling to get started with email marketing, I highly recommend checking out Suzi Whitford’s popular eCourse, List by Number!

This thorough eCourse lets you work at your pace and includes 50 videos, email templates and in-depth tutorials for using ConvertKit or MailerLite. From beginner basics to advanced strategies, List by Number will show you how to grow from 0 to thousands of subscribers.

With List by Number you will quickly learn how to:

• create high converting forms and optins
• send broadcasts (aka newsletters) to your list
• build funnels and automation sequences
• design attractive freebies and printables
• use tagging and segmenting
• grow your email list with 24 great ideas
• make money while growing your list
• create welcome sequences and courses-by-email

Don’t let overwhelm hold you back from jumping into email marketing. It is THE best way to engage with your readers and make money with your blog. I recommend List by Number for you, or check out one-on-one coaching.

Get into action and start creating the success you want!

What gets readers opening your emails?

Have you experimented with different subject lines and other ideas to get more emails opened? Share your tips or ask a question in the comments below.

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• Why Email Marketing for Bloggers Matters (and How to Start for Free)
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• Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers