How do I increase email open rates

The sender name and subject line of your emails are the most important factors in getting them opened and read. Believe it or not, but this can make a huge difference.  Research from pinpointed marketing found that by using a specific personal name, rather than a general email address or company name, you can increase open rates by as much as 35%.

If a subject line is too long, it will get cut off and your reader will not know what the email is about and could ignore it. This is especially important for mobile readers as the subject line character length is even shorter

If you link to a video within your email, you can also include the word “video” in your subject line. It’s something we have tested and including the word video increased our open rates by 6%!

Improving your email open rates doesn’t require a lot of heavy lifting.

1. Invest in your subject line

Your subject ideas is one of the most important lines of your entire email. Similar to an article headline or the tagline of an ad, your subject line is meant to draw people in and get them interested in what you have to offer.

Generic subject lines like “April Newsletter” or “News from [Your Business]” probably aren’t going to cut it. Invest some extra time in your subject line before hitting send. Here are 5 ideas to help you get started:

  • The question: Using a question in your subject line is a great way to make a more personal connection with the people viewing your emails.
  • The command: Sometimes it pays off to be more direct with your audience as a way to get them to take action.
  • The teaser: Believe it or not, people love cliffhangers. And if crafted correctly, the teaser tactic will pique interest and entice subscribers to read on.
  • The list: Lists make it easier for people to consume the information you’re sending out. They also give you the chance to demonstrate your points in a more compelling way.
  • The announcement: Subject lines don’t have to be complicated, especially if the goal of your email is to announce something new. Be straightforward about what your email is about.

2. Fix your ‘from name’

The from fields let readers know who an email is coming from. If you’re not thinking carefully about the information you put into these fields, you could be making it difficult for people to recognize your email when it lands in their inbox.

People are skeptical of emails when they don’t know the sender; they could be less likely to open and more likely mark your email as spam. Use a familiar from name and from email address that represents your business. If possible use an email address with your business’s name in it, rather than a personal email.

3. Find the best time to send

There are certain times of days when your readers are more likely to open and read your emails. One of the easiest ways to find the best time to send is to segment your list into 2-3 equally sized groups and send the same copy of your email during different times of the day (morning, afternoon, and evening). Try this test for a few different mailings and keep track of which version gets the highest open rate.

This will take a little extra time, but over the course of a few weeks, you should have a strong indication of when your readers are most likely to open.

To help you determine the best day/time to send, we analyzed a collection of Constant Contact customer mailings. You can use this chart to identify a good time to send, based on the results of others in your industry.

4. Get to know your audience

You may know and understand the needs of your customers, but how much do you really know about the people on your email list

Understanding your email audience is critical to getting the results you want from your email campaigns. When you learn more about your list, you can start to target your contacts with more relevant information.

5. Revisit your sign-up process

Successful open rates start the moment someone joins your email list. It’s your responsibility to make sure they understand what they’re signing up for, and then follow through with the expectations you have set.

Framework for high converting outreach emails

This is the most time-consuming step, but it’s by far, the most fruitful. Before you even think about sending an email, you need to get on the blogger’s radar.

At a basic level, this could include:

  • Commenting on their blog
  • Sharing their content on social media and tagging them
  • Replying to their social media updates
  • Help them out with something – e.g. an error on their site they may have missed

It’s also worth having set up to display your profile picture. This should be the same profile picture on your social networks – it will make you more recognizable when you eventually email them.

  • Personalization

At a bare minimum, you should be including the name of the person you’re trying to reach.  If you don’t know it – go and find it because people will be far more likely to reply. If you’re emailing a generic email address, look for a contact who works at that company – a little bit of personalization goes a long way.

A good example is an outreach email I received a while back; where the marketer referenced something personal from my Twitter account (my love of Chinese food and watching re-runs of Firefly).

  • Help the recipient

Many outreach emails are just poorly written pitches that mostly ask people to give up their time for free and by doing something to help the blogger out, before you’ve even asked them for anything – you’re far more likely to grab their attention. But, to be clear – you need to do something to help them.

I get a lot of pitches from startups that want me to write reviews of their tools, and they make out they’re giving me a super exclusive free trial. Then I discover that it’s the same free trial that everyone gets.

You could give them a heads up on a bug on their site, or it could be something as basic as sharing one of their posts with your audience.

  • What do you want them to do for you?

Be absolutely crystal clear with what you’re asking from the blogger. The key here is to make the call-to-action sound like it’s beneficial to both of you.

  • What’s in it for them?

By this point, you’ll have already done something to help the blogger you’re trying to connect with. That’s usually enough, but not always so I recommend going a step further.

The idea here is to tell them what you’ll do if they agree to your call-to-action. I particularly like to focus on the challenges that bloggers face when agreeing to someone else’s request.

A lot of bloggers will publish guest posts and then realize that the contributor has no interest in sharing the post with their audience or replying to comments.

  • Let them know who you are

A lot of outreach emails come from random Gmail accounts with no way of finding out that that person really is. No links to their website, social profiles or anything.

This makes it difficult to put any trust in that person’s ability to write a decent post for your audience. So, use your email signature here – include your name, links to your personal social profiles and include a link back to your site.

How to cold email a VIP (Elite people)

I kept emailing Seth God in. I would write this beautiful email – and he would write me back one line. At the time, I thought that was pretty rude. Now that I get over 1,000 emails daily, I understand the time demands Seth has. And I’m humbled he even sent me a response.

Today, I’m going to show you three steps you can use to make your email stand out in a busy person’s inbox so you get a reply. These strategies will make unreachable VIPs drop what they’re doing to respond to you.

Step 1: Focus on what’s in it for THEM

The person you’re trying to reach is busier, more important, and more successful than you. So you need to give them a reason to open your email. You need to make sure your subject line is engaging. Otherwise they’ll hit delete.

He not only complimented me, he shared the results he’s gotten from my advice. Everyone loves a genuine compliment. It shows that you’re familiar with their work. So before you even introduce yourself, compliment your VIP and their work.

Tell them how long you’ve been following them, results you’ve gotten from their advice, and/or your favorite bit of information they’ve said or written. This will hook them into reading the rest of your email.

Step 2: Make them care

Sometimes you might be fortunate enough to have a common connection with the VIP. If that’s the case, name drop so they know how you know them. In most other cases, you need to establish a common ground quickly.

You can set yourself apart from 99% of the crowd like  this by using the briefcase technique. This requires some homework. You need to know exactly what would benefit your busy VIP. You need to find out the problems they’re having that you can solve.

This means deeply understanding their hopes, fears, and dreams before you pitch them. Go deep and get inside your VIP head.

Then you can offer them an enticing menu of potential solutions that outlines exactly how you can eliminate their biggest headaches. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.

For example, say you notice they’re doing more video and you know a way they can improve them to get more subscribers. Tell them. In fact, go ahead and do it for them or if you’re a pro at SEO, identify ways they can improve their website and share that with them.

Step 3: Make saying “yes” a no – brainer

My reader put me in an interesting position. He knew I had a few projects I wanted to do but hadn’t made the time for yet. While you can tell he’s fishing for paid work, he counters by letting me know that be happy just for the opportunity to network and receive a little advice.”

This is where respecting the power dynamic really comes into play. You reached out to them. You are asking for their time. This means you should proactively offer to meet them at their location of choice, or give them the option of Skype or a phone call.

Some people don’t have the time to hop on the phone or maybe they prefer replying by email. Either way, gives them immediate access to you. As a bonus, if you have a website to show samples of your work, include it. That’s additional proof that you’re the person to get these projects done.

Now here’s your challenge:

  • Brainstorm ONE busy VIP you’d love to contact, and then shoot them an email.
  • In the comments below, share your story and the response you got.

Get Big Wins with word-for-word email scripts you can start using now

When I was starting out, I would have killed for word-for-word email scripts proven to work. Today I want to give you some scripts I’ve developed so you don’t have to struggle like I did.

These scripts have worked for thousands of my students – people like you who know the importance of email and want to get it right. These scripts cover:

  • How to set up an informational interview
  • How to ask for recommendations for people to talk to
  • How to cold email a stranger for advice
  • How to write a pitch for a consulting gig or a job interview
  • How to reach out to others in your company to get to know them

Personalize your cold outreach emails

1. Find an uncommon commonality

The quickest way to win someone over is to show how much you have in common. That’s because we tend to trust those who are similar to us. This psychological principle works even better when you emphasize something unusual you have in common with another person. Give and Take author Adam Grant does a great job.

2. Highlight mutual connections

It’s a feeling that is all too familiar for anyone who has received an impersonated B2B sales email. Here’s someone they don’t know, telling them what they need in order to do their job better.

Mentioning a mutual connection in the body of your email is one way to avoid this unfortunate scenario. Because when it comes to valuing the opinions of others, we take cues from people take cues from people we already know and trust. It also shows that you’ve done your research and you mean business – literally.

How to personalize your emails using mutual connections

There’s a couple ways to go about this:

  • Have your mutual connection send the email for you. Sign up for a tool like Conspire that analyzes your contact list to identify acquaintances who can introduce you to the person you want to reach.
  • Reference their colleagues or other decision makers. This is great social proof that shows you’re being taken seriously by people they can relate to.

3. Send your email when it is most likely to be opened

Your customers might be early morning mobile reader,  or they might respond faster if you email them on a afternoon.. So, why not send your personalized emails at a specific time that will have the most impact.

How to personalize emails according to your prospect’s schedule

At Yes ware, we’re able to pinpoint the best times to send through the Yes ware Email Open Activity report in Sales force. It shows us when prospects are actually opening the emails our sales team sends them, drawn from all the email activity and engagement data that has been automatically synced into sales force.

Our take-away: Tuesday afternoons are the best times to send emails to our prospects. As you can see in the graph below, that’s when opens are at their highest. If you’re not using sales force, you could also A/B test sending your email at various times to find the best time to send. What matters most is that you’re using data to inform your strategy.

 
4. Reference specific hiring pain points

Addressing someone’s specific pain points can be a powerfully effective way of writing personalized emails and earning their reply. That’s because pain motivates action even more than plessure.  To find what’s keeping your prospect up at night, look no further than their company Careers page.

How to Create Personalized Emails From Open Job Postings

Check the open job listings on your prospect’s company’s website to see if they’re hiring anyone who would use your product. These postings will tell you:

  • The pain points that have prompted the company to hire additional resources.
  • The title of the hiring manager, who will most likely be the decision maker you’re trying to reach.

Strike a chord by bringing up the issues that your prospect is experiencing, and then offer a more immediate solution than a new hire. Here’s how one Yes ware sales rep did just that (and got a reply).

5. Use their name more than once

“Few things light us up quite like seeing our own names in print or on the screen,” explains Copy blogger. Our name is tied to self-perception and our identity. Hearing it engages us. There’s actually science that backs this up.

6. Personalize with praise

Use compliments in your personalized emails to create subconscious, positive attitudes of you and your company. It works, even when a prospect recognizes it for what it is a sales tactic. Research shows that your prospect will still develop a positive attitude towards you.

How to personalize emails using (sincere) praise

Check these places for news you can use:

  • ·         LinkedIn → recent promotions
  • ·         Google → funding announcements, product launches, or other announced achievements
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