You’re an ambitious email marketer.
Sure, you may already drive open rates higher than the measly 21.5% average benchmark. Click-throughs might be accelerating. Revenue could be flowing.
But you still find yourself staring at inboxes packed with unopened emails. Untapped potential waiting behind an ignored subject line.
It keeps you up at night, doesn’t it?
You pour over email analytics, but the key to sky-high open rates eludes you. You scour forums, listen to podcasts, and dig for clues on what that top 1% of email marketers know that you don’t.
Because you know – there are hidden truths. Secret subject line techniques that utterly transform an inbox. You see big shots using them as easily as embedding images in responsive MailChimp email templates.
But when you try to replicate it…nothing.
Well, my friend, you’ve come to the right place. No matter which of the below open rates is your industry benchmark, I’ll help you exceed it:
You’ll soon learn open rate boosting tactics so powerful yet so subtle that your subscribers won’t even realize what hit them.
Intrigued, aren’t you?
If so, you’re precisely the type of marketer I wrote this for:
Without wasting much time, let us see how you can instantly improve your open rates right after you finish reading these tips:
Creating a sense of urgency and scarcity in email subject lines can significantly boost open rates. When you signal that an offer is time-sensitive, such as using [24 Hours Only], it plays on the psychological principle of scarcity, suggesting that something is more valuable because it is less available.
This tactic can be incredibly effective for promoting limited-time offers, contests, or unlocking special content. However, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that you shouldn’t overdo this particular tactic, or else you’ll end up ruining any chance of building anticipation in your subscribers forever. The key is to maintain a balance that piques interest without compromising the integrity of your message.
Curiosity is a powerful motivator for email recipients. By intentionally leaving out key details or using placeholders like “…” or [X] in your subject lines, you create a compelling mystery that recipients will want to solve. This approach encourages them to open the email to discover the missing information.
For instance, teasing with a subject line like “Discover the [X] Minute Ritual to Boost Sales” or posing an intriguing question can dramatically increase your email open rates.
The objective is to craft a subject line that is both mysterious and relevant, promising valuable insights that compel the reader to explore further.
It is necessary that you understand and align with your subscribers’ problems, goals, and aspirations before you try to write a perfect subject line. If you crack the answers to these questions based on how they’ve responded to all previous communications, it becomes far easier to drive email open rates and even conversions.
At the same time, it reduces the chances of your readers unsubscribing you since the emails appear within the context of their thought process.
Refreshing the appearance of your emails without resorting to spammy tactics is a subtle art. Playing with punctuation, using line breaks creatively, or introducing small surprises in your subject line formatting can make your emails stand out.
The thing is, you can use the typical subject lines most of the time and experiment with attention-grabbing ones with “Here’s the thing:” to keep your email sequences fresh and engaging. This way, you can continue maintaining your sender reputation and credibility while also keeping the spark alive between you and your subscribers.
Incorporating local events, weather conditions, landmarks, or cultural references can significantly increase the relevancy and interest of your emails.
For instance, mentioning ticket sales for a popular local event or highlighting a cultural festival can create a personal connection with your audience.
However, it’s vital to ensure that these references are relevant to your email content to avoid appearing spammy. You can also mention events that are happening in close proximity to the subscriber to make your emails feel more personal on an instant basis.
You know what’s better than delivering value in subject lines? Building anticipation. You can start your subject lines with conjunctions like “But guess what?” or go on to introduce incomplete thoughts such as “Here’s what you didn’t know about.” In most cases, curiosity gets the better of your subscribers.
This approach reveals just the necessary cues in lieu of revealing important details, exclusive insights or unexpected surprises. It makes the act of opening email much more of a need than a mere response to a message.
For long-term subscribers who might have grown accustomed to, or even weary of, more gimmicky subject lines, occasionally testing more straightforward approaches can be refreshing.
Simplified subject lines that clearly communicate the primary benefit or value proposition, such as “Enjoy 20% Off All Month” or announcing “Our Biggest Product Launch EVER,” can be very effective. Sometimes, the direct promise of value, without the need for clever tricks or tactics, resonates more strongly, especially with those who appreciate simplicity and directness in communication.
Now that you have learned how to write relatively better subject lines from “open rate” point of view, let us see how you can optimize them:
Truly optimized subject lines directly speak to the pain points, aspirations, and burning questions within your subscriber base. Make it your mission to intimately understand your core reader personas through surveys, interviews, and subscriber analytics. Track shifts in content consumption patterns over time as well. Lean into subject lines that align with evolving user needs.
Even the most seasoned email marketers must not assume that they can create the perfect subject lines based on intuition and experience.
A relevant permutation or combination of words that are yet to be tested always exists. You must consistently perform A/B tests to understand your evolving audience, their purchase intent, and where they fit in your customer lifecycle.
I’d recommend you set aside time to methodically pore through post-send statistics – opens, clicks, contact drop-off rates, and beyond. This will aid you in defining what specifically motivated your subscribers to engage. Then, double down on amplifying those catalytic elements in future campaigns.
Every email marketer must know that inbox platforms govern message exposure and visibility. When Gmail, iOS Mail, or Outlook update algorithms in a way that reshapes inbox hierarchies, re-optimization becomes critical. Make it a point to closely track release notes and updates to preempt potential disruptions through informed subject lines and deliverability adjustments.
Remember, the fastest way to figure out how you can make the reader open your email is to envision what value your CTA button will deliver and make it obvious in the subject line. Everything else will fall in place because email marketing is as simple and as complicated as you make it. I hope these seven tips will make you better equipped to get higher open rates.