Why Is My Email Open Rate So Low?

It’s estimated that by 2025, more than 376 billion emails will be sent every day. As you might imagine, it’s all too easy for your message to get lost in that sea of subject lines. 

Many people deal with information overload, which means they’re overwhelmed by the sheer amount of messages or data presented to them. This can be a significant problem for a business, as companies rely on email marketing to grow and thrive. 

Is your email open rate lower than you’d like? If so, there are a few reasons why that could be. Keep reading, as we cover the most common mistakes businesses make, how to improve your marketing campaign, and much more. 

Bad Subject Lines

Since your customers or clients receive so many emails every day, they have to rely on reading the subject lines to get a better idea of which messages are worth their time and what ones they can ignore. 

You have only seconds to create a first impression in real life. This is true in the digital sphere as well. Your emails may only have a few seconds or less to catch their attention and interest them. 

If you aren’t spending time crafting relevant and eye-catching subject lines, that could be the reason for a low email open rate. 

You must also consider your audience. Understand what interests them and predict their habits. 

If you’re handling a B2B email list, then a string of emojis may not be the best option. After all, the last thing you want is for your emails to end up in the spam folder. However, it may be an effective strategy if your target audience is younger or more tech-savvy. 

If you want to avoid spam traps, consider these tips: 

• Grab their attention
• Make them curious
• Keep it relevant
• Drive action
• Consider personalizing
• Create a sense of urgency
• Keep it concise
• Use A/B testing
• Avoid spam trigger words
• Make adjustments as needed

The Content Isn’t Relevant

If you don’t understand your audience then you might be wasting your time creating and sending out irrelevant information to the wrong people. 

For instance, if you’re opening a new store in a particular city, you might send an email announcement to generate interest. However, if you’re sending the email to people who are hundreds of miles away, the message isn’t relevant to them. 

So, what’s the solution? Familiarize yourself with the different types of emails and start segmenting your master email list.

List segmentation ensures that you’re sending the right message to the correct audience. 

You have a master email list, but if you split it into smaller segments, you can send targeted emails. As a result, you’ll often increase your email open rate because the content is relevant to them. 

You Haven’t Verified Your Address List

One of the most common emailing problems that companies encounter is also one of the most preventable. 

If you’re sending marketing emails to addresses that are no longer active or inaccurate, then it’s going to sit unopened or bounce back. This harms your open rate and can skew your statistics.  

A bounce-back email occurs when a message can’t reach a recipient’s mailbox. When this happens, you will get a non-delivery report (NDR). 

You may get a “hard bounce” when a recipient’s email address doesn’t exist or if a domain has expired. It can also occur if you make a typo or mistake when sending a message, such as typing .con rather than .com. 

The problem with a bounce is that it can make your account more vulnerable to spam filters. 

To avoid these problems, you have to keep an eye on your key metrics. For instance, knowing how to calculate email bounce rates will give you a good idea of whether your messages are even making it to the recipient.

It’s easy to calculate your bounce rate. Simply take the number of bounced emails and divide it by the number of emails sent and then multiply it by 100. 

So, if you send 10,000 emails and 100 bounce, you’d have a bounce rate of one percent. Once you know the rate, you can figure out why those messages aren’t going through. It could be as simple as someone making a typo while filling out a contact form, or it could be an inactive address. 

How to Verify Email Addresses

Regularly verifying email addresses reduces your bounce rate, helps you reach more people, and improves your metrics. 

We make the process simple here at MailVerifier.io and provide all the services you need to regularly check your email list. Our email verification tool helps you clean up your address list by removing inactive accounts. 

You want to ensure that your marketing emails are only going to active recipients. Once you clean up your list, you’ll be surprised by how quickly that email open rate can improve. 

Boring Content

You might reach the right people, but if the content isn’t interesting and valuable, then they won’t care. They’ll be less likely to open your emails in the future if they don’t think it’s worth their time to read. 

People sign up for emails because they expect to receive something valuable in return. It might be news about the latest sales, special coupons, or advice. Essentially, you want to give them something in return for their time. 

This is another reason you must know your audience. 

So, how can you make your marketing emails more interesting and valuable? 

You might want to try adding more interactive elements and dynamic content to increase digital customer engagement. For example, gamification is a big trend. However, even including quizzes or polls can generate more interest. 

A very simple but effective way to keep your subscribers interested is to provide them with tips and advice. How-to guides and weekly tip guides will keep them coming back for more. 

You Don’t Personalize

Personalizing your emails is a highly effective way to get your audience to open and read your marketing messages. 

It takes more than adding their name in the subject line. You must consider their past activities and send emails based on their actions. 

For example, if a customer leaves an item in their cart but clicks away from your website before making a purchase, they have abandoned their cart for some reason. 

Last year alone, 71.72% of online shopping carts were abandoned. Sometimes people are window shopping or they change their minds. Whatever the reason, you can set a trigger email to reach them and encourage them to proceed through the sales funnel. 

Trigger emails go out to subscribers after they take an action, such as purchasing an item, abandoning their cart, or signing up for your newsletters. They’re more personalized and designed to encourage further action. For instance, you might send them an email with recommendations based on past purchases. 

Hyper-personalization is one of the latest trends in email marketing. Implementing this strategy can improve open rates by up to 42% and boost your email conversion rate. 

Strategies for Personalized Marketing Emails

Ask yourself, why would a recipient want to open this email? It’s common for a company to send out emails based on what they need without considering what their recipients want. 

Shift your focus to customer-centric emails, which perform better anyway. 

You can begin crafting more personalized emails by collecting data, such as which products certain customers are drawn to or learning their shopping habits.

Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to collect data with the right tools. It’s just up to you to use them. 

You Send Too Many Emails

Since billions of emails go out every day, companies that send messages too frequently can irritate their customers. 

How much is considered “too much?”

The answer isn’t easy to define and it may vary based on the recipient. That’s why it’s best to give your subscribers the option to control email frequency. Rather than outright unsubscribing, they may simply reduce the number of emails sent to one or two per week. 

Keep a close eye on your metrics. If you notice a pattern of people unsubscribing or not opening messages, it may be time to reevaluate your schedule. 

You Skip A/B Testing

A/B testing is a valuable strategy for marketers that allows them to gauge how well a strategy works. 

Essentially, you’ll send two versions of an email to two different sample groups. If one gets a higher open rate and more click-throughs, you can send that version to the rest of your recipients. 

Split testing can help you pinpoint the best subject lines, test emojis, figure out what types of CTAs work, etc. In short, it can help you to increase your open rates and avoid the spam folder. 

Improve Your Email Open Rate

These are some of the most common reasons for a low email open rate. You must think about the wants and needs of your customers and clients, personalize your messages, keep an eye on your metrics, and perform regular testing to find the best strategies for your business. 

At MailVerifier.io, we offer email deliverability solutions to make the process easier. Improve your email performance with our verification tool and never worry about inactive addresses again. Browse our plans to find the perfect solution for your business.