Clients receive hundreds of emails each week and have gotten pretty good at weeding out the bad messages from the good. They’ve developed their own internal “junk mail” filter that helps them spot and delete spammy messages without thinking twice.
If your open rates aren’t where they’re supposed to be, or if you’re seeing an atypical decrease in the numbers of opens, it could be because of these reasons.
1) Boring Subject Lines
It all starts with the subject line—your first and only chance to get them to click.
If your subjects are boring and unoriginal, they’re probably getting caught in your client’s filter. Creativity and originality are essential, so use different tactics like Linkbaiting to get clients interested.
Don’t ignore the length of your subject lines either. In general, longer subject lines work well for B2B. Shoot for between 6-10 words.
2) Email List Is Outdated
The bulk of your un-opened emails could be the result of sending messages to dead addresses. It takes about 90 seconds to set up a new email account, so don’t assume your customers will stick with one primary email address forever.
The more you can confirm and re-confirm your client’s interest in your emails the better.
If your lists need a major cleaning, consider using an alternative follow-up campaign offline. Have an intern make cold calls or draft a piece of direct mail asking clients to update their information.
3) Generic Email Addresses
Email is full of spam, so when a client sees an address like info@ or newsletter@, a red flag goes up and his internal filter gets rid of the message.
Don’t hide behind these generic addresses. Give your address a name. Humanize it. Emails that come from a real person’s email address tend to get better open rates, and the reason is simple—people prefer communicating with other people.
Address these three issues and watch as your open rates start to increase.
What other elements could cause an email not to be opened?
