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How to Keep Your Email Open Rate from Dropping

Inbox on cellphone screen

4 Ways to Prevent Low Email Open Rates

There’s no better feeling from an email marketing perspective than seeing high open rates after sending an email you worked on for days. Your open rate shows your audience’s engagement level, and you want to make those numbers increase, taking the necessary measure to ensure they don’t drop.

 If you start noticing your open rates are decreasing, you can bet something is going on. Here are four things you should keep in mind to ensure your open rates stay above the red line:

Keep Email Size Under 102KB

Having a lot of information in an email is not always a good idea. Email clients will likely clip emails that are too big. If you want to ensure your email is displayed intact, you must make sure it’s lighter than 102KB; otherwise, email users will be asked to click on “View Entire Message,” which will load the full email in their browser.

Before you send out your email, mail it to yourself at different email accounts to ensure it loads correctly. Be sure to use optimized images and use an HTML sizing tool to confirm your email’s length is what it should be.

Man checking email on smart phone

Use a Spam Checker

A spam filter could block you without ever noticing it. Luckily, there are ways to prevent that. If your email raises any spam flags, email providers will send it straight through to the user’s junk email folder —along with all your effort— where it is improbable they see it. Not only does this affect your open rate, but it takes a toll on your deliverability rates too. Words like ‘affordable,’ ‘money,’ ‘purchase,’ ‘open,’ and “free access” are some of the ones that create spam red flags. There are many email spam checker tools online, free and paid for, that can minimize your email’s chances of ending up in the junk mail folder.

Create Appealing Subject Lines

The sole purpose of a subject line is to compel your customers to open your email. Since they are very short, they need to be powerful. Testing subject lines is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t. Some tricks to create attractive subject lines are:

  • Focusing on the offer
  • Appealing to the customer’s curiosity
  • Showing what’s in it for them
  • Providing a sense of urgency

Keep Your Audience Engaged

Sometimes your open rates are decreasing mainly because your audience is no longer interested in your content. It’s essential to keep your customers at the center of everything you do, so learning about what they like is critical. The best way to know what they want is to ask them. Create a survey and allow them to tell you what they want to see from you —updates on new products or services, promotions, special events. Managing disengaged contacts is critical to keeping your open rates where they need to be.