Open rates are important. Let’s not pretend differently. But at the end of the day — they’re not the only thing that matters in your email marketing…especially if your email service provider can’t track open rates for users with Apple privacy settings turned on. Ultimately, the only *true* metric that matters is your revenue, right?
But, I know how hard it is not to stress about open rates. And I know that when you’re marketing your women’s health business, and only 15% of your subscribers are opening that email you poured your heart and soul into (and spent hours working on) it can feel super frustrating.
Don’t worry, I’m here to help!
Let me walk you through the signature process I use with my clients to consistently get 50%+ open rates and 2%+ click-through rates.
But first, a few quick definitions to make sure we’re on the same page.
What’s An Email Open Rate?
An email open rate is the percentage of subscribers who open the email you’ve sent. You figure this out by dividing the number of emails opened by the number of emails delivered — well, your email service provider’s software figures it out for you (because who wants to do math?), but that’s how it’s calculated.
What’s A Good Email Open Rate Benchmark?
A “good” email open rate is so subjective…but I always say a good open rate is one that’s better than your previous number.
A good email open rate benchmark across all industries is usually about ~20% — but that number can vary widely, so if you’re under that, don’t beat yourself up. And keep reading for ways to push that number higher.
Email Open Rate Vs. Click-Through Rate
Yes, the email open rate is important…but also, if people are opening your email and not taking action, welp it’s an utterly useless metric, right?
This is where the click-through rate and click-to-open rate come in.
The click-through rate is the percentage of people who actually click on a link in your email. Did you ask them to read a blog post? Purchase something? Register for a webinar? The ones who actually took the action and clicked on the link are the ones represented by your click-through rate.
The click-to-open rate (CTOR) is actually my favorite metric to track. The CTOR represents the percentage of people who opened your email and clicked on a link. This shows how well the contents of your email spoke to the people you were trying to speak to.
How I Get 50%+ Open Rates For My Clients
So now let’s talk about tactics to get enhanced email open rates. Because after all, the more people who open your emails, the more people you could be convincing to take action. On their own, email open rates can become vanity metrics — but as long as your email content is compelling, if you increase open rates, you should increase click-throughs and revenue, too.
Here’s what I do to get about 50% of the list to open emails and 2% to click on the link in the email:
Subject Lines Matter
Duh. But it seems like most of the people in my inbox don’t really understand how to craft a good one.
For subject lines, my favorite tools are curiosity and benefit to the reader.
Remember, your subscriber is scrolling through a very crowded inbox. Make them NEED to open your email.
Don’t write things like these actual subject lines from my inbox right this moment:
“Find the right PDF tools for any job” — no, I don’t believe I will because you haven’t made me care one bit about why I should
“Answering questions about my xyz program” — um, ok, good for you. Definitely not making me want to open this, not even a smidge
“The Thyroid Is Related To The Adrenal Glands” — hmmm, maybe your 10th-grade science teacher would be proud…but this is super boring and gives me no reason to care
Do try things more like this:
The Big O 😲 — oh my, what’s this email about?
You wanna be happier? — yes, yes I do. Everyone can identify with wanting to be happier. And you’re asking me a direct question that my mind wants to answer.
Is this TMI? — huh, what in the world could this be about? Is it naughty? I’m not sure. Gotta open now. This one works great because you’re asking the reader for their opinion and they have to open the email to find out.
Do you see the difference between these examples? The first set is bland, boring, and doesn’t get you interested at all. The second set really makes you wonder what’s inside the email and gets you opening.
Here’s the list of my best subject line crafting tips:
Make the reader curious. Tease the content of your email, don’t announce it. If you give away exactly what the email is about, there’s no reason to open it and read it, right?
Always be thinking about the benefit to your reader. Humans are self-centered and you need to make it obvious that what’s inside your email will benefit them in some way.
Try adding in a number (especially an odd number or a very specific number like 876 vs. 900) — I’m actually not sure why this works, but numbers typically help increase opens.
Keep it SHORT. Most people are opening emails on their phones. Which means they only see a few words in your subject line. Don’t ramble on here, get straight to the point.
Use your preview text to continue piquing your subscriber's interest. Don’t let the valuable preview text spot go to waste. It’s a fab opportunity to keep the conversation going and the finger heading toward the ‘open’ motion.
Experiment with emojis. There’s some research that indicates emojis increase open rates, and some research that says the opposite. I find they typically bump open rates up but always test things out on your list to see for yourself.
Other Ways To Increase Open Rates
Be consistent. Send at least one email a week, at the same time every time. Try to keep your format relatively consistent, too. This way people begin to look forward to your emails, and the more open rates increase. Eventually, I’d even argue that consistency + valuable emails = “subject line irrelevance” — where people open the email just because they know it’s from you.
Also, don’t forget to keep your subscribers segmented properly. When you’re sending targeted emails customized to the different types of customers on your list, your open rates will reflect it.
About Click-Through Rates
Click-through rates vary widely by industry and type of email you’re sending. For the most part, from what I see, a click-through rate of over 2% is solid for a women’s health newsletter-type email. For health and wellness/supplement emails, the industry average is about 1-1.5% (according to MailChimp data here and Campaign Monitor data here.
And for sales emails, sometimes we see 20-30%+ click-through rates, because these types of emails are geared toward getting people to take action in a time-sensitive way.
For welcome sequences, the click-through rates can sometimes be crazy high because your customer is at the height of their excitement about you and they’ve opted in for something valuable that they want to receive from you.
At the end of the day, what matters most when trying to increase open rates is:
Conditioning your audience to take an action in every email.
Giving the reader a truly compelling reason to take the action.
Here are the tools I employ to get my clients higher click-through rates:
Stories. People LOVE reading stories. And your mind cannot stand an open loop. So I like to start off my email with a story that encourages the reader to click through to finish the story. Obviously, not every email can work this way, but the ones that do always perform the best.
Compelling bullets. Think of bullet points in the same way you think of subject lines…they’ve got to pique the reader’s interest and showcase benefits, not just summarize what you’re trying to say.
Scarcity triggers. You’ve got to make your reader take action now and click on the link in your email. The best way to do that is to let them know the opportunity is either limited by time or quantity. Just be sure you use this tactic ethically. False scarcity is super gross.
Want some help increasing your open rates and click-through rates?
If you’re not getting at least 40% of your subscribers to open your emails — let’s chat. I have a feeling I could help you find revenue hiding in your email list.
Fill out this short and sweet application here and I’ll be in touch.