5 Ways to Increase Email Open Rates
[00:00:00] Lindsay: Nobody wants to open a humdrum email. Do you write your emails in a conversational tone so it feels like you're talking one on one with your subscribers? Or are you trying to sound professional and your subscribers feel like they're reading a pamphlet while sitting in a doctor's waiting room?
[00:00:16] Lindsay: You want people to have fun reading your emails and feel YOU coming through their screens. Make your goal to connect authentically and make their day just a little bit brighter.
[00:00:25] Welcome to the work, less play more podcasts for busy entrepreneurs who are ready to ditch the hustle. Stop burning on busy work and get back to having a life. My name's Lindsay Johnson, AKA The Radical Connector, and I spent the last 10 years teaching first-time entrepreneurs how to get customers and make money.
[00:00:46] Listen in, as I chat with other hustle, recovering business owners, as we share our top tips, for you guessed it working less and playing more. Let's do this. .
[00:00:57] Lindsay: Hello friends, welcome to today's [00:01:00] podcast, and also hello from Australia. I'm hanging around Australia for a month. I have wanted to visit here forever since I was a little human and my aunt came to visit and regaled us with all the amazing stories of things she had done and things she had seen.
[00:01:15] Lindsay: I remember thinking as a little kid, wow, you can go to Australia? You can just hop on a plane and go? And thinking that was so cool.
[00:01:23] Lindsay: And it's been on my list to get to forever, especially since I have really awesome friends and clients here.
[00:01:30] Lindsay: So, you know, why not go during a global pandemic? I say that tongue in cheek, of course, I'm taking all safety precautions and I'm fully vaccinated and boosted.
[00:01:40] Lindsay: But there was definitely a part of me that thought, what is the furthest that I can get away from these four walls that I had been living in for the past two years. And I got to tell you it has been pretty chill. There's just something about being at home and seeing one of my plants dying and stressing out about how I'm going to bring it back to life. And [00:02:00] seeing the winter-worn patio that needs a good cleaning as we head into spring, that stresses me out.
[00:02:05] Lindsay: And seeing the dusting I have to do that stresses me out. And seeing the fridge that needs to be cleaned out that stresses me out. And seeing the laundry, the needs to get put away that stresses me out.
[00:02:14] Lindsay: Friends like everyone else, it's been an intense two years and I knew that I was stressed, but I don't think I realized how stressed. And now that I'm here and I got nothing to do, but hang out with y'all for a few hours every morning, make my bed, decide what to have for breakfast and then go out into the world and just enjoy a new country with sights and sounds and smells with nothing else weighing on my brain.
[00:02:37] Lindsay: Nothing else on my to-do list stressing me out. And also experienced this on one of my first excursions. This would have been in 2008. I was married back then and my spouse and I, we took off to Thailand for two months to go to a Muay Thai camp. I had in my head that it was going to be this most amazing adventure.
[00:02:55] Lindsay: Anyone that's travelled knows what I'm about to say, I realized [00:03:00] that no matter where you go there you are. And I brought all my problems with me. And it was a real wake-up call to where I was living really out of alignment with my values and what I found important in my life.
[00:03:12] Lindsay: And also was really able to see how unhappy I was in my life. And as a surprise to no one, I was divorced within about six months coming home from that trip. And it really was for the best for both of us. And it started me on a completely different path in my life and a path I'd never really ventured on before.
[00:03:30] Lindsay: And that was the path into discovering who the heck I was to my core, what I valued and what I want out of this lifetime. And so coming to Australia this time, I think like a lot of people over the past couple of years, in the pandemic, I was starting to feel a little bit lost and a little bit disconnected from who I was
[00:03:47] Lindsay: and what I wanted. Was I living in alignment with my values? And I could feel that I wasn't. I could feel that I was slipping away from living based on what was important to me. And entering a place that was a little more dark and a lot more disconnected.
[00:03:59] Lindsay: And so I [00:04:00] came here again this time without the shock of realizing, oh gosh, I brought all my unhappiness with me. And instead was able to go, okay, I need some space. I'm going to go to Australia where I can have nothing but me, me, me time. And start to reconnect to me and undo the things that are bringing me down.
[00:04:18] Lindsay: Take off the weight of the things that are not mine and get back connected to me, while doing it in a beautiful country, with beautiful beaches and wonderful friends.
[00:04:27] Lindsay: So, you know how we listen to podcasts and we hear people sharing stories or examples or asking questions and we think to ourselves, oh my gosh, that's me. Or, oh my gosh, I have something to add to this conversation. Come and follow me on Instagram at @radicallinds
[00:04:41] Lindsay: and share your stories with me. Share your opinions, your stories, your thoughts, or the answers to some of the questions I've been asking. I would love to connect and get to know you better.
[00:04:52] Lindsay: That being said, shall we get into today's topic, Five Email Marketing Tips to Boost Your Open Rates and Increase [00:05:00] Engagement. Email marketing is a powerful way to connect with your customers and promote your products or services. But if your email open rates are low, your open rates being the amount of people who receive your email versus the amount of people who actually open that email. If those open rates are low, it becomes pretty obvious that your subscribers are missing out on your brilliant content, expertise and ultimately getting to work with you. Worst of all, you're left feeling like you are wasting your time. Am I right?!
[00:05:30] Lindsay: Now, if you're new around here, you might be asking me, okay, Lindsay, what is email marketing and why do I need it? Simply put email marketing is the process of using email messages, either sent individually or in bulk to build a relationship with your perfect potential customers and ultimately to market and promote a product service or a cause.
[00:05:48] Lindsay: Now notice the first thing I said was build a relationship. To be effective in email marketing you need to build a relationship with your audience and just like in any relationship that relies on [00:06:00] listening and understanding your audience.
[00:06:02] Lindsay: Who are you trying to reach? What are their interests? What are their problems? Why did they sign up for your email list and what are they expecting to learn or receive from you? Once you figure this out, you can create targeted emails that will capture their attention and give your subscribers a clear path from stranger to happy paying customer. Now, when you're done listening today, I want you to head over to the show notes because I've got two great articles for you that go even more in-depth into email marketing and different tips and strategies to use for beginners in the email marketing game.
[00:06:34] Lindsay: And as always, you know that I'm not going to get you stuck down the research rabbit hole, or we're not going to talk about theory. We're going to get into it with five actionable steps that you can take this week to boost your open rates and increase engagement in your email marketing. Tip One, Let Your Personality Shine. This one may sound super obvious, but answer me this, do you write your emails in a [00:07:00] conversational tone so it feels like you're talking one on one with your subscribers? Or are you trying to sound professional? You can't see it. I'm doing air quotes or you're trying to sound professional and your subscribers feel like they're reading a pamphlet while sitting in a doctor's waiting room?
[00:07:16] Lindsay: When you're writing emails, I want you to picture somebody specific in your community and talk directly to them as if you were in the same room, having a conversation. There's no need to get stuffy, formal or overly professional. You want people to have fun reading your emails and feel YOU coming through their screens.
[00:07:34] Lindsay: Another great way of ensuring your personality shines through is to think about how you want subscribers to feel when they open your emails. Surprised, delighted, blown away, supported hopeful, inspired, empowered, confident. Pick a feeling and as you write, ask yourself if you're delivering the impact that you're going for. Nobody wants to open a hum drum email. Make your goal to connect authentically and make their day just [00:08:00] a little bit brighter.
[00:08:01] Lindsay: Tip number two, Make Your Emails Scan Friendly. Remember people don't read, we scan. The last thing you want to do is send out a giant block of text. Trust me, your subscribers are going to skip right over it. You want to give your subscribers something that they can scan so that they get the gist of what you're saying, and then they can read more in depth if the subject matter interests them.
[00:08:21] Lindsay: You can use bold or colored headlines to highlight key points. Bulleted or numbered lists for highlights, key instructions or steps, or to lay out the benefits of whatever it is that you're sharing in this email.
[00:08:33] Lindsay: You can add bold or color or to important words and phrases within paragraphs. You can use emojis and GIFs and even images or custom graphics. However, something to consider when using images and graphics in your emails. Number one, images and graphics, shouldn't take up more than 25% of your email.
[00:08:51] Lindsay: If they do, you're going to end up in spam. Number two, you should never include important information in that graphic that isn't also written in the body of the email, [00:09:00] because some email programs won't load graphics and images, and then that important information will be missed.
[00:09:05] Lindsay: And number three, I don't recommend using graphics or images in the first email your new subscribers will get. Things like your thank you email after someone signs up for your lead magnet, for example. Because yep, absolutely your email will up in the spam folder.
[00:09:19] Lindsay: Your goal is to add a little texture into your emails to keep the reader's eye moving down the page. Your subscribers should be able to get the gist of your emails simply by scanning it.
[00:09:28] Lindsay: Make sure to give your email a scan test before sending.
[00:09:31] Lindsay: Tip number three, Write Intriguing Subject Lines. Think of your subject lines as the gatekeeper between your subscribers and your brilliant content.
[00:09:39] Lindsay: If you don't write a subject line your readers care about, they're probably not going to open your email. Give it to me straight. Do you tend to be a little too literal in your subject lines? Are you writing subject lines like this, This Week's Sleep Podcast is Now Live. Today's Fitness Class Replay is Posted. New Blog All About Making Money.
[00:09:58] Lindsay: Stop it. You need to be less [00:10:00] literal and write subject lines at your subscribers will relate to. Instead, you could be writing, Three Underrated Tips for a Better Sleep Tonight. 10 Minutes Ab Routine Guaranteed to Rock Your Core. Can You Really Make Money in Your Sleep? Heck Yeah. I have an article for you in the show notes called 15 Tips for Writing an Excellent Email Subject Line because let's face it, it's kind of like when you're writing the introductory paragraph to a new essay in high school. Oh, I'm having flashbacks. That introductory paragraph was always the hardest to write.
[00:10:26] Lindsay: And in fact, one of the things that I learned is to go back and write that paragraph last, once you get the gist of your own essay. Same thing here with those subject lines. How many times have you just stare at a blank subject like, what should I write? What will make people care? What will make people open?
[00:10:42] Lindsay: Sometimes it is helpful to write your subject line last, once you yourself get the gist of where the heck your email's going in the first place.
[00:10:48] Lindsay: But when all else fails, check out that article for 15 really simple tips that you can use to write stronger subject lines. All right, tip number four, Share Wow Factor Content. SEO content like blogs, [00:11:00] podcasts, and YouTube videos are the key to unlocking higher rankings for your website on search engines.
[00:11:04] Lindsay: Now we talk a lot about creating SEO friendly content in my community,
[00:11:08] Lindsay: and they've got a link to a blog for you in the show notes called, Do I Really Need Social Media to Build a Business Online? Where I talk about the difference between social media and SEO friendly content and when, and how to use both.
[00:11:18] Lindsay: So think of it this way, when people search for information on a topic, they're most likely to find your content if it's been well-written, well-researched and incorporates an SEO and keyword strategy.
[00:11:29] Lindsay: And as you hopefully know, by now a high ranking on Google is essential for success in the online world. Another reason to create SEO friendly content is it helps boost engagement with your website visitors. When people are engaged with your website and enjoy reading what you have to say, they'll most likely come back again and again and again, and visit your About and Work With Me pages.
[00:11:49] Lindsay: Make sure you're putting up the right kind of content, SEO friendly material that will help your subscribers and help your website shine above the rest. Then use your regularly scheduled [00:12:00] emails to distribute your wow factor content to your subscribers. And remember to still use catchy subject lines.
[00:12:05] Lindsay: Don't just say, New Blog Inside.
[00:12:08] Lindsay: Say, Do I Really Need Social Media to Build a Business Online, for example. All right. Tip number five, use A/B testing to improve your results. All right, what is A/B testing and how do you use it? A/B testing is a method for testing different versions of a webpage or an email to see which one performs better.
[00:12:25] Lindsay: For example, you might send the same email to your list, but half of them, group A, gets a different subject line than the other half, group B. And then you see which subject line got the most opens. Many email providers like MailChimp, Constant Contact, A Weber, HubSpot MailerLite and Drip offer A/B testing.
[00:12:42] Lindsay: I've included the links to all of these email providers in the show notes. If you want to go check them out and make a bit of a comparison.
[00:12:48] Lindsay: By using AB testing, you can determine which version of your email is more likely to result in higher open rates and greater engagement. Remember that email marketing requires testing and tweaking. Everyone's [00:13:00] audience is different and you need to figure out what makes your subscribers open, engage and click the links in your emails.
[00:13:06] Lindsay: Some examples of some AB testing that you can do are to test different subject lines. Try using emojis in your subject lines and see if that improves your open rates. You can play with long or short form emails. You can try using images and graphics and compare that to using none. You can play with whether your calls to action or hyperlinks within a sentence or brightly colored buttons. You can play with where your call to action has placed within your email, closer to the top, in the middle, at the bottom, in a PS.
[00:13:34] Lindsay: You can play with how much of your SEO friendly content you want to write inside the email to see what gets people to click for the fuller version. Is it one or two sentences? A paragraph? Three paragraphs? You could play with different ways to promote freebies events or paid offers.
[00:13:49] Lindsay: And then of course, frequency. You can play with how often you send emails to find out how often your subscribers want to hear from you. Remember, and this one's important, the key with A/B testing [00:14:00] is to test one variable at a time.
[00:14:02] Lindsay: So I gave you a suggestion for quite a few different variables that you can test. You want to test one at a time. Once you get an idea of which option performs better, then you can start testing another variable. Yes, the world that digital marketing can be slow and tedious while you're doing all this testing and figuring out what your subscribers, what your audience wants from you.
[00:14:22] Lindsay: Email marketing is a great way to connect with your customers and build relationships. However, if you're not happy with your open or click through rates, don't give up. Test and tweak your email marketing strategy to see which methods are working best for you. And above all else, have fun.
[00:14:38] Lindsay: Friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you want to learn more about working with me directly, please visit the radical connector.com. Check out today's show notes to access all of the juicy resources that we've talked about. And of course, be sure to subscribe to the work last, play more podcasts, and you know, you're going to want to leave a rating and review until next time friends happy connecting.
[00:14:58] Lindsay: I will see you [00:15:00] online.