Welcome to another edition of the “5 Reasons” blog series. This will be a weekly blog series, with a fresh post every Monday. Last week’s topic was “Five Reasons Your Landing Page Isn’t Working”.
This Week’s Topic = Five Reasons Your Email Isn’t Getting Opened
Those who’ve read this blog for years know that I like to refer to email marketing as a war, with several battles to win along the way. One of those early battles is getting the recipient to open your email.
Here are some reasons you may be struggling to get that open rate up:
- Your emails are not getting delivered. Some emails that you send out don’t ever get delivered, not even to someone’s junk or spam folder. This can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe your email addresses are not correctly formatted. Maybe you’re attempting to email addresses that don’t exist. Or maybe you don’t have a good reputation for sending out emails. Email service providers will block emails coming from blacklisted senders. It’s important to use a reputable email marketing company to send your emails and seek their help as relates to deliverability.
- Your emails are getting marked as spam. Emails will get marked as spam for several reasons, and if they do, your recipient will rarely ever see them. Overuse of dollar signs, the word free, vague messages and subject lines, and from names that don’t match the sender address are some of the things that email service providers are looking at when deciding whether to let your email through or not. Emails also get marked as spam for individual users who rarely open or read your messages, or who have marked emails from you as spam in the past.
- Your subject line is too long. The longer the subject line, the more likely it will get cut off. When subject lines get cut off, it’s difficult to see the value they are presenting, thereby making it less likely that the recipient will click on the email.
- Your subject line does not present value. The subject line is your chance to get your recipients interested. State the reason for opening the email clearly. Quote a discount or offer you’re making, or tell them what’s so special about this message and why they can’t go another second without reading it.
- Your recipient is not expecting the email. You’re much more likely to get an open on your email when the recipient expects to get it. To ensure this, tell someone how you will use their email address when they are giving it to you. Make sure they know what they’re signing up for, and even ask them to add your email address to their contacts. Going a step further, you might let them customize what they get, and when they get it from you.
As always, if you have your own landing page tips, please include them in the comments below.