13 Simple Tips to Increase your Email Open Rate

Email marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. 

Thanks to email marketing (especially ConvertKit), I make sales on autopilot daily.

Email marketing gives you a chance to be your authentic self.

This is the best place to build a relationship with your reader – a long one that will eventually lead to them becoming your fans and buying your products or clicking on your affiliate links.

However, email marketing is a skill that takes a while to pick up – especially if you don’t have a background in marketing or copywriting.

Growing your email list takes a lot of time, but if you have a poor email open rate, it can affect your online business heavily.

Luckily, there are some easy fixes to that!

In this post, I will be covering everything you need to know to increase your email open rate so that you can maximize your blog earnings and utilize email marketing to the fullest!

By the end of this post, you’ll have a good idea of how to increase your open rate and write awesome emails that leave your readers itching to read more.

Before I begin, I suggest you take my super deluxe free 5-day email course on growing your Blog Traffic?

This post includes affiliate links to products I truly (from the bottom of my heart) recommend, meaning at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small percentage which I will use to feed my sweet, adorable puppies.

What is an email open rate?

An email open rate is the number of subscribers who open a particular email you send compared to the total number of subscribers on your mailing list.

Let’s say you have 1000 email subscribers.

If 300 people people opened your last newsletter, to find out your email open rate, we divide 300 by 1000 and multiply that answer by 100 to get the percentage.

So, your open rate would be 30%.

The higher your email open rate, the better it is for your online business.

And if your email open rate is low, people aren’t opening your emails due to the factors we will cover now.

Your email list is one of the most precious resources for your online business.

So, you’ll want it to be higher!

What are the factors that affect email open rates?

If your emails have a low open rate, that could be due to several factors:

1. Poor subject lines

Your email subject line will make or break your open rate.

You needn’t be click-baitey, but you have to be clever. Try to be honest, but at the same time, aim to target a specific emotion when you write your email subject lines.

Ask yourself how you can generate curiosity, happiness, or envy.

Target a deep emotion when you’re writing your subject lines!

If your subject lines are drab, people aren’t going to open your emails.

2. The content of your emails isn’t interesting

If your emails are poorly written or sound automated, people will stop reading your emails.

Be your authentic self.

Be animated!

You don’t want to sound like a robot.

You must improve your online writing game to make email marketing your jam.

3. Your audience isn’t segmented properly

If you have an audience with different interests, it’s best to segment your audience based on their differences and then send them separate emails based on their interests.

This is what I do with Stray Curls.

Those who sign up for my art email course get tagged with the “Art” tag and only get my emails related to art and creativity. Those who sign up for any of my blogging freebies get tagged with the “Blog” tag and only get my emails related to blogging.

4. Your email list is filled with dead-weight

You need to prune your email list once in 4-5 months to keep your email list full of active people who open your emails.

The number of your email list subscribers isn’t essential.

The activity of those people matters.

What is a good email open rate?

The average email open rate across all industries is somewhere around 21%.

However, as a blogger, you should aim for an average email open rate of at least 25-30%. This figure is achievable.

According to my ConvertKit statistics, my average email open rate is 36%.

No matter what your email open rate is, let’s focus on ways we can increase it!

How do you increase your email open rate? 13 easy hacks!

I have been using ConvertKit since I started Stray Curls, and I haven’t found a better email marketing platform that competes with this despite trying out many other email marketing software.

I explain how I use ConvertKit to make money blogging in this post. 

>>CLICK HERE TO GET A FREE TRIAL<<

1. Ask your readers to whitelist you in your first email

I have multiple opt-ins/lead magnets on my website. It’s all part of building sales funnels. 

I use sales funnels to build up my passive income.

Yes, this means I have a lot of email series in my email marketing plan.

And I ask my readers in the first email of every email series to whitelist my email and add it to their contacts. Like this:

This will ensure that your emails don’t go to the Promotions or Spam folder and that they receive them.

Another tip is to offer multiple freebies on your website so that people will look forward to the first email they receive from you.

Nobody says no to free stuff!

2. Have a welcome email series

When someone has signed up for something exciting on your website, you are fresh in their memory.

This is your chance to woo and introduce them to your fun brand.

You have 24-48 hours to do this and become their best friend. So, don’t waste time.

And the best way to do this is to have a fantastic Welcome Email series.

A welcome email series can consist of 3-6 emails sent consecutively so that a person familiarizes themselves with your brand. Use those first 48 hours to send at least two emails.

It is best if the series is highly educational and helpful.

But at the same time, incorporate a lot of yourself in your emails to help infuse your personality into them.

This will help them fall in love with your brand, and they will look forward to your weekly emails!

3. Write good subject lines

I’ve indicated before that subject lines will make or break your email open rate.

Most people avoid clicking on emails with spammy subject lines or that are too click-baitey.

The same goes for subject lines that are just meh.

Think of writing emails like cooking.

If your dish looks appetizing, you won’t have trouble getting your toddler to eat it.

The subject line matters!

So, what makes a good subject line?

• Arouses curiosity
• Short and sweet – so that they can view the whole subject line
• It should sound like you – infuse your personality in your writing
• Don’t make it spammy or fishy
• A promise of a personal story, maybe?
• Personalize it with their first name (use this sparingly)

I love ConvertKit because I can A/B test 2 subject lines.

It sends the email with two subject lines to 2 small portions of the audience and judges the open rate. The winning subject line is chosen, and the email is sent to the remaining peeps.

Are you enjoying this post? Here are some more posts you might find helpful!

• 33 Ways to Double Your Blog Traffic in 2024
• 10 New Blogger Tips that every Blogger Has to Implement now!
• How ConvertKit helps me make money every month
• Why your blog is not making money + How to fix it!
• How to build a sales funnel from scratch in 8 simple steps!

4. Be consistent with your emails

I know that life gets in the way, but try to be consistent with your emails. This is the best way to build a strong relationship with your readers.

I take about 1-2 hours to write each weekly newsletter.

Writing one email a week to your audience is perfect because it’s a manageable schedule and one of the best ways to touch base with your readers.

Aim for one a week or one every two weeks if you can. It will make a big difference to your traffic and your relationship.

It doesn’t matter if they’re hearing from you after a long time (if you’ve left a big gap); just start writing from now on.

Better late than never!

Remember to provide a lot of value when sending out an email.

Feel free to link to 3 to 5 blog posts you’ve written to help your readers learn more about any topic they are interested in!

5. Don’t be salesy

One thing I’ve learned about writing emails is to give more than you ask for.

Give, be generous, and don’t hold back.

This applies to any field in an online business – not just email marketing.

If you ask for sales in every single email, people will stop reading your emails or unsubscribe in droves.

You don’t want that.

You don’t want to drive away people who may eventually buy from you.

So, write sales emails a little less frequently.

You can hold a BIG sale once in 4-5 months and hold mini-sales every 2-3 months.

You can talk about an offer or an affiliate product occasionally.

It’s all about the balance!

6. Send emails at an optimal time

Most people read their emails early in the morning when they reach their offices, afternoons during lunch hour, or in the evening before leaving work.

So, the best time to send an email is early in the morning or in the evening, preferably on weekdays.

I send my newsletters on Tuesdays or Thursdays at around 7:30 a.m. EST, and this timing works best for me as most of my audience is in the United States.

7. Treat your reader like a friend

I’ve been writing newsletters for the past 6 years, and here’s what I’ve learned so far.

People love it when you talk to them like a friend. Don’t be a robot, don’t sound automated.

Talk to them like you’re talking to your buddy.

Talk like you’re talking to 1 person. Don’t sound like a company.

Think of every telemarketer that has called you and sounded like they’re reading a script. Isn’t it super annoying?

Just be yourself. Be funny, be adorable, be chic, use your voice!

Be you.

Talk like how you talk in person.

Your email should read like a person talking, not an essay.

I’ve found that reading the email out loud while writing the email helps achieve this effect.

Just give it a shot! It’s a whole lot of fun, trust me.

Be informal, and use the reader’s name at least 2-3 times in an email if the email is around 1K words.

Here are some more tips to keep in mind when writing an email newsletter:

1. Don’t have too many call-to-actions: Keep the purpose of the email in mind when you’re writing it. Have 1-2 call-to-actions for the reader.
2. Please keep your email concise: People mostly read their emails on their phones. You don’t want to write a novel.
3. Break your email into sections: This makes it easy for the reader to scan the email if they’re in a hurry.
4. Keep a TL;DR section: End the email with a summary of the points. This will help the reader get the email’s message within 2 seconds if they’ve skipped to the end.
5. Be humorous: Don’t be afraid to make jokes or use gifs in your emails. Your emails should be fun. This will make you stand out from the crowd. That’s all you need to do.
6. Stick to a theme: At the start of the year, I focus on beginner bloggers who want to start blogs. I slowly move on to monetization in the second month and so on. Sticking to a theme helps you write emails more quickly.
7. End the email with a question: This helps your readers realize that you’re interested in their responses and shows that you’re kind. Asking for responses will help strengthen your relationship with your reader.

8. Reply to every email you get

This is pretty much a no-brainer.

I know this is hard to do as you keep growing your business, but I make it a point to reply to every email and blog comment I get, even now.

This has helped me build a solid relationship with my readers. And I feel it’s worth the time spent.

Keep a morning of the week dedicated to replying to emails and be kind and generous.

Help the reader as much as you can and copy-paste links to older posts that might help them with a question to be more thorough.

This one activity will help make you look more human and less business-ey.

And your readers will read more of your emails.

9. Avoid spam filters

Unfortunately, spam filters have become more rigid over the past few years due to the rise in spam and companies being super spammy.

You don’t want to be caught in the spam filter when writing your newsletters. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re writing your emails:

• Do not use all “CAPS” in your subject line. This will cause your email to be marked by spam.
• Include a small “unsubscribe” link at the bottom so people can opt out of your email series or unsubscribe.
• Remember to ask your readers to add you to their Contact List and move you from their Promotions tab to their Primary Inbox folder in your first email.
• To avoid being marked as spam, avoid using words like “Free,” “amazing,” “great offer,” and so on in your subject lines.

Don’t overdo the email sending apart from your email series and your sales; try to send at most 1-2 emails a week to avoid being flagged as spam.

Your readers are not going to appreciate being hounded with emails, either.

So, find a balance and stick to a schedule.

10. Segment your email list

This is a sure-fire way to increase your email open rate.

If you have a lifestyle blog or a blog about two completely different topics, it is best to segment your email list and send emails to readers based on their interests.

I have two segments for Stray Curls – Art and Blogging, and I send two entirely different emails each week to both my segments.

I noticed that my open rate increased almost immediately after doing this, and so did my sales.

11. Clean your email list

Every 4-5 months, clean your email list.

It’s best to remove people who are uninterested in reading your emails.

ConvertKit has a nice feature that marks all the cold subscribers and sends them a breakup email.

If they want to stay on your list, they can click a button and be untagged as cold subscribers.

I remove all the cold subscribers at the end of 2-3 weeks.

This will ensure that you have people on your email list who love your brand and are reading your emails.

Don’t focus on the quantity but the quality of your email list.

12. Proofread your emails

Before I had Grammarly, I used to write my emails.

And needless to say, I made a lot of spelling booboos and grammatical errors.

It is okay to do that in the first year of your business.

But I highly recommend installing Grammarly in your browser. I have the Premium version because I was so happy with their service that I decided to up my game, and I’ve never looked back.

The free version helps with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Whether you’re working in Word or Google Docs, crafting an email, or posting something on social media, Grammarly will ensure that you never write “your” and “there” when you mean “you’re” and “their.”

And Grammarly Premium is even better.

It’ll catch advanced grammar and punctuation mistakes, help you with contextual spelling errors, and provide suggestions for improving sentence structure, word choice, and readability. It even has plagiarism detection!

13. Use a dedicated email address

My emails come from me@straycurls.com, and it’s a Gsuite Google email. 

If you already have a verified domain, you can hop on Google and buy a business email with your verified domain. It’s easy and prevents you from being caught in the spam filter.

Also, it looks professional and seems more trustworthy when you have a branded email address.

It’s less than $5 a month, and it’s worth it.

Bonus tip: Resend your emails

If you send your emails on Thursday, resend the duplicate emails to people who didn’t open your email with a different subject line.

This will ensure that more people read the email, and if they’ve missed it somehow or it got lost in their inbox, they will receive it again!

Don’t worry; you’re not spamming anyone because you’re only sending the email to people who haven’t seen yours yet.

Many bloggers and companies use this tactic, and it’s a great way to increase your cumulative email open rate.

Final takeaway:

Writing emails is an art.

But if you follow all the tips in this email, you’ll knock it out of the park before you know it.

Focus on keeping things simple. Stick to a schedule that works for you.

And if you’re looking for a good email marketing platform, I highly recommend using ConvertKit.

>>CLICK HERE TO GET A FREE TRIAL<<

Okay, it’s your turn!

Do you have an email list? Leave a comment, and I’ll help you out! What is your biggest struggle when it comes to email marketing?

Additionally, if you want to increase your traffic and start making more money blogging, join my free traffic course!

Here are some posts you’ll find most helpful if you enjoyed this one!

• 33 Ways to Double Your Blog Traffic in 2024
• 10 New Blogger Tips that every Blogger Has to Implement now!
• How ConvertKit helps me make money every month
• Why your blog is not making money + How to fix it!
• How to build a sales funnel from scratch in 8 simple steps!
• How to start a money-making blog when you have zero experience
• 7 easy ways to skyrocket your email list!