3 Sneaky Ways to Increase Email Open Rates

Email is one of the best ways to communicate with your audience. But if your audience isn’t opening your emails, your message is getting lost, and that can be frustrating.

The truth is, more than 1/3 of emails are opened based on the subject line alone. That means you have about 2 seconds and just a couple of words to catch your readers’ attention. That’s why subject lines are so important to increase email open rates. You worked hard to grow your email list, and no doubt have valuable info contained in your email, so don’t let your subscribers pass it up because of a oh-hum subject line.

Turn the excitement up on your subject lines by incorporating these sneaky ways to increase email open rates.

1. Incorporate Emoji

Using emoji in your email subject lines can be an effective and attention-generating technique to increase your email open rates 🎉 and get more people engaging with your campaigns.

Emoji are symbols or icons and come in a variety of genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places, weather, and animals. They’ve been popularly used in text message and social media but businesses are increasingly embracing emoji as an expressive way to stand out in their subscribers’ inboxes. According to a report by Experian, 56% of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher unique open rate.

Using emoji in your email subject lines is as simple as copying and pasting a symbol or emoji from a website like Emojipedia. Just remember to use them tastefully. Make sure the emoji is:
– relevant to your message
– fits your demographic
– clear-to-see and understand

2. Incorporate Numbers

When possible, numbers in your subject line can grab attention and express value for your reader. Just as numerical lists are an effective headline for blog posts, numbers are equally effective in email subject lines. Its appearance is two-fold; it stands out among a screen of words, and it piques the curiosity of readers. Odd numbers work best to capture the most curiosity; and not odd as in even and odd, but odd as in oddly specific. Here’s an example: “893 Ways to Make This Your Best Year”.

3. Use RE:

Personal on-going conversations often get an automatic “RE:” or “reply” leading the subject line. Because of that designation as a continued conversation it can cause wonder and curiosity to your subscriber, and when used correctly, it can skyrocket your open rate. The important thing to remember with this trick is to use it strictly to imply a continued message. You don’t want to fool your readers, but signify a follow up to a previous email. For example: “RE: In case you missed this free download” or “RE: You’re Invitation is Waiting”.

Bonus: Check Your Mobile Compatibility

This tip isn’t as tricky as it is just too important to not mention.

According to the US Consumer Device Preference Report from MovableInk, 67% of all email in the U.S. is opened on mobile devices. That’s a big percentage of readers that are looking at a small screen with space for only so many words – roughly six.

As a general guideline, use less than 50 characters to make sure the people scanning your emails can see the entire subject line. There’s also ways to help compose perfect subject lines quickly and easily with free tools like Zurb’s TestSubject to see how your subject line (and sender name) will appear on a variety of popular mobile devices.