10 ways to get people to open and read your email

1.Make Your Subject Line Short

Ideally, your email subject line should be short—easy enough to be read at a glance. Different email providers will display different lengths of text, so longer subject lines have a higher chance of being cut off. To ensure the greatest number of readers see your subject, aim to keep it under 50 characters or so.

2.Make Your Subject Line Intriguing

Assuming you have an engaged audience that is interested in what you have to say, the next best step to achieving better response rates is good subject lines. The subject line is what appears in a recipient’s inbox, inviting him or her to click. It gets a few seconds of attention before being opened or deleted. So that’s why the best subject lines offer something of value, for minimum risk. They give the recipient a sense that clicking through to the actual email newsletter will deliver something worthwhile. What are some examples of intriguing newsletter titles? To put it simply, readers like subject lines that identify your brand, hint at the content inside, and have something to offer them. For readers who want to stay updated with your company, for example, consider the following examples, written for the (fictional) company Good Deals:

3.Be Honest about Email Content

Just like your Subscribe page should accurately describe your email content, so should your newsletter subject line. If a reader clicks the “Big Company News October 2013” email only to find a story from last month, he or she might not click through the next month’s letter. Or worse, he or she might unsubscribe.

4.Avoid Spam Signals Like ALL CAPS and Exclamation Marks!!!

Everybody’s got spam radar these days. Who hasn’t received an email from an overseas prince asking for money? Because of this, readers are more cynical—and this means they’re looking at your email newsletter with caution, at least the first time they see it. To help build credibility and keep yourself from looking like a spammer, avoid spam giveaways like writing in all capital letters or using multiple exclamation marks.

5.Consider a Negative Subject Line

“People will always work harder to keep something they have rather than try to gain something that they want,” says Sean Platt at Copyblogger. That’s why negative headlines can be so powerful—
they alert your readers to potential problems they could protect themselves against. Here are a few examples:

• Five Reasons You Won’t Want to Miss This Weekend Sale
• Good Deals Update: Are You Making These Shopping Mistakes?
• 4 Things You Might Be Missing on Our New Blog
• 
  

6. Content quality

The best way to improve your e-mail open rates is to send interesting e-mails that are relevant to the reader’s interests. When subscribers trust that there is something valuable on the other side of the subject line, your open rates will continue to increase.

Offer something of value in every e-mail you send. Help your subscribers look better to their bosses and colleagues by including tips and tricks, industry research and discounts. Sending compelling e-mails not only helps you be seen as an expert, it reduces spam complaints.

Consistency in e-mail also encourages recipients to open. We all are drawn toward the familiar. This is also true for e-mail campaigns. Campaigns with a consistent look and feel are more effective in helping your recipients understand your message. Of course you can mix up the creative, but maintain brand standards in colors, design and personality. Also, use the same "from" name and e-mail address for all your campaigns.

7.Don't ask for something every time.

 This goes back to the whole "deliver content people want to read" idea: if your constituents know that your message will just ask them to donate again, they'll likely get tired of it. Mix it up. Send out important news, a free offer, a cool conversation happening on your Facebook page. You want to build a relationship with your subscribers – just not like the relationship you have with your ATM.Tip 6: Don’t be afraid to lose subscribers

8. Don’t be afraid to lose subscribers

Don’t make it too hard for your recipients to unsubscribe from your newsletter. Not only are you required by law to offer an opt-out  possibility, there’s little point in sending people emails they won’t ever bother to read. In the worst case, they might even report your e-mailings as spam.

9.Don’t Always be Selling

Share relevant and useful content, tips, articles advice and industry news alongside or in addition to sales event, coupons and promotions for your business. This positions you as a resource for information as well as a source for your product or service.

10. Experiment with the day and time you send your emails.

A lot of this is common sense, but it still doesn’t hurt to test different days and times.  You actually may find a day and time that generates more opens from your target audience.

If your primary target audience does shift work, time your emails to arrive either early in their shift; close to their lunch hour; or an hour or so before the day ends. These tend to be times when people are checking email more often. If your target audience is in sales or production, Monday is probably NOT a good day.  Manufacturing businesses that are always scrambling to increase production near the end of the month so their numbers look good are probably not reading a lot of emails that aren’t “mission critical” the last few days of the month.