4 Tips to Get Your Emails Opened 👀👇

The From:

Too many companies send emails from their company name and if you have multiple emails going out each week this can easily burn people out.

There are 2 ways to think about sending out emails.

1️⃣. The Offer: 

If you have multiple offerings, events, products, sending from only your company name is a mistake.

Tailor the name of the email you’re sending from to the product or offering you want your audience to see.

This applies to B2B companies, media companies, and even the largest bank in the United States, J.P. Morgan Chase.

Look at this series of emails I received that each offer something unique and come from a unique email.

For a survey they sent me an email from their customer satisfaction email:

For their credit card service they sent me this email:

For wealth management through J.P. Morgan they sent me this email:

And for a new credit card offering they sent me this email:

Doing this allows you to send multiple emails each week to your audience without burning them out. 

2️⃣. Having a Personality:

I don’t send these emails from The Marketing Millennials, they come DIRECTLY from me.

Why?

The average person receives 121 emails each day, most are from brands, discounts, or newsletters. Using a personal photo and name on your email enhances the feeling that you’re talking directly to your customers 1 on 1. 

Plus it’s substantially easier for your audience to connect with a human than it is to a brand logo. With automation so prevalent nowadays adding that flair of personality can let your audience know that it’s you talking to them.

This strategy is optimal for newsletters, personalized offers, and sales emails. You will find some of the best brands in B2B use this strategy in their email campaigns.

Here are some examples straight from my inbox LOL:

An email from HubSpot? Nope. It’s a nice message from Sharan (hi Sharan!).

Calendly sending me an email with their latest feature update? Nope. It’s our friend Jeff from Calendly checking in on us and showing us their new cool offer.

Put a name and face to your brand, connect on a 1 to 1 level, and see those open rates RISE.

When Should You Send Your Emails??

This one is simple, send on the off hour. Don’t send your emails right at 12PM or 1:30PM.

At large companies they schedule their emails to be sent out at the hour or half hour. I don’t blame them, it looks and feels better when you do that.

But I also hope they keep doing that because it gives us an opportunity to stick out in the inbox. Remember we’re not fighting with an algorithm in the inbox (that’s why I LOVE email), we’re fighting for position in the inbox, we want to be on top.

So avoid the mass emails everyone will receive from their fav brands at 3PM, send your email at 3:44PM, or 3:57PM. 

Mix it up, test, and learn. Just DO NOT send on the hour or half hour LOL.

(Look at what time this email was sent haha.)

Does the Pre-Header Matter?

That little grey text under the subject, don’t ignore it. Think of it as one of the most important pieces of the email Marketing funnel and getting opens.

If your pre-header isn’t TIGHT, say hello to the spam folder.

So here are some tips to improve your pre-headers:

1️⃣. Use the first sentence in your email to summarize what your email is about. This will make your email look like a personal email. (Take a look at our pre-header for this email for inspo.)

2️⃣. You can even take a counterintuitive approach and choose to use NO pre-header. My wife Ari did this and it boosted her open rates. This empty space in the inbox will absolutely stand out, but use it sparingly.

3️⃣. Use words like “PLUS”, symbols like “+”, and my fav, leave them longing for more with a cliffhanger that ends in “…”

4️⃣. The copy in the pre-header NEEDS to be captivating. Put yourself in the readers shoes, if you wouldn’t even open it yourself how can you expect your audience to want to open it. 

Subject Lines That Actually Get Opens

Subject lines are last, but THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the email.

I’m not going to say it, actually I’m going to say it..the subject line is MORE important than the email itself.

If someone doesn’t open the email, then the email is useless.

Your email could contain the secret code to eternal happiness, but if your subject line is bad and nobody opens it, your email will have impacted nobody.

Your subject line is your headline and like Ogilvy said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

So how can we write subject lines that actually get opens? I’m glad you asked.

Here are 6 must-use subject line tips:

1️⃣. Lead with a number, like “4 email Marketing tips”, “5 ways to [insert something relevant to your target audience]”. Quantify the value for your audience, numbers capture their attention and give them an expectation of what they will get from your email. 

2️⃣. Personalization – NO THIS DOES NOT MEAN ADD SOMEONES NAME. That is played out. Instead personalize your subject line by job title, interest, or location. Here’s what I mean, instead of saying “Ari, You’re Invited”, say “Invite for Marketers in Miami.” You’re still specific enough that it is personal, but not too over the top that it’s in your face.

3️⃣. The first 3 words matter the most. Most people don’t read the whole subject. Also keep your subject lines to 3-6 words long, digestibility is your friend here.

4️⃣. Use ellipsis at the end of the subject line, it’s creates GREAT urgency without being too salesy or pushy… 

5️⃣. Use a consistent emoji in your subject line that acts as another identifier for your brand in the inbox. Morning Brew pioneered this, and it’s a genius move, that’s why we use the 🔥 emoji.

6️⃣. Test your subject lines!! Before sending out your email, send yourself a test of varying subject lines to see which one catches YOUR eyes. This is my favorite thing to do, I wrote an email about Wall Street Journal’s $2B Sales Letter and look at my inbox the number of subject lines I tested. 👇

If you want more subject line tips I can write a whole newsletter on it LOL, so let me know!