The average email open rate for all industries in the US is 17%. In other words, for every 100 emails you send, only 17 people care to open it. You might want a much higher email open rate if you are running a business. 

Let’s put it here bluntly, the higher the cold email open rates, the more business you will get. You cannot generate more revenue if your potential customers are not opening your emails.

Email open rates are linked to revenue- as simple as that. Even to have a good click-through rate, you need to increase your email open rates. 

Here is how you can increase cold email open rate:

#1 Purging your inactive members:

Are there email subscribers who have not taken any action for more than a year? 

Is their participation with your brand a big zero? 

You might want to remove them from your subscription list. The inactive members do not add any value as they will not engage with you in the future too. Some of these inactive subscribers might not be using the same email ID that they subscribed with, they might have different interests now or have gone completely off the grid. Before you purge them from your list, try re-engaging with them once. If it doesn’t work, then it is time to move on. 

#2 Segment your subscribers: 

Is the email you send relevant to all of your subscribers? Not really. If a prospect realizes that some of the emails you send are not for them, they will stop opening any of them in the future too. And before you know it, they will unsubscribe. 

Let’s say you have different products that cater to enterprises and startups separately. Just because you have contact details of both enterprises and startups alike, you should not send them the same product email. 

While you might be reaching one of the right target markets (let’s assume startup prospects in this case), on the other hand, you are also alienating your enterprise prospects. How? By sending them details about a product that holds no relevance to what they want. 

Segment your customers so that you send them emails that are specific to what they prefer from you. Campaign Monitor says that marketers who segment prospects before their campaigns notice a 760% increase in revenue. What does that say about the importance of segmentation?

#3 Interesting subject line:

Write interesting subject lines that pique the interest of the recipient. Keep the subject line to less than 40 characters, use language that talks about taking an action, and be direct. Here is another grave mistake that many businesses do- using deceptive subject lines. Your prospects will not like the clickbait strategy that you used on them with your subject line and might even block you. Hell hath no fury like a prospect scorned! 

#4 Write for just one person:

You might have a million email subscribers, but you must write the email for just one person. If you imagine that you are speaking to one person instead of countless faces, then your email draft will be more personal and appealing to the reader. 

Find out your buyer personas. It is a fictional representation of your customers, what they do, their needs, desires, likes, characteristics, and so on. You should prepare 4-7 buyer personas based on how broad your niche is. Buyer personas will help immensely when it comes to creating a communication strategy. 

#5 Use a CTA: 

It is easily one of the most important factors of a high cold email open rate. After your prospect opens your email, direct them to a landing page or your website where they will find more information about your offering. By using a CTA or the Call-to-Action button, you bring them deeper into the sales funnel. 

Conclusion:

There are 293.6 billion emails sent and received every single day. If you want to be successful, you need to stand out from your competitors. The emails that you send to your prospective customers should appeal to them. The offer in your email should be irresistible to the recipient.

You should ensure that your email checks all the best practices to be followed when sending them to your prospects. While the above five tips will fetch you good results, you can take more steps to increase your cold email open rate.