How to Get Better Email Open Rates

• Do you think you know the best day and time to send your email newsletter?
• Do you ever wonder if other email marketers are sending their mail at the same time you do?
• Do you think your open rate is either way too low or unbelievably high?

Real-world statistics might surprised you. Aweber recently released data compiled from all of their users that may help you answer these questions, and get more out of your email marketing efforts.

What Open Rates Should You Expect?

One of the first data points you probably look at is your open rate so that you know if people are even reading the content you’ve been pouring your heart and soul into.

Your open rate is far from a perfect measure of whether people are actually opening and reading your emails, but it can be useful as a relative measure. If it goes up over a short period of time, it usually means more people are reading, while the opposite is true if it falls over a short period of time.

It can also help provide the motivation to improve if your open rates are lower than average, or reassurance that you’re on the right track if your open rates are higher than average.

So, on with the numbers…

Average Open Rate Last Month: 13.6%

When is the Best Day to Send Email?

You’ll probably hear that Tuesday is the best day to send email, because on Monday people are busy catching up, and that on Tuesday morning you’ll have their undivided attention before they jump into their work for the upcoming week.

But does the data really back up that theory? Let’s take a look.

Open Rates by Day

So according to last month’s data, if you’re measuring by open rates, Tuesday was almost the worst day to send your email.

While we’re breaking long-standing assumptions, I should also point out the hour of the day that got the best open rate was not earlier in the morning (like 8-10AM EST) when most people are first getting to work, but in fact 2-3PM Eastern Time — email newsletters sent during that hour last month enjoyed a 19.1% open rate.)

Does this Mean I Should Switch My Campaigns to Thursdays?

The short answer is no.

Don’t break your readers’ expectations just to follow the latest stats. In both March and February, Thursday newsletters got the 3rd-worst opens vs. the rest of the week. Every single list will perform differently because of countless variables, so it’s critical to test any changes first. If you’re going to (or planning to) change the time and/or day you send your email, be sure to split test some broadcasts. If you simply change everything, you may throw off subscribers who are used to hearing from you at the usual time.

One possible explanation for Thursday’s success last month may be that it wasn’t as popular as say, Tuesday or Wednesday for sending email:

Percentage of Newsletters Sent by Day

The higher-volume days mean there are more emails in readers’ inboxes, which might contribute to lower open rates. Following that logic, some people may see the low weekend volume (more email newsletters were sent on Tuesdays than on Saturdays and Sundays combined) as an opportunity to earn their audiences’ undivided attention.

My main point in showing these is to point out that our assumptions about what works are often quite wrong, and that you ultimately have to test for yourself to see what best suits your audience.

A Little bit of Inspiration and Advice

Are your open rates higher than average?

If so, GREAT! Give yourself a pat on the back…but don’t get complacent. Open rates aren’t the be-all, end-all of email metrics. They don’t guarantee that people are reading your emails, only that they have images turned on and that they probably saw your email for at least a moment.

Plus, there’s always room for improvement, right?

Here are a few quick tips that can help you increase your open rates:

• Ask your readers to add you to their address books or safe-list. Some email programs will automatically display images from senders who are in the recipient’s contact list, as opposed to automatically blocking them.
• If you are using images in your emails, be sure to use the ALT attribute to pique readers’ interest so that they enable images. Or, you could just use the ALT attribute to directly ask readers to turn on images!
• Include a picture of yourself to your emails, near/next to your signature. It can help to increase credibility by showing that you’re a real person.