Nobody Wants to Subscribe
Let’s start from the beginning. If you want to send newsletters, you need subscribers. If you do not have subscribers, nobody opens your emails, even if you have the best offer of the universe. It can be challenging to convince people to subscribe to your newsletter since the considerable quantity of emails we receive every day. Some provide a freebie or a gift in exchange for accepting to be added to your contact list. Be useful and relevant. People will not be excited about having a 1000-page ebook about a specific topic, but a tool that will make their lives easier.
On another note, please stay away from buying contact lists since it would be like throwing away money. First, these lists are seen badly by anti-spam filters. It has even become illegal in many countries. You need to have these potential customers’ permission to send them newsletters. Second, these people are probably not interested in your business or products. Someone that likes what you do and decides to subscribe is worth 1000 that were added without consent. In this case, quality is more important than quantity.
You Content Is Not Well Targeted or Not Relevant
This second point is related to the first. If you managed to have a list of contacts, do not spoil your efforts with not well-targeted content. At the slightest false move, your subscribers can unsubscribe. Do not forget that you must stay useful to your audience; this is particularly true with newsletters. Give them access to exclusive content, special offers, and exciting elements. Give them a reason to desire to open your emails. It is a significant error to allow other people to use your contact list for content that is not relevant. For example, a business could want to pay you to add an ad to your newsletter. If it is not relevant to your clientele, decline this offer. You must cherish your subscribers by providing them with content that will answer their needs.
You Are Sending Your Newsletters at the Wrong Time
If you want your subscribers to open your newsletters, you must send them at the right moment. For this to happen, you need to know your clientele a little. To start with, where do they live? You do not need to know their address, but at least have an idea of the country or area. It will allow you to send your newsletters according to their time zone.
Furthermore, it is essential to find the right moment during the day or the week when to send your emails. Many say that campaigns sent on Mondays and Fridays are generally less effective than those sent in the middle of the week. Indeed, newsletters are most likely to be deleted without being opened on Monday mornings when you have a lot of emails. It is the same thing for Friday afternoons when people mostly think about their weekends. Check on Facebook or Google Analytics to know when your clientele visits your website or social media pages. It will give you an idea of when it is the perfect time to send your newsletters. You can also try different days or periods to find the most appropriate moment for your emailing campaigns. If needed, you could check what the best time to post on social media is.
You Harass Your Subscribers
In general, subscribers hate when they feel they are harassed. You harass your contacts when you send many emails per week. You probably already bought something somewhere and then started to receive a lot of newsletters from this business. It is to avoid! People are generally busy; they have many other things to do instead of reading your emailing campaigns. If they feel harassed, they will unsubscribe. To avoid this, start by making a communication plan. Do you really have something useful to tell them? Why no gather together some content? Let your subscribers breathe; it is not because they did not receive anything from you during a week that they will forget you.
You Do Not Choose the Right Email Subject
You must not choose a random email subject when you send a newsletter. They are a few words that allow your subscribers to decide if they want to open or not your email. It is a true art to know how to write the perfect email subject for a campaign; it is as important as the title of a book or a blog article. Here are a few tips on how to write a relevant email subject (no, using capital letters is not one of them.)
First, stay short. The more an email subject is long, the more it can be cut. Then, rely on call-to-action verbs while staying sympathetic at the same time. Do not give orders; choose to make suggestions instead. For example, you could use email subjects starting by discover, save, and benefit from. You could also try to get people interested in your newsletter by using emotions or answering a question. If needed, look at the emails you receive and open; note down the titles you like or find interesting. Relevance is the key!
You Are Not Doing Tests or Do Not Look at Your Statistics
Finally, we cannot see if your subscribers open or not your newsletters if you do not look at your statistics. At the end of each campaign, take a moment to note down and compare your results. Pay close attention to the opening rate, the click rate, and the unsubscribe rate. If someone clicks on your newsletter, it means that he is interested in your content. If he unsubscribes, it means that you are not relevant. Why not do A/B tests to know what is better? Many emailing platforms allow you to try different moments to send newsletters, visuals, or email subjects. This option is handy if you start sending newsletters and are unsure of what is best. Do not give up because an email campaign has a low open rate. Note this down and try something new!
In conclusion, we hope we manage to give you some ideas on how to increase the open rate of your newsletter. The most important thing is the relevance of your content and contact list. Find the right moment to send your campaigns, provide exclusive content, and nurture a good business relationship with your subscribers. To read more on this subject, take a look at our article about creating an effective newsletter.