How To Increase Email Open Rates

Want to know how I increased my email newsletter open rate over 23%? What if I told you it was as easy as asking three simple questions to your readers? In this post I am going to tell you how asking three simple questions can put your email campaigns into overdrive!

Average Open Rates

Everyone starts out at zero! I never get tired of saying that, where you go from there is up to you. Earlier this year I started building a newsletter list using in my opinion the best email service provider aWeber.

With a bit of testing for best signup conversion I started getting several email subscribers a day. But I noticed that I received an email open rate of anywhere between 20% on the low end and as high as 60% on a good day. That means that on average very few people where opening the email updates I was sending.

I Asked Three Simple Questions

I had watched a quick video interview on aWeber that I will share with you later in this post. What it said was ask your readers three simple questions and listen to what they say. So I did and the results were amazing!

Here is an example opening message and the three questions to ask:

Hi {name}

Thanks for being a subscriber to {your site name}. Can you reply to this email and answer the following three questions, because it would help me deliver the high quality information you want.

1. Would you like to continue to receive email updates?

2. What would you like me to write and inform you about? (News, Blog Updates, Specials, {put anything else specific to your site here})

3. How often would you like me to send you updates? (daily, weekly, monthly)

Thank you and I look forward to reading your reply!

{Your name}

So there you have it! Seems a bit to simple right? Lets take a look at the questions I asked and why there are so important.

The first question: Would you like to continue to receive email updates?

This helps to remove people who do not want to receive anymore email from you. The reason you want to help these people out is to help boost your open rate. Obviously if they do not want your email they are not going to open it.

Secondly if they keep getting email they are going to report it as spam before they click on an unsubscribe link.

Last but not least people who are no longer interested in receiving information from you take up space and cost you money. Many email service providers have tiered pricing structures based on how many subscribers you have. If you can remove a few hundred off the list it can save you a few dollars and spam complaints.

The second question: What would you like me to write and inform you about?

This question helps you understand what your readers want instead of sending what you think they want. I found the information I received from this question alone helped re-align my focus and content development strategies. This not only helped my email open rate but blog and forum involvement as well. Take note of what your readers want and give them what they are asking for.

The third question: How often would you like me to send you updates?

This is the ultimate question that makes a few people cringe. Look some people can get a little trigger happy when sending mass emails. What you want to do here is listen to the majority of your subscriber base. If for example the majority responds daily is ok, then feel free to fire away. But if the majority responds with weekly or monthly take note, you readers may be to busy or be an industry where they get barraged with daily emails. If that is the case stand out by only sending the highest quality content when they want it.

The Results Are In

So after sending out my survey email I waited a bit to read all the emails. I noticed that I kept getting responses weeks after I had sent out the initial survey. I took note of all the comments, especially of what was wanted and how often. I even managed to remove a few people who just didn’t know they could get off the list.

The results afterward were amazing. Since the initial survey I have experienced open rates in the high 70% up from an average of high 40% to low 50%.

Here Is The Video

As promised here is the video that I watched that helped boost open rates and improve my relationship with my subscribers.

Final Thoughts

If you have a site you are passionate about and you are not building a newsletter list you need to get one started! Go to aWeber and signup. I personally really like their service and support. aWeber has helped boost my community building efforts more than any other tool. If you have any questions about this strategy or aWeber please feel free to post them in the comments!

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