You may have the most intriguing email newsletter with a carefully crafted call to action, hand selected content and stunning graphics but it will all be for nothing if the recipients on your email list don’t open your email.

The subject line of your email newsletter is one of the key factors that can determine if it is successful or not. While there isn’t one master tactic to help ensure your email newsletter is opened there are several tactics that when used to together can help increase the open rate of your email newsletter.

Personalization

Increase Your Email Newsletter Open Rate Personalization
An email subject that speaks to your recipients directly is more likely to be opened than one that is vaguely written. While you don’t have to send a separate email to each person there are some small steps you can take to help increase your email newsletter open rate.

Include their first name in the subject of the email. There is nothing more personal in an email than seeing your name in the subject. Most email newsletter platforms allow you to dynamically pull the name of your recipient from your email list and include it in your email subject and body.

Choose the wording of your subject so that it targets a group of or particular type of recipient. If your email newsletter is going to people that like daffodils your subject could be “Good News For Daffodil Lovers, Spring is Finally Here!”

Make sure the “from” for your email newsletter is a person not a cold, faceless email. Having your email newsletter come from John@ or Jane@ vs. no-reply@, webmaster@ or email@ is going to make it feel more personal.

Avoid Spam

Increase Your Email Newsletter Open Rate Avoid Spam
Even worse than having your recipients not open your email is having it go to their spam folder. If the people on your email list are like me, an email in their spam folder has the roughly the same likelihood of being opened as an email that they never received.

To avoid your email ending up flagged by spam filters and lowering your email newsletter open rate there are some terms you should avoid using in your subject. Some of the most common are

  • Double your income
  • Fast Cash
  • Homebased Business
  • $$$
  • Weight Loss

Create and Send Engaging Newsletters From Gmail

Have a Clear Message

When people read your subject line they should have a clear understanding of what to expect when they open the email newsletter. Whether you are offering a promotion, promoting a download or trying to get them to sign up for a webinar, make sure it is clear in the subject what they’ll find inside the email.

It is very important to make sure that the message in your subject matches the content of your email. There is no quick way to have people unsubscribe than pulling a bait and switch.

DON’T USE ALL CAPS

Increase Your Email Newsletter Open Rate Avoid All Caps
While it may be tempting to use all caps to draw attention and help your email stand out in your recipients’ inbox, putting the subject in all caps can actually have the opposite effect on your email newsletter open rate.

Writing in all caps is the internet equivalent of yelling and quite frankly rude. You wouldn’t yell at them if they were in the room with you so don’t do it in your email newsletter subject.