{"id":9858,"date":"2016-10-04T13:57:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T20:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.benchmarkemail.wpengine.com\/?p=2831"},"modified":"2020-04-03T10:56:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T10:56:25","slug":"nightmarish-open-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/nightmarish-open-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"What Should I Do With My Nightmarish Open Rate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you sent an email campaign recently, reviewed your reports and did a double take.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>No! It can\u2019t be. That open rate can\u2019t be right! Let me refresh the page and see if it changes. Shoot!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s true. That open rate may be the thing of nightmares, making you shoot up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat on your brow. So, what can you do to fix it?<\/p>\n<h2>Clean Your List<\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps your open rate is low due to a large number of inactive subscribers filling up your list. It is important to maintain good list hygiene. Look to see who hasn\u2019t opened your last several campaigns. You can remove them outright, or at least attempt a re-engagement campaign to see if you can bring some inactive subscribers back into the fold.<\/p>\n<h2>Work On Your Subject Lines<\/h2>\n<p>The subject line is your foot in the door of your subscribers\u2019 inbox. It\u2019s the first impression each campaign makes and the best chance at enticing them to open your email campaign. Remember, the subject line needs to show them the value in your email campaign. It\u2019s not about you! If you\u2019re writing subject lines that service your needs, that may be the cause of your nightmarish open rates. Make it about the subscriber and make sure your campaigns deliver on the promise of your subject lines.<\/p>\n<h2>Adjust The From Name<\/h2>\n<p>People don\u2019t like feeling that they\u2019re being marketing to. Sometimes, sending from just your brand name does just that. Try using the name of your CEO, your email marketing manager or an account manager with which your subscribers may have some familiarity. Or combine the two. For example, if you were receiving an email from me it may say \u201cAndy from Benchmark Email.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Run An A\/B Test<\/h2>\n<p>Enough with the guessing games. A\/B Testing is one of the most important things you can do with your email campaigns. It tells you how your subscribers are most likely to react to your email campaigns. You can test subject lines as well as From Names against one another to see which are most likely to get your campaigned opened. The A\/B Test will send a small portion to a percentage of your list and then send the winning email to the remainder of your list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you sent an email campaign recently, reviewed your reports and did a double take. No! It can\u2019t be. That open rate can\u2019t be right! Let me refresh the page and see if it changes. Shoot! It\u2019s true. That open rate may be the thing of nightmares, making you shoot up in the middle of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":16927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practical-marketer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Should I Do With My Nightmarish Open Rate? - in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Should I Do With My Nightmarish Open Rate? - in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps you sent an email campaign recently, reviewed your reports and did a double take. 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