Imagine this: You sent an email to your entire list to generate sales for an end-of-the-month push. Later you check your reports and see that your open rate were abysmal. What a blow! Not only did you fail to generate sales, a bunch of contacts unsubscribed from your list.

There are a few reasons why this may have happened, but here are the four most likely reasons along with advice for how you can fix it.

1. You send junk
   
   Would you sending the stuff you send to your list to your friends and
   family? If not, think about a different way to touch base with your contacts
   and provide something of relevance. Not sure if you send junk? If your
   email message is “useful,” it’s resourceful and people want to save and
   archive it. If your message is “interesting” it’s funny, relevant and usually
   good for forwarding to their contacts. If your message is neither interesting
   or useful … it’s junk.

2. You use unoriginal, boring subject lines
   
   People are tired of receiving the same emails with the same boring subject
   lines. They get it. Really, that’s why they don’t bother reading them.
   Be imaginative and creative and make people think when they read your subject
   line.

3. You are still emailing customers from 1998
   
   Do you use the same email address for everything? Probably not. Chances
   are, you have a primary address for friends and family and a secondary
   address for commercial offers. Your contacts are the same way, and are
   probably using their secondary address with you.

   Email permission tends to expire in about 10 months – so the more opportunities
   to confirm and re-confirm their interest (beyond an opt-out link), the
   better. To fix this, consider using an alternative follow-up campaign (phone/direct
   mail) to have people update their contact information and re-opt-in to
   your marketing. Disciplined email marketing pays off when you have a truly
   engaged, interested and hungry list – and you can really cater to the people
   who matter.

4. You send just like the rest of ‘em
   
   We all get our nighttime to morning email flood. I admit, sometimes I just use my
   Delete key more liberally during those hours and my reply button
   during the daytime. To fix this, try mixing up and allowing people to choose
   if they want your message in the morning, in the evening or mid-day.

5. You emailed to your entire list
   
   Not every subscriber is interested in everything you have to offer. Slice
   and dice your email list into relevant, targeted groups and send to those
   groups of users where the message is attractive, engaging and relevant.

   Not everyone’s open rates will always improve. It’s fact. However, the
   more you pay close attention to the result of your emails and more importantly
   “” your recipients’ expectations and satisfaction – the more your email
   open rates will rise with your fine-tuning.
   

To learn more about email marketing best practices, download a free report about Email Marketing 2.0.

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