Want to increase the open rate on your emails? You're in the right place. First, a couple of quick disclaimers:

  1. The MailerLite links in this post are affiliate links. It is the mailing list service I strongly recommend, for all the reasons outlined in this post (which also explains why I left Mailchimp, and no longer recommend that service). If you also want to move from Mailchimp to MailerLite because of recent price hikes and service changes, read this guide. But if you are with another service, all these tips still apply, with the possible exception #6 which might be a MailerLite-exclusive feature.
  2. These are words I never thought I'd write, but because of the global pandemic, you might not be feeling like working right now, or might not be in a position to carve out any mental energy to worry about email open rates. That's totally fine. I've spent a few weeks mostly watching television. Look after yourself and your family, and do what you need to do to get through this on a personal level. But for those who need the distraction...

Having a big email list is great, but utterly pointless if your open rate is in the toilet. Quantity might get the headlines but it's quality which pays the bills.

You need engaged subscribers, ones that care about getting your emails, people who open your messages and act on the contents. If you are putting effort into growing your subscriber count but not proactively taking steps to assist open rates, then all you're really doing is bailing out your boat with a leaky bucket.

I have several mailing lists, but here's an example of one of them. These are the most recent sends.

You'll see the open rate for all these emails is north of 50% – or will be on that most recent send once the weekend warriors get around to opening. This is typical for me and this particular list. Sometimes it's a little higher, sometimes it's a little lower, but performance is consistently 50%+ and it has been that way for quite a long time.

In other words, this is a large, engaged list of happy subscribers. And, needless to say, this is a well performing list. I should also note that this was typical content for this list, just an informational email, unconnected to anything like a new release which would see higher open rates and (much) higher click rates.

The point is, these kinds of numbers are totally achievable for you too, as is keeping this level over an extended period. Indeed, some authors routinely exceed these numbers. While these definitely are good numbers, I'm not posting industry-leading, earth-shattering figures here.

People often say things like "it's natural for open rates to fall over time" – and that's true… if you do nothing about it. Also, there are plenty of practices you might inadvertently engage in which might accelerate the natural wastage you tend to get over time. But there's also plenty you can do to address falling open rates and even reverse them.

Yes, you can actually have increasing open rates on a large list of subscribers and maintain that trend on a growing list over time too. What witchery is this? Let's take a look.

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