How many people open the email you send? If you maintain an email list for a business, brand, organization, or personality, you can improve your emails to make them more enticing to open. The same can be said for anyone who has to cold-contact people for sales, PR, or other opportunities.

If you’re running an email list, you’ll need email marketing software to start. Email marketing software helps you send a message to large numbers of people, as well as collect statistics about how many people open the message, click links in the email, and so forth. Some professional email marketing tools also let you run A/B tests, so you can find out whether changing something about your message, such as the day of the week you send it, has a significant effect on your open rate.

Here are some tips for improving your email open response rate.

1. Review the Rules

Before you do anything with an email list, make sure you’re in compliance with all applicable laws. The laws vary by region. For example, in the US, the CAN-SPAM act outlines all the rules for commercial, relationship, and transactional email. It says you can’t use false or misleading headers or subject lines, and if the email is an ad, it must be identified as such. You have to give people a way to opt out as well. There’s more. Read it.

Residents of the EU are covered by GDPR’s regulations for email, even if the company sending the mail is registered in another country.

Make sure you know the rules so that you don’t violate them when trying to improve your email open response rate.

2. Run Maintenance on Your Subscriber List

Having a lot of duds on an email subscriber list lowers your open rate. Clean up your subscriber list from time to time by removing dead addresses (those that have sent a bounce-back message) as well as anyone with a track record of not opening your messages (say, anyone who hasn’t opened an email in six months or a year).

3. Give People More Ways to Join Your List

People who actively signed up to receive your emails are more likely to open them than someone who was added without their knowledge. So while some organizations may buy lists of email addresses for distribution, the best subscribers are those who want to receive your messages. Give those people several ways to sign up.

Promote your email list on your organization’s website, social media accounts, and other places where you can pick up eager new subscribers. You can use simple and free form builders, such as Google Forms, where available, or look for specialized ones for your platform. For example, there are plug-in form builders for people getting started with WordPress, some of which include easy drag-and-drop options for compliance issues such as GDPR.

4. Deliver What You Promise, and Be Consistent

People sign up to receive emails for a reason, whether to get news summaries, exclusive deals, coupon codes, or inside information. Make sure you deliver what you promise the first time and every time you send an email.

Be consistent in other areas, too. Use a consistent voice. Match the style and tone of the email to the brand, product, or organization. If your messages are informational in nature, send them at a consistent time, such as once per week on the same day and time every week.

Speaking of when to send a message, there is no “right” time or day. It depends on your audience, the type of email you send, and other factors. Use that A/B testing I mentioned earlier to see if you get better results on different days and times.

5. Spend Time on Your Subject Line

The subject line may be the most important asset within your control influencing whether someone will open your email. Spend time on it and try several variations.

Make the subject line accurate to the subject matter. Avoid putting questions in the subject line. Keep it short and catchy. Exactly how many words or characters should you use? Advice ranges from about 45 to no more than 100 characters, mostly to keep the subject line visible on mobile devices. Six to 10 words should do the trick.

I recommend brainstorming five or so possible subject lines for every email you send. Ask your colleagues which one is most compelling. And always ask yourself what would make you click to open it.

6. Carefully Craft the First Line of the Body

Everyone who receives your email will, in theory, see the subject line. Many recipients will also see the first few words of the body in preview. So if the subject line hooks them, the first line needs to reel them in. Put in some effort into crafting it.

Write the first line of the body so that it adds to the subject line rather than repeats it. Keep it accurate (don’t write clickbait) and get to the point. Deliver what you promised!

7. Customize the ‘From’ Name

Who sends your emails? If it’s Rose or Julio from the marketing department, consider putting their name in the ‘from’ line to give your emails a personal touch, if it’s appropriate based on the content. Rose@companyname.com is friendlier than news@companyname.com.

If it doesn’t make sense to use a human name, at the very least, use something other than noreply@companyname.com.

8. Proofread Before You Send

Keep your audience interested in opening future emails by delivering professional content. Have another person proofread it, not only for typos, but also for meaning, readability, and factual errors.

The proofreader should pay close attention to the subject line and first line of text for length and to assess whether they deliver on whatever promise you’ve made to your audience. Proofers should also click all links to verify that they work. Proof emails on a desktop computer and a mobile device, or in previews of those platforms if your email marketing tool offers them.

9. Get to the Point

Another way to keep people interested and increase the odds that they open your future emails is to cut to the chase. For example, if your email has news of a sale, tell people what’s on sale (with pictures when applicable), how much the discount is, and how they can get the sale prices. If your email is pitching a product, give the name of the product, a single description of what it does, the availability, and a link to the product’s website with more information.

The more you get to the point and give people what they want, the more likely they are to trust your emails and open them again in the future.

More Email Marketing Tips

Every email list has its purpose and audience, both of which affect how you should go about increasing your email open response rate. Whenever possible, collect data and make changes in a conscientious manner so that you can track the results.