5 Strategies For Increasing Email Response Rate

If you want to be successful with email—and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?—here are some tips.

Important metrics including open, click-through and conversion rates must be tracked.

However, one measure, in particular, does not receive the attention it deserves: the email response rate.

We’ll go through what email response rate is, the average rate across various industries, why it’s a useful indicator, and five techniques to improve it in this article.

What is the average email response time?

It’s simple: the number of responses a brand receives from message receivers during an email marketing campaign is measured by the email response rate.

Simply divide the number of responses you receive by the number of emails that reach their intended recipients, then multiply the result by 100 to determine your company’s response rate. (Please note that bounced emails are not included in your response rate calculation.)

If you successfully delivered 100 emails and received 8 responses, divide 8 by 100 to get .08, then multiply by 100 to get an 8% email response rate.

The only thing left is to decide what constitutes a response… Of course, direct responses are important. But what happens when a subscriber follows a link and completes a survey? Or accepts your request and leaves a product review. Do these behaviours qualify as responses? You’ll need to decide this for yourself.

What constitutes a satisfactory email response rate?

Your industry and the types of emails you send will ultimately determine the response.

If you’re a B2B company that only sends out one newsletter per month, you’ll undoubtedly get less answers than an up-and-coming influencer who puts out weekly email blasts asking their audience questions about the items they represent.

However, a good email response rate for ordinary email marketing should be about 10%. When sending cold emails, the percentage rises to 30%.

What are the benefits of tracking your email response rate?

Like click-through rate and conversion rate, the email response rate isn’t a particularly appealing number. Nonetheless, it’s worth keeping an eye on. The following are three reasons why:

• Audience engagement: It makes no difference how many subscribers you have if none of them interacts with your brand. You may understand how many of your subscribers are engaged and what content engages them the most by analysing your email response rate.
• Subscriber awareness: Subscribers who respond to your emails are far more likely to respond to sales pitches. Keep track of your email response rate to figure out who is most likely to buy your company’s products and services.
• Email marketing success: Are you taking advantage of email’s great ROI potential? Track your response rate to assess the success (or failure) of your email marketing campaigns so you can make adjustments or double down on winning strategies.

How can you increase your email response rate?

We’ve already discussed what email response rate is and why it matters. Let’s look at how you may get your subscribers to respond to your communications on a frequent basis:

1. Segment your target market.

Have you divided your audience into groups with similar interests? If not, this is an excellent place to start because it will enable you to give your subscribers more relevant content that they will want to engage with and respond to, hence increasing your response rate.

There are numerous ways to divide an email list. Fashion firms, for example, frequently segment their subscribers by gender so that they may send offers that are tailored to their preferences. It’s counterintuitive to message males about a lingerie sale…

You may additionally segment your list by age, physical location, income level, sales funnel position, special problems to overcome, and so on.

Sending subscribers the correct material at the right time is one of the secrets to increasing your email response rate—and finding success with email marketing in general. List segmentation will greatly simplify this difficult operation.

2. Make your emails more personalised

Personalization is your hidden weapon when it comes to email marketing. In fact, simply tailoring your subject line (see below for more on subject lines) can increase your open rate by as much as 26%. The more people who open your email, the more responses you’ll get.

This is particularly true for cold email marketing. To elicit responses from strangers, you must personalise your emails, which necessitates study.

Before you message someone, do some research on them. See what they’ve been up to lately on their LinkedIn profile. Read their most recent blog posts or watch their most recent YouTube video. Then, to establish rapport, add some of this information to your email.

Personalize branded emails by incorporating special highlights that are unique to each subscriber. For example, you may bring up a product they recently purchased and inquire about how they appreciate it. Alternatively, provide them with performance data from your company’s software.

Make your brand’s emails feel like the ones they get from their relatives and friends whenever possible. More responses will be generated at this level of acquaintance.

3. Create compelling topic lines

As previously stated, subscribers must first open your emails before responding. Writing great subject lines is one of the finest strategies to increase open rates. This is how:

Personalization: Including the recipient’s name in the subject line can increase open rates, allowing for a higher response rate.

Urgency: Why should subscribers read your message now instead of later? Your email opens will increase if you include this rationale in the subject line.

Emojis: As ridiculous as it may seem, emojis can actually increase open rates. Just don’t go crazy! It’s fine to use one or two emojis per topic line.

Length: Short subject lines are the most effective. On mobile devices, most email clients only show the first 33-43 characters. Make certain that your subscribers are able to read what you’ve published.

Content: Make sure your subject line corresponds to the content of your email. Clickbait subject lines may work initially, but you’ll lose your readers’ confidence, and you’ll get no answers with this strategy—except for a few angry letters.

This is crucial: try out different subject lines and A/B test them to discover which ones do the best. This is the only way to get openings and responses on a regular basis.

4. Send stuff that should be read.

Would you like to boost your email response rate? Then distribute must-read material to your subscribers and/or cold contacts that provide them with unrivalled value.

Why would somebody respond to a message that they didn’t like? Poorly written material (or great content sent to the incorrect audience) can only cause confusion, damage your company’s reputation, and result in unsubscribes—none of which are desirable outcomes.

Instead, put in the effort to provide your audience with the type of content they desire. This could include educational materials, a promotion your company is holding on relevant products, a discount voucher, a request for feedback, and more.

Understanding your audience is the only way to develop must-read (and respond!) content. Learn what they like and don’t like, and then use that information to elicit additional replies.

5. Request feedback

Finally, remember to request feedback from your audience!

The “1, 2, 3” approach is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this. In essence, you ask your subscribers a question and provide them with three answers. As a result, more responses are received because respondents do not have to think as hard about their responses.

Here are some other ideas for getting your audience to respond:

• Pose open-ended inquiries: Open-ended queries, such as “Is there anything I can do to help you at this stage?” can boost responses by putting subscribers in charge of the dialogue and allowing them to address whatever they wish.
• Explain why to your subscribers: Everyone likes to believe that their opinion matters. When you ask for feedback, explain to recipients why you need it. This gives them an incentive to react. We also recommend that you respond to every direct response.
• Use clear calls to action: Clarity is your best friend when it comes to increasing email response rates. Make your email’s call-to-action (CTA) as explicit as possible so that your recipients understand how you want them to respond.

Make it mobile-friendly as well.

But wait, there’s more!

According to studies, up to 67 percent of email users check their email on their phones. Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly to improve your email response rate.

This includes designing your messages for mobile devices, creating short, easy-to-understand words and paragraphs, and utilising succinct subject lines, among other things. These features will improve your readers’ mobile email experience and motivate them to respond.

Improve your whole email marketing strategy.

An essential indicator is the email response rate. You may discover your audience engagement levels, obtain a better knowledge of your subscribers, and measure the success of your overall email marketing activities by tracking them.

Thankfully, increasing your response rate isn’t difficult. Simply follow the five suggestions in this article to increase the number of responses from your audience.

But here’s the thing: without email marketing software, email marketing doesn’t work very effectively. If you haven’t yet invested in a dependable tool—or aren’t satisfied with the one you have—we recommend giving RisePath Marketing a try.