How often have you heard people wanting to delete messages in their inbox or having thousands of unread emails? I have over 6000 unread emails in my personal account and I blindly delete much everyday! Seriously, there is nothing more depressing that putting in energy, time and thought into email campaigns only to see a low open rate or realizing that nobody is opening your email.

In this post, we will discuss 14 reasons why nobody is opening your emails and what can you do about it.

1. Your Subject Line is not Interesting Enough

The no 1 reason why nobody is opening your email is your subject line is not catchy enough! Look – Nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day; this number is expected to reach 246 billion before 2020. And, to distinguish yourself from others, you need to work on your subject line. Do not give away too much information in the subject line and keep that curiosity or mystery alive – people love it! That said, do not send them irrelevant, vague or unrelated headline. People do not have the time to decipher codes and will simply move on or delete your email.

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2. You are Sending Too Many Emails

What do you usually do when you receive too many emails from a brand or business? I simply unsubscribe or ignore those emails! While we all love to get valuable information right in our inbox, none of us like to be overloaded with it. If you want your emails to be read, optimize the number of times you reach out to your audience. We suggest you look through marketing reports in your industry.  

According to Aweber, an email marketing client, the majority of companies are sending at least one to two emails a week, which seems to match up to subscribers expectations fairly well. According to a survey from Marketing Sherpa, most subscribers said they would rather receive emails at least once a week or once a month. Look at your strategy – may be nobody is opening your email because you are sending too many of them!    

3. It Has no Personalization or Personality

Experian reports that personalized promotional emails have 29% higher unique open rates and 41% more unique click-through rates. And, still, many brands do not follow this. A few simple tweaks and inclusions can skyrocket your open rates. Two ways you can personalize are

• Use first names in the subject lines
• Use emojis. 56 percent of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate, according to a report by Experian.

4. It Goes Under the Promotion Tab or SPAM

Promotion tab and spam are a no man’s land. If your emails land there, your conversion will be really low. This could be one of the reasons why nobody is opening your emails. Avoid using too many images, links, lots of fancy HTML code and words like money, free, donate etc. Here is a list of spam trigger words.  

5. Your From Address isn’t Personal

Avoid using generic email IDs like marketing@domain.com or robotic email address like noreply@domain.com. Instead, use the email address of a known person in the company, for example, the marketing director or CEO. When you send emails from a personal account, your open rate is bound to increase. The reason is fairly simple – people like to interact with real people and a generic email raises doubt of spam or scam! This is one of the most common reasons why nobody is opening your email.

6. Your Timing is Off

Timing is important for EVERY campaign! If your audience is online in the morning, and you send emails at night, this could be a reason why nobody is opening your emails. Tuesday is the best day of the week to send the email (according to 10 email marketing studies). Similarly, 10 AM is the best time of the day to send emails.

7. No Segmentation = Nobody is Opening Your Email

Let’s say you are interested in cats. But, I keep sending you dog related content and promotions. What happens next? You will unsubscribe or keep ignoring my emails!

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So, segment your audience according to interests and send them relevant emails.

8. Forgetting Mobile Users

72.9% of 18-24-year-olds use their phones to check email. That’s a lot! So, ensure that your emails are responsive. If the emails are not mobile friendly, your audience will lose interest quickly Result? Nobody is opening your email anymore!

9. Not Enough Value

One other reason why nobody is opening your email is that you do not provide adequate value to the audience. Everyone gets at least 100 emails every day and if they decide to open yours – it is for a simple reason – to get something valuable out of it.

10. Only Pictures or Only Text

People SAY they prefer HTML emails, but plain-text emails actually get higher open rates. Implement A/B testing and see what works for you.

11. Too Many CTAs

If you have too many CTAs or unclear CTAs in the emails, your audience is bound to feel confused or overwhelmed. Result? They will either start ignoring emails or unsubscribe! Ensure that you have one strong CTA in each email. A lot of marketers make this mistake and maybe, this is the reason nobody is opening your email.    

Must Read: Best Practices and Examples for Call to Action in Cold Emails

12. Not Utilizing Preview Text

Preview text is the line right next to your subject line in an email. It looks like a continuation but it is NOT. Most email clients allow you to insert approx. 50 characters and you can get extremely creative it. Utilize it to motivate your audience to click through by tying the copy with the subject line.

13. Only Sending Promotional Content

If you send promotional emails and nobody is opening your emails, this could be the reason (for example, discounts or wanting your readers to buy your product) all the time, you will start noticing a downward trend. First, there will be a decrease in open rates and then, readers will start unsubscribing. No one wants to be pushed ALL the time.

14. Bad Copy

Bad copy can cost you a lot and could be the major reason why nobody is opening your email anymore. You may have great content or a valuable experience to share with your audience, but if your copy is dull, boring, non-coherent or misaligned no one would read your emails.

These are the main reasons why nobody is opening your email. You need to think about all the points mentioned above, while doing email marketing.