Four tips to improve email open rates

Executive overview

Most email campaigns suffer from poor timing, low relevance, and bloated sequences. Send emails when users are primed to open them, and tie every message to a specific action.

Triggered, behaviour-based sequences outperform batch-and-blast every time.

Timing and triggers

• Highest open rates: Tuesday and Thursday; lowest: Saturday
• Test timing yourself — industry data is a starting point, not a rule
• A triggered email fires when a user completes or fails to complete an action
• Four trigger types: action started, action completed, time elapsed without completion, time elapsed without next conversion

Sequences and campaign structure

• Long drip campaigns lose relevance the further they get from the original action
• Triggered sequences stay relevant because they respond to real user behaviour
• Keep triggered sequences to three days or fewer
• Map every key action your prospect should take, then write emails and sequences around those triggers only