Three small things that raise your email open and read rate
Sending a carefully crafted email only for it to go unopened and unread — dropped straight into the bin — is genuinely dispiriting. Both sender and recipient lose out.
Think about it from the recipient’s side. We all receive dozens, a hundred, sometimes more emails a day. How many do we open? By habit, opening and reading email is time-consuming work, so we open the ones we subscribed to first, the ones relevant to us, and the ones that help us solve a problem. Which means there are three small things that nonetheless shape whether we open at all:
1. The recipient’s own name
When the reader receives the email, does it address them personally? This matters a great deal. Seeing their own name on the email (“Dear XX”) tells a reader this message is relevant to them, gives it a private quality, and makes it feel personal — as though the sender wrote deliberately to them. Without it, the initial read is that this is a mass mailing sent to everyone and not worth a look. Showing a personalised name in the recipient field prompts readers to open a message that matters to them.
2. A personal sender name
Before the email is opened, the recipient sees not just their own name but who it came from. So use a personal name as the sender, and avoid company department addresses like marketing@xxxx.com, sales@xxx.com or info@xxx.com — a reader takes one look and knows it is a mass marketing email. Show a personal sender name and readers are far more likely to treat it as personal mail and open it.
3. The subject line
The third thing a reader sees before opening is the subject. Without one, the email shows the first stretch of body text, which reads as generic and even repetitive. The subject line is the deciding factor in whether an email gets opened and read, so always set one. Keep it under 50 characters, and give it urgency and a time-bound response where possible: “24 hours left before this message is deleted”, “8 hours left before the offer ends”, “You are one of a hundred people selected — read now”. The content must of course match the subject, or your reputation suffers.
Recipient, sender and subject are the first things visible in the inbox before an email is opened. A personalised salutation and a well-judged subject line raise the open and read rate substantially, and deserve proper attention.