Listen here

Podcast Show Notes

If one marketing channel has remained a dominant constant for years, it’s email marketing. Email marketing remains a highly effective way to engage potential clients in 2021. By understanding and implementing these four email open rate tips, your email marketing will stay ambitious.

Is email marketing still effective?

If one marketing channel has remained a dominant constant for years, it’s email marketing.

Even as social media, SEO, and video seem to rule the marketing discussion, the data still show that email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels you can use in any industry. 

So YES! email marketing continues to grow in 2021 and remains my top way to convert leads into sales.

With a potential return on investment of up to 4400%, email marketing remains the best way to attract and retain customers.

Email open rate average

While according to campaignmonitor.com, in 2021, the average

  • open rate for email is: 18.0% – this is the percentage of the total number of subscribers who opened an email campaign.
  • click-through rate is 2.6% – this is the number of subscribers who click on a link or image in your email out of all the total emails you’ve sent.
  • click-to-open rate: 14.1% – this is the percentage of email viewers (those that open an email) who click on a link or image within an email.
  • unsubscribe rate: 0.1% – this is the action a user takes to opt-out of getting any more emails.

These rates fall right in line with what I see inside my newsletter emails. 

But if you don’t see great click-through rates for your email, there are several reasons why your email rates may be falling.

Email use is higher than ever

You might think that people are only checking Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok — but in reality, email use is higher than ever.

According to Optinmonster, 99% of consumers check their email every single day.

A solid email open rate is one of the first indications of success when sending an email marketing campaign or newsletter. It shows that your subscribers are engaging and paying attention to your content. 

Want to increase your email open rate? Here are four places to start.
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Four tips to increase your open rate

Whether you are using email to distribute content, nurture leads with newsletters, drive conversion or increase customer loyalty, these four tips will help increase your open rate.

1. Write a great email subject line and pre-header 

Your subject line should promise your subscriber something they want and make them so curious they have to click.

While many don’t put much thought into this step, it’s very critical whether a subscriber will click open your email or not. They can’t consume your excellent email content unless they OPEN your email first.

So make people so curious they can’t not click it open.

You could do this by asking a curiosity-inducing question, start an unfinished story, violate their expectations, or imply you have information they don’t.

2. Make sure your list is constantly growing with new leads

It’s a fact that your open rates can decline over time if you aren’t refreshing your list with new contacts. You are negatively impacting your open rate if you aren’t implementing a lead magnet strategy to increase your list count.

On the other hand, maybe your list could use a clean-up?

By removing nonengaged subscribers from your list who haven’t opened your email in the last 12 months, you can increase your overall deliverability rate.

Inboxes look to see how engaged your subscribers are, and a considerable amount of inactivity can be a red flag and hurt your deliverability rate.

3. Test the frequency of your emails

Perhaps you are sending too many emails or not enough. While there is no perfect answer to how many emails you should send every month, you should know what your audience expects.

The best way is to test sending emails once, twice, and then four times a month to see how your frequency affects your open rate.

4. Your content is valuable to your niche audience

For a consumer to open your email, they need to trust and enjoy emails from you. But know, it may take time to increase your open rate as you build your reputation as a reliable sender over time.

But the quickest way to build trust with your readers is by sending them elevated content that they love and is exactly what they need.

Refer to your brand strategy and the needs of your niche audience to make sure your content is aligned with your audience.

Email Open Rate: Recap

So to recap, the four tips to help increase your email open rate are:

1 – Write a great email subject line and preheader 

2 – Make sure your list is constantly growing with new leads

3 – Test the frequency of your emails

4 – Your content is valuable to your niche audience

How to Outsource Your email marketing

At CORE Brand Marketing Group, we use our approach to increase high-quality leads using email marketing for automated sales outside traditional social media. If you need help setting up your email campaigns or defining your sales strategy, please set up a complimentary call with our CORE Brand Marketing Group. Fill out the application online at corebrandmarketing.com.

email marketing for small business
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

In the End

Email marketing remains a highly effective way to engage potential clients in 2021. By understanding and implementing these open rate tips, your email marketing will stay ambitious.


Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

  1. Build a Continuous Flow of New Clients Using This Simple Profit Pipeline™ – HERE!
  2. Turn Your Chaos Into Clarity in Just 90 Minutes with this One Call – HERE!
  3. Obtain the Support System You Need Inside Our Coaching Group – HERE!
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn


Since I share awe-inspiring resources and must-have products for business builders like you who want to streamline their business – my content may contain affiliate links for products I use and love. If you take action (i.e. subscribe, make a purchase) after clicking one of these links, I’ll earn a small commission. While it has no effect on your pricing, it’s my responsibility to let you know that an income (however small or large it may be) is made from recommending products I love, use, and share with other awesome people like yourself. With your support, I’m able to commit time to this blog and to each of you on your journey!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This