How do I increase the open rates on a list that have not been maintained or used over a year?

Good Question!

It is very similar to the question we generally asked in our College days.

“How can I increase my score if I don’t have opened my books for the last few months?”

Well, then if I were your colleague, I would suggest that ‘you must refer and study books properly before the exam, then ultimately your marks will increase.’

Ok. Let’s discuss the question you have asked.

First, you need to understand what is open rates.

The open rate is the percentage of the number of subscribers who opened an email.

Ex- If you send ten emails and five emails opened, then the open rate is 50%.

If your email list is not used or maintained for some time, then you can’t identify how many email addresses are active or valid or useful in your email campaign.

How will emails be opened if it will not successfully deliver to your subscribers?

So you need to maintain your email lists so you can understand how many email addresses are valid or active in your lists. First, you need to check email addresses with the process of verification and validation. Then you have a list of the proper verified email address. Once you have this list, then your emails successfully delivered and possible that maximum subscribers will open your emails.

There are a few tips which also can help you with open rates

• An engaging subject line
• Write quality content
• Send an email at the right time
• Avoid spam filters(free, sale, etc.)

‘You must clean your email lists before starting your campaign, then ultimately, your open rates will increase.’

First and foremost you need to clean the list to remove all the invalid email addresses since the list has not been used in recent times (anywhere around 90 days of time is required for cleaning). Cleaning will help you to remove all invalids and give you the best possibilities of reaching the active inbox. To increase the open rate, you need to choose the right subject line, this further depends on the type of email whether its of marketing or transactional.