Increase Email Open Rates with These 40+ Proven Tips

Are you having sleepless nights and disturbed days at work because your email open rates have decreased?

99% of email users are in touch with their inboxes, and they check them more than 20 times daily. 

So, what do you need as a B2B email marketer to ensure your emails are among those opened?

That is where this article comes in.

This post will teach you how to increase your email open rates and the factors that affect them.

Embracing the tactics discussed in this article will boost your business's revenue, and you will enjoy your campaign marketing journey.

Let’s dive right in!

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What is An Email Open Rate?

Your email open rate is the total number of subscribers who open a specific email.

Many people base their email marketing strategy on their email open rates, and while this measure is important, it should not be the only metric used to define your plan.

Instead, consider a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) and your email marketing objectives.

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Email Subject Lines That Will Increase Your Open Rate

What is the first thing your email list subscribers see when you send an email?

It’s the subject line.

It needs to give a synopsis of the email’s message and persuade the reader to open it.

While a poorly written one may result in minimal interaction or be marked as spam, a well-written one might enhance your open rate. 

Use these five email subject lines to boost open rates:

Curiosity Inducing Subject Lines

Humans are inherently curious.

They'll ask for more information if your subject line piques their interest.

An innovative strategy to boost the number of people who open your emails is to keep them interested.

Check the example below.

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Personalized Subject Lines

Did you know that adding a personalized subject line to your emails can increase their open rates by 26% more than those without?

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You may build familiarity with your subscribers by personalizing the subject line of your emails.

Their level of trust in your brand rises as a result.

For instance, saying something generic like Hi, valued subscriber comes off as disinterested, whereas calling them by their first name will immediately capture their attention.

Additionally, personal information like relationship statuses, birthdays, and web browsing patterns can be used to modify email content and assist in creating the connection that is so important to the success of email marketing.

Humorous Subject Lines

Humor is a terrific discussion starter.

In fact, subject lines with wit, humor, puns, or anything else that makes readers smile can raise open rates by as much as 40%, demonstrating how important it can be for your email to stand out from the pool of generic messages.

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Subject lines with humor, puns, wit, or anything else that makes a subscriber smile can increase open rates by as much as 40%.

Shocking Subject Lines

Saying the unexpected is a wonderful technique to catch readers' attention.

Controversy draws attention.

You would not anticipate receiving an email from DM Insider with the subject line ‘Google is NOT God’.

Check out the example below.

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Subject Lines Announcing Free Offers

I mean, who doesn't like free stuff?

They work as incentives that encourage individuals to take action.

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Therefore, sending subscribers freebies, discounts, and other incentives will encourage them to open your emails and watch for your next ones.

Who wouldn’t open such an email (below) because of the subject line? 

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Top Tips to Increase Email Open Rate

Do you want your email open rate to increase?

Your email marketing efforts can only be successful if recipients open them in the first place. 

Here are more than 40 simple techniques for increasing open rates if they are not as high as you want them to be.

1. Trigger Curiosity

First and foremost, the main objective of emailing your subscribers is to influence them to take action.

Creating subject lines that will pique their interest may increase their likelihood of clicking on your CTAs.

For instance, using a teaser in your subject line will pique their interest and motivate them to read the rest of your email.

Writing a distinctive subject line will undoubtedly lower the likelihood that your email will end up in your readers' trash.

2. Use First Names

Instead of projecting an impression of obscurity, try developing a close relationship with your subscribers.

Addressing subscribers by their first names will make your email stand out.

You may compare it to receiving a personalized email.

This ensures a favorable response from your readers and will prompt them to inquire how your email might benefit them.

If you address your subscribers by first name, they may open your emails more frequently.

3. Use Humor

A hilarious email will make your readers’ day better.

This may encourage people to anticipate receiving your emails and frequently check for new content.

Use humor to establish a connection with your audience.

To increase your open rate, write emails that aren't excessively cold, impersonal, or dull.

Whatever you want to use humor, satire, or sarcasm in your emails, make sure they are also valuable.

4. Beware of Spam Filters

The likelihood of someone opening a spam email is relatively low.

Because of this, you must exercise caution while composing emails to avoid being flagged as spam.

The issue is that spam filters are now more intelligent.

So, you don't necessarily have to send spammy emails and be branded as spammy.

The good news is that you can avoid having your emails marked as spam.

Here are a few of those steps:

• In your email subject line, try to stay away from spam phrases like these.

• Write your topic line in lowercase.

• Your emails could be tagged as spam if you use all capital letters in the subject line.

• Authenticate your email account to stop spam from being sent by unauthorized users.

5. Use Emojis

Should emojis be used in emails? 

Emojis are useful in emails without being improper or unethical.

Feel free to include emoticons in your messages because 56% of brands that applied emojis enjoyed a higher open rate than those that didn’t.

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They convey emotion, persuade recipients that their emails are not spam from automated systems, and foster a fun, close relationship between you and your subscribers.

Emojis bring personality to your message and help you come off as approachable.

Use them in your subject line.

6. A/B Test

Have you ever written up a few potential subject lines and then wondered which would elicit the most outstanding feedback from your readers?

You can do an A/B test instead of speculating.

A/B tests provide the information you need to decide which of your content's components is better for an email campaign.

You may test the subject lines of your emails and the CTAs, graphics, and other parts of the content.

A great technique for raising your email open rate is to test several approaches to determine which resonates most with your readers.

7. Be Memorable

Email senders must be identifiable if you want your readers to trust you.

But if you keep changing your name with each email, it will be impossible to accomplish this.

It's, therefore, crucial to pick a unique sender name, brand it, claim it, and use it consistently.

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You may even use a sophisticated font like the one in the example above, especially if it’s a personal brand.

By doing this, you'll be able to get to know your users better and foster a feeling of connection.

8. Use Statistics

People love to see statistics.

If your subject line reads, 20% of people on earth are winning, your readers will question why they aren't also winning.

This subject line leads your readers to ask themselves, "What am I doing wrong?"

And it will compel them to read your email since they know it contains the response to their query.

Therefore, use statistical tactics and watch your email open rates rise.

9. Keep Your Emails Short

Be brief in your email.

Nobody likes reading long, dull emails that contain endless paragraphs of text.

Your emails to subscribers should be concise, to the point, and appropriately paragraphed for simple reading.

Most likely, your subscribers won't spend their days passively reading emails.

They also receive several emails from other people.

By sending them succinct, easy-to-read emails, you want to encourage your subscribers to read through them.

10. Create Anticipation

Profit from your subscribers' anxiety over missing out on great content.

You can achieve this by providing them with valuable content or a limited-time offer.

Your readers will constantly look forward to your upcoming emails if you do this, even though it might take a lot of consistency.

11. Use Engaging Content

Provide trustworthy, relevant, and engaging content for your readers.

There's a reason why your target audience is drawn to your niche.

Therefore, provide them with content that is useful and relevant to them 

12. Use Opt-in Forms

Avoid pressuring people to join your email list. Building a relationship in such a manner is incorrect. You should treat an email list like a committed, long-term partner.

If subscribers voluntarily sign up for your email list, they are more inclined to open and read your emails.

Employ an opt-in form to allow users to accept or decline your emails.

Here is a good example.

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13. Use Optimized Images

A picture is worth a thousand words or more. 

Users can relate to your email's content more readily if you incorporate photos.

An image can serve as an overview of your email's content, increasing subscriber engagement.

14. Use Quizzes

When done well, quizzes can be entertaining.

Quizzes are a great tactic to engage your readers in your content. 

Check out the example below:

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Therefore, use quizzes to increase interest and anticipation.

It is an innovative technique to raise your email open rate.

15. Provide Value

Now that you have a well-planned distribution schedule, an intriguing subject line, an easily recognizable sender name, and so on, what about the content of the email you are sending out?

It would be frustrating to send an email at the optimal time, attract a prospect's attention to the point where they open the email, and then have the email contain nothing interesting. 

Content is king.

Send intelligent, brief, humorous, and engaging marketing emails.

They ought to be the driving motivation behind everything else, resulting in sales.    

16. Segment Your Email List 

Build an email list, but segment it as well.

When your emails are continuously tailored, particularly to their needs, you boost their relevancy to your subscribers.

Of course, you'll need the data from your email list subscribers to proceed with email list segmentation.

When segmenting your email list, use behavioral data, such as browsing history, and demographic data, such as age, gender, and geography.

Although it will take some effort, you'll soon see a dramatic increase in your email open rates.

According to Lyris, 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists saw an increase in open rates, 28% saw a decrease in unsubscribe rates, and 24% saw an improvement in deliverability and income.

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17. Send Enough Emails

Strike a balance between avoiding sending too few emails and sending too many.

You face the chance of losing every subscription.

How can one strike a balance?

Find out first what is effective in your sector.

Ensure you send them regularly and at the same intervals, whether twice a week or four times a month.

Your open rates will continue to rise if you do this.

18. Look at Blacklists

DNS-based blacklists are made to protect consumers from IP addresses reported as responsible for a significant amount of spam.

You ought not to be on that list.

You can check your status on the blacklist by using the MXToolbox application.

19. Double Opt-In form

Using a double opt-in form to decrease spam complaints and increase email open rates is a good idea.

You can send the new subscriber a confirmation email to verify their email address and establish the agreement.

20. Use an Organic List

An email list that has grown naturally over time is essential for good deliverability.

Sending your email to lists you borrowed, scraped, or purchased could cause you more harm than you realize.

Be patient and organically expand your list if you want to deliver successful email marketing campaigns.

21. Authenticate Your Email

Another name for domain authentication is email authentication.

Email authentication is a collection of steps used to confirm the domain owner to obtain accurate information about the source of emails.   

22. Improve Email Deliverability

Getting your emails to your target and having them land in their inboxes (rather than their spam or junk mail folders) is the first stage in email marketing.

Your efforts are wasted if your audience is not exposed to your content.

The bounce factor, or the propensity for emails not to be delivered, is one of the main problems companies face using email marketing.

Email bounces or bouncebacks result from recipient server blocks or temporary or permanent problems with the receiving account.

A high bounce rate over time could damage your sender's reputation and add your IP to a blacklist.

In the event of a bounce, the receiving server returns the message to the original sender.

Return to Sender has been digitally updated.

How can you then increase deliverability or decrease bouncebacks?  

23. Register a Sub-Domain

For email marketing activities, you should create a sub-domain.

Everybody is not required to do it.

However, it might help monitor your IP reputation on a domain-specific basis.

24. Create an Organic Email List

Do you prefer quantity over quality?

An email list's quality is more valuable than its size.

Because of this, businesses that attempt to buy a lot of leads to kickstart their marketing initiatives may discover that their open rates are relatively low. 

Other ways of creating an organic email list include offering a free trial, holding a contest in exchange for email addresses, and making it easy to subscribe. 

25. Optimize Your Character Count

According to research by Return Path titled The Art and Science of Effective Subject Lines, a rate of 17% of emails with subject lines between 61 and 70 characters were read.

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Remember to consider PCs and cell phones as well.

Will the people that make up your target market read emails on desktops or smartphones?

Desktops typically display 60 characters, but mobile devices only show 25 to 30.

To increase email open rates, consider the size and character limit.

26. Check Your Sender's Reputation

ISPs automatically reject and stop email delivery if you have a low sender score.

But what does the Sender Score mean?

Every outgoing mail server's IP address is ranked using Sender Score.

It displays your sender's reputation on a scale of 0 to 100.

Several email metrics calculate the sender score by using unsubscriptions or spam reports.

Visit the registration page for Return Path to find out your sender score.

27. Implement a Sender Policy Framework

It is kept in the domain name system as a short line of text that is added to the domain's text record, and it does so in conjunction with the A, PTR, and MX records.

This means the quality of your reputation with the email server receiving your messages will improve.

The server can cross-reference the domain name with the IP address to validate its authorization.

Your emails will most likely be ignored if they cannot locate an SPF record. Using DMARC, you can verify that your SPF record is correct.

28. Clean Your Email List

Make sure to keep your email subscriber list up to date and remove any inactive users.

Consider emailing customers who have not participated in at least the previous six months' worth of discussions.

After analyzing the possibility of future collaboration, you can cross those people off your list.

Email sunsetting can help you cross inactive subscribers that have been dormant for about 120 days.

Check out the diagram below.

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Integrate your email verification and list cleaning tool with web forms, ESPs, CRMs, marketing automation software, and webpages to run routine database checks to keep lists clean. 

29. Perfect Your Timing and Frequency

Send your email marketing campaign at specific times of the day.

What day of the week and how often you send your monthly bulk emails also matters.

According to Adobe, promotional emails work best when sent throughout the working day.

8 am emails gave the highest open and click-through rates (20.32 and 7.79 percent, respectively).

Emails sent at 10 am had high rates, but fewer orders came in from them than at other times.

Although it didn't win any particular metrics, 1 pm performed well. It could be a wonderful moment to send emails in general.

Order rates peaked at 4 o'clock.

Email click-through rates were strong around 5 o'clock.

However, your consumers and your product or service are also important considerations. 

Even if it's advisable to send one email per week, it would be great if you and your campaign team looked into industry statistics and what other businesses are doing. 

30. Write to Just One Person

Consider the tens of thousands of recipients when composing your subject line and message content.

Writing like you were chatting with a specific person and using a particular subject line and message is much more successful.

You must have a solid understanding of your buyer persona to write this way. 

Understanding their pain points, wants, values, and preferences is also important.

If you need help, email the recipients and request a five-minute call.

You can use the call to ask questions to clarify your understanding of your subscribers' demands and thought processes.

Conversing with your subscribers for a day or two will significantly benefit your messaging and your development or improvement of products and services.

31. Optimize for Mobile Users

Check out these statistics to see the significance of mobile optimization.

• Emails that show incorrectly on mobile devices are removed within three seconds. (Adestra)

• Mobile users are likely to read their emails three times a day. (Google)

• Compared to PC clicks, mobile email traffic is more lucrative. (Yesmail)

• A poor mobile experience makes 52% of customers less likely to interact with a business. (Wowl Local Marketing)

• 73% of businesses give mobile device optimization of emails top priority. (Smart Insights)

You need a responsive system and excellent ad conversion rates to attract mobile customers.

32. Use Captivating Subject Lines

You should use a clear and captivating subject line.

It should be brief enough to be quickly skimmed and intriguing enough to entice the email's recipient to open it.

Writing a subject line with fewer than 21 characters can raise open rates by 31% more than the average, demonstrating why marketers should keep their subject lines as brief as possible.

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Additionally, you should personalize your subject line.

Write a subject line that piques the interest of the person reading it and entices them to read the email. 

33. Focus on Your Subscribers’ Interest

Naturally, the primary reason for starting an email list in the first place is to boost sales.

But you shouldn't make that the only point of your email's content.

There are alternative strategies for increasing sales.

Instead, concentrate on creating content that appeals to your readers.

While guiding them through your sales funnel, this is the ideal technique to maintain their attention and engagement.

Also, because they know there will always be something of value in your emails, they will continue to open them.

34. Ask Why a Customer Unsubscribed

Have you ever tried removing your name from a mailing list?

You were likely directed to a website with a blank form asking you to select from a list of possible reasons for your unsubscription.

People tend to unsubscribe when emails from a mailing list annoy or bore them.

So, a subscriber who chooses to unsubscribe from your email list usually has a reason for doing so.

Figuring out why they unsubscribed allows you to prove yourself worthy and will enable you to make the required adjustments to prevent it from happening again.

Pro Tip: By appealing to your readers' consciences, you can persuade them to reconsider. We are sorry to see you go, for instance.

Check out this example below:

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35. Ask for Help

While reading through your emails carefully before sending them out is an excellent idea, you risk overlooking your errors.

Your mind may become biased toward your mistakes because you created them in the first place, making it difficult for you to see them.

It never hurts to get a second opinion. Before sending out your emails, ask friends, relatives, or coworkers to proofread them and find any mistakes.

36. Proofread Your Emails

According to experts at the renowned writing business Essay Tigers, proofreading is considerably undervalued.  

It's crucial to read through your email thoroughly after composing it.

Analyze the content for inaccuracies, false facts, and areas for improvement.

Even minor grammatical errors turn off the majority of people.

Just using the wrong punctuation mark or writing is instead of has will cost you subscribers, so it's not worth it.

Take proofreading seriously and utilize Grammarly or other grammar and spelling checkers when necessary.

37. Resend Unopened Emails

When your email open rate is low, it may be because your subscribers overlooked your emails in their inboxes.

In most cases, a bad subject line is to blame.

One way to improve this situation is to resend these emails with a better subject line.

38. Create a Re-engagement Campaign

Before cleaning up your email list, consider contacting subscribers who haven't opened to see who you might entice back.

Provide a win-back incentive to inactive members to encourage them to re-engage.

Make a list of email recipients who haven't opened any messages in a specific time frame.

You have the option of choosing three, six, or twelve months.

Ask them what's up, break up with them outright, or send them a special offer to pressure them back into the conversation.

Give them the option to confirm their wish to stay on your list by including a confirmation link.

You can mark them as disinterested and remove them from your email list if they don't open a few win-back letters.

They are no longer intrigued by your brand, and that's alright.

In the example below, Grammarly uses personalization to win back users by reminding them of the program's capabilities and letting them know they were missed.

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39. Set Expectations With Subscribers

When your subscribers decide to sign up for your email list, be honest with them.

Tell them how often you'll connect with them, what you'll say, and how it will help them. Afterward, live up to them.

How would they ever know to seek out and open your emails if you add them to your list after they download a white paper but don't let them know how frequently you'll contact them or what they can expect from it?

Inform new customers:

• The kinds of messages you'll send them: promotional offers for goods, news, advice, etc. 

• You can even display a sample of the emails you'll be sending.

• What time of day and how frequently you'll call them?

• Why is it worthy of being on your list? What will customers gain from it? Why should they care?

• What will you do with the information provided?
• Do you intend to send them a birthday offer if they provide you with their email and birthday?

40. End Your Email With A Question

Creating a sense of intrigue at the beginning of your emails is a fantastic concept, but you should also do it at the conclusion.

Customers engage with you more when you ask them questions.

Alternatively, you may pledge to address it in a subsequent email.

Your subscribers will be anticipating your upcoming emails as a result of this.

41. Don’t Wear Your Subscribers Out

Sending out too many emails too quickly is not recommended.

We recognize your eagerness to spread the wealth of fresh material you've just created. 

Therefore, avoid sending them out all at once.

Let your readers have time to process the content and keep them craving more.

Distribute your emails uniformly, and always try to pique your reader's interest so they'll eagerly anticipate your subsequent emails.

42. Solve Your Subscriber's Problems

Your email's poor open rate may result in your readers failing to see it when it arrives in their inbox.

In most cases, a bad subject line is to blame.

Resending these emails with a more positive subject line is one way to lift this downer—such simplicity.

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Why Email Open Rate Matters

Your email marketing campaign's performance is strongly impacted by your email open rate.

In other words, what matters is the proportion of emails delivered to your list and the number of opens those emails receive.

But it's crucial to understand that open and click-through rates (CTR) differ.

Concerning the total number of subscribers who received the email, your email's click-through rate (CTR) calculates the number of recipients who clicked on the links.

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What is The Average Email Open Rate?

Business-to-business (B2B) email marketing has been the most popular marketing channel for the past few years.

In that case, you expect the average number of promotional emails sent to readers to continue to rise.

But that is not the case because the percentage of people who open their emails is decreasing.

Based on historical information, we can see that each fall is always followed by a substantial period of expansion.

This pattern has been observed over and over again.

 As a marketer, it’s essential to know that email open rates differ by industry; the average across all sectors is 16.79%.

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How to Calculate an Email Open Rate 

For emails to count as open, they need to fulfill one of these two criteria:

• The reader consents to the display of the email's photos in the email's full view or preview pane.

• After reading the email, the reader clicks a link.

How do email service providers (ESPs) determine open rates?

ESPs divide the number of emails sent that were unsuccessful in reaching the reader by the number of individuals that opened the email.

For instance, if you sent 100 emails, then 20 bounced, and 10 were opened, you would have achieved an open rate of 12.5%.

Apply the formula as follows: Open rate + Unique opens ÷ (Sent emails-Bounced emails)

The formula is as shown in the diagram below:

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Factors Affecting Email Open Rates

Various elements will affect whether or not a specific email message will pique your recipient's interest.

These elements will decide whether or not your target audience will open your emails.

Therefore, these are the top five factors influencing your email open rate.

Email Content

The email's content is significant.

Write content that your subscribers look forward to.

Are you a good storyteller?

81% of B2B industry professionals ranked storytelling as the second most effective content marketing strategy.

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You should adapt the content of your emails to deliver essential information to your subscribers and entertain them.

Email List Quality

They might be considering what you offer if you get your visitors to sign up for your email list.

Conversely, tricking people into subscribing to your emails is a quick and easy way to have them ignored, discarded, or flagged as spam.

Email users unsubscribe because they can’t remember signing up for your email list.

Such occasions should teach you to frequently keep your database in good shape and validate your email list.

You may prevent using wrong and invalid contacts by using an email verifier for validating your email list.

Time of The Day 

What time is ideal for sending emails?

The fact is, there is never a perfect time.

Depending on their schedules, some people check their email in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening.

Choosing a time to send an email is hard because there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

To find the most productive period that you can stick to, consider sending your emails numerous times throughout the day.

We have a complete guide on worst and best time to send emails for maximum results.

Subject Lines

Did you know that 33% of email subscribers are influenced to read an email by its intriguing subject line?

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Your email's subject line is often your only opportunity to capture readers' interest and pique their curiosity.

Create your subject line carefully, considering it accounts for many email open rates.

Your subject line should be brief and contain enough details about the email's content.

It should also capture your subscribers' interest as soon as they read it.

Personalization helps increase the open rate since the subscribers feel special.

Relevance to Your Target Audience

Individual subscribers have different demands and desires.

They can be divided into many groups, and their varied hobbies can be extreme.

The caliber of the information in your emails is one element that limits their open rate.

If you send an email to individuals on your user list with scant information or no information at all, your subsequent emails are likely to go unopened.

Learning new things is enjoyable, but useful knowledge is even more valuable.

One factor that can cause your email to be deleted or flagged as spam is sending irrelevant messages to the recipients on your list.

Specifically, target the group of people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Statistics show that engaging content receives 52.6% more engagement than non-interactive content. 

Customers read static information for 8.5 minutes on average, compared to 13 minutes for interactive content.

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Maximize Your Email Open Rates with AI bees

This article has exhaustively provided a guide on how to boost your email open rates.

The easy-to-follow email open-rate tips can make you stand out from your competitors and win you more revenue.

You now have what it takes to increase your email open rates, so if you've been dissatisfied with those rates, take this chance to change that.

If, on the other hand, you are okay with the number of people who open your emails, then making minor improvements will make you the best in your marketing campaigns.

Here at AI bees, we offer an arsenal of AI-powered tools that can make your subscribers look forward to receiving your emails every time. 

How? By fine-tuning your campaigns and making them especially relevant to their needs. 

Curious about how we can deliver hot leads to your pipeline?

Schedule a demo today and learn more.