How to Increase Email Open Rates with H2H Subject Lines | Literal Humans

How to Increase Email Open Rates with H2H Subject Lines | Literal Humans

The average email open rate across industries is 19.66% in 2022. If your email open rates are below average, there may be a couple of reasons for it. Firstly, subscribers may not be interested in hearing from you, although this is unlikely since they signed up for your emails. The second reason could be that you're not framing your subject lines in a way that shows what's in it for the reader.

Before people open your email, they want to know that it's written specifically for them. The job of the email subject line is to make the reader feel like they want to see the email. People don't care about you or your product, so if you focus on yourself, you'll lose them.

Research has shown that personal gain is a more effective motivator than social responsibility. In a study on solar adoption in 29 different cities, researchers found that people were twice as likely to adopt solar power when the message focused on personal gain for the adopter rather than social responsibility.

To increase email open rates, it's important to tap into the reader's curiosity. The brain releases dopamine, a feel-good chemical, as a reward for satisfying curiosity. Use subject lines that cater to at least one of the five dimensions of curiosity: deprivation sensitivity, joyous exploration, social curiosity, stress tolerance, and thrill-seeking.

Triggered emails have been found to perform almost twice as well as newsletters in terms of open rates. According to GetResponse, triggered emails reached an open rate of 35.64%, while newsletters only reached 20.58%. This suggests that timely and relevant emails have a higher chance of being opened.

When it comes to personalization, it's important to go beyond simply adding a first name tag to the subject line. The GetResponse study found that open rates were actually lower when subject lines included this form of personalization. Instead, focus on specificity. Set an expectation and allow readers to picture a clear outcome.

Considering the prevalence of mobile phone usage, it's important to optimize subject lines for mobile viewing. Most people open emails on their mobile phones, and the average subject line can only accommodate around 33 characters in the field of view. Keep subject lines concise and impactful to grab the reader's attention.

Now, let's shift our focus to TikTok and its future. SVP Prabhakar Raghavan revealed that 40% of young people go to TikTok or Instagram when looking for a place for lunch, rather than using Google Maps or Search. This highlights the power of video search and its potential for in-app commerce.

Whoever masters video search will have a significant advantage in unlocking the monetization of user intent. If a social company can keep their users' actions within their app, they can expand into commerce, payments, and other lucrative features.

TikTok, with its billion monthly active users, has become a powerhouse in the video content space. Kids and teens spend an average of 91 minutes per day on TikTok, surpassing the average of 56 minutes per day on YouTube. The potential for leveraging user-generated content (UGC) is immense.

Imagine if every piece of UGC on TikTok had a location tag that could redirect to a voucher or other deal. Merchants would benefit from the abundance of new, free, and seemingly less-biased UGC "ads" for their products or offerings. This would be courtesy of their own customers.

Search functionality on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has been a mainstream and popular behavior for years. The app's algorithms and user behavior allow it to push new places to users that they may have never thought to search for. Short videos effectively enable continuous discovery of the best places around you, improving with every swipe as the platform better understands users and their interests.

In conclusion, increasing email open rates requires framing subject lines to show what's in it for the reader, tapping into curiosity, and using triggered emails effectively. Personalization should go beyond adding a first name tag, and subject lines should be optimized for mobile viewing. As for TikTok, mastering video search and leveraging user-generated content can unlock new opportunities in in-app commerce and monetize user intent.