Why are my Gmail open rates low and how can I fix it?

Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that optimizing email preview text can significantly impact open rates. Preview text is the snippet of text that appears after the subject line in the inbox. Suggests writing compelling preview text that complements the subject line and entices recipients to open the email.

Email marketer from Reddit discusses that Gmail's Promotions tab can significantly impact open rates. Suggests encouraging subscribers to move emails from the Promotions tab to their Primary inbox to improve future deliverability to the Primary tab and therefore open rates. The user suggests asking users in the welcome email to move the email to the primary tab.

Email marketer from Mailchimp shares that sending irrelevant emails to subscribers is a surefire way to decrease open rates. Email list segmentation involves breaking your email list into smaller groups of people based on shared characteristics. That way, you can tailor your email marketing campaigns, and ensure each message resonates with its intended audience.

Marketer from Email Geeks advises that recovery from a Gmail open rate dip is possible if you are back to sending wanted mail and can give your mail an engagement boost. Also recommends filing a ticket with Gmail, recovery time could be a couple weeks to over a month.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor explains that personalizing emails can significantly improve open rates. By using subscriber data to tailor email content to individual interests and preferences, you can make your emails more relevant and engaging. Basic personalization includes using the recipients name.

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that low Gmail open rates can be caused by several factors, including poor subject lines, sending irrelevant content, and not segmenting your audience. He suggests improving subject lines, cleaning your email list, personalizing emails, and testing different send times to increase open rates. He suggests A/B testing.

Email marketer from HubSpot explains that sender reputation is crucial for email deliverability. Low sender reputation, often due to high bounce rates, spam complaints, or sending to unengaged users, can lead to emails being filtered to spam, thus impacting open rates. Suggests monitoring sender reputation and taking steps to improve it.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that a significant drop in open rates suggests impaired deliverability, even if delivery (acceptance by the mailbox provider) remains consistent. Sending to unengaged users can negatively affect sender reputation at Gmail. Recommends checking Google Postmaster Tools to monitor domain reputation and identify issues.

Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that regularly cleaning your email list by removing inactive subscribers and bounced email addresses is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and improving email deliverability. This directly leads to better open rates.

Email marketer from Automizy shares that sending emails too frequently can lead to subscriber fatigue and lower open rates. Conversely, sending emails too infrequently can cause subscribers to forget about you. Finding the right email frequency for your audience is crucial for maintaining engagement and improving open rates. This can be done by testing.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares the importance of email marketing automation, including re-engagement campaigns. Sending automated emails to re-engage inactive subscribers can help improve engagement metrics and overall open rates. Removing unengaged contacts can improve sender reputation.

Email marketer from Litmus explains that compelling subject lines are critical for increasing open rates. Subject lines should be concise, attention-grabbing, and relevant to the email content. A/B testing different subject lines can help identify what resonates best with your audience.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that focusing on engagement is crucial for inbox placement and ultimately, open rates. The article explains that deliverability is more about whether your customers want your mail, and engagement is how they express that desire. Sending wanted mail drives opens and clicks.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Dennis Dayman, states that being blocklisted is a very obvious cause for low email open rates, with many emails going straight to the spam folder or being blocked completely. The expert recommends checking public blocklists and taking steps to be removed from them if listed.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that a huge dip in Gmail opens likely indicates placement in the spam folder. The short answer is to boost your measured engagement by suppressing unengaged users for a period of time. Also provided a link to a supporting website: <https://www.spamresource.com/2022/06/focusing-on-engagement-what-does-that.html>

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that low engagement is the primary driver of deliverability problems. Gmail's algorithm prioritizes user engagement. Strategies to improve engagement include cleaning your list, segmenting users, and sending more relevant content.

Documentation from DMARC.org explains that DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email authentication protocol that builds upon SPF and DKIM. DMARC allows domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle emails that fail authentication checks, helping protect against phishing and spoofing and improving email deliverability. Better deliverability directly translates to higher open rates.

Documentation from DKIM explains that DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) provides an email authentication method that allows an organization to take responsibility for a message in a way that can be validated by a recipient. This authentication is used to verify that the message was indeed sent by the domain it claims to be from and that the message content was not altered in transit. This is a key factor in improving email deliverability and open rates.

Documentation from RFC defines the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record as a DNS record that specifies which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. Implementing SPF helps prevent spammers from forging your domain in the 'From' address, improving email deliverability and open rates.

Documentation from Google Support outlines best practices for bulk email senders to ensure emails are delivered to the inbox. It emphasizes the importance of authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining low spam complaint rates, and providing easy unsubscribe options. Falling foul of these guidelines is a common reason for emails being marked as spam, thus affecting open rates.