Why did my email open rates drop significantly in the US segment this Tuesday?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Gmass says that improving open rates involves crafting compelling subject lines that entice recipients to open the email. Use personalization, create urgency, and test different subject lines to optimize.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that various factors can cause open rate variations, including changes in email client market share, the time of day the email was sent, and subject line testing. Also seasonality trends can play a part.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests checking mailbox provider distribution, ESP, frequency, and message content, as the audience might be sensitive to socio-political factors and extreme weather events.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Support advises to review recent email campaigns. Check for any significant changes in sending volume, content, or targeting that could have impacted open rates.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that national news events like protests and violence could be impacting open rates, as current events are emotionally heavy and may affect user engagement with SEO-related content.
Email marketer from Reddit notes that if it's only the US segment affected, it could be related to time zone differences or specific deliverability issues with US-based ISPs. He suggests testing email delivery to different US email providers.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains that A/B testing is essential. Test different elements such as subject lines, send times, or sender names to identify what resonates best with your audience and maximizes open rates.
Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that a sudden drop in open rates could be due to various deliverability issues, including spam filters, blacklisting, or authentication problems. It's also crucial to check your sender reputation and ensure your email content isn't triggering spam filters.
Email marketer from EmailGeek Community Forums responds that segment-specific issues, like regional outages, news events, or holidays, could cause open rates to fluctuate in a single segment. They advise checking local news or events.
Email marketer from Mailjet states low open rates can stem from poor subject lines, irrelevant content, or sending emails at the wrong time. Additionally, a disengaged subscriber list or deliverability problems could be at fault.
Email marketer from Quora explains that a sudden drop in open rates can be caused by several things. This includes sending too many emails, not segmenting your list, or not personalizing your emails. Also if your emails are not mobile-friendly, you may see a decrease in open rates.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that decreased open rates can be a symptom of deliverability problems, and highlights the importance of authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, and content relevance to ensure emails reach the inbox. She recommends thoroughly reviewing deliverability metrics to pinpoint potential issues.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that low open rates are very often caused by list quality. High bounce rates and spam complaints have a big impact on open rates. Also not cleaning your email lists will impact this.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests factors to investigate could be the first day of the month and kids returning to school.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Spamhaus shares that being listed on a Spamhaus blocklist can significantly reduce email delivery rates. If listed, investigate the cause and follow Spamhaus's delisting process.
Documentation from IETF explains that DKIM is an authentication method to associate a domain name to an email message, thereby permitting a signing domain to claim responsibility for the message. This can improve sender reputation.
Documentation from Google explains that email delivery can be impacted by factors such as sender reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and the content of the email itself. Google also notes sudden sending volume changes can also affect this.
Documentation from RFC details that mail servers use SMTP, and a common reason for delivery failure is a misconfigured or non-compliant SMTP server. This could lead to emails being rejected or marked as spam.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that email deliverability issues can arise if your sending IP address or domain has been blacklisted. Microsoft recommends using their Sender Reputation Data service to check your reputation.