Getting your email messages to the inbox is the goal of any email marketer. After all, how can a person open an email if it goes to a spam folder, promotions tab, or some other place they don’t often check?
When this happens, open rates are low.
There are several possible reasons for emails not going to the inbox. I will list these briefly and then discuss in greater detail below.
Here are some of the more common factors that affect open rates. They are not all-inclusive as there are many techniques employed by internet/email service providers that may not be generally known to the public.
- The sender’s name as shown in the message header
- The sending email address
- The use of an autoresponder
- Words, symbols, characters in the subject line
- Words, symbols, characters in the content of the email body
- URL’s, domains of links within the email message
- Words, symbols, characters in the signature typically found at the bottom of the email
- Engagement with recipients
- The autoresponder server or IP address
- Your autoresponder’s reputation, or history, regarding in-boxing, spam complaints, and bounces.
