12 Ways To Increase Your Cold Email Open Rate (2024)

You cannot have a successful cold email campaign if your open rate is low.

The term “open rate” describes the number of people, as a percentage, that click and open your emails. This is not the same as your response rate.

In this article, I will share the 12 most effective ways to improve your open rate:

1. Don’t use email open tracking software
2. Improve your deliverability
3. Personalize your cold emails
4. Send your emails at the right time
5. Fix your lead list
6. Write better subject lines
7. Use plain text (not HTML)
8. Use the right domain extension
9. Don’t use Zoho
10. Avoid warm-up tools
11. Make sure your name is set up correctly (From field)
12. Write good copy

1. Don’t use email open tracking software

This might sound counterintuitive, but if you want to increase your open rate, then you should NOT use open tracking software.

There are software tools that allow you to see what percentage of your recipients opened your emails. These tools are bad for your deliverability, meaning that your emails are more likely to go to spam.

If your emails go to spam, then your open rate will be very low.

I recommend that you read my article to learn more about this topic - Does Email Open Tracking Negatively Affect Deliverability?

2. Improve your deliverability

Another way to increase your cold email open rate is to improve your deliverability.

If your cold emails are going to spam, then no one will open them.

Your open rate will increase if your cold emails land in the primary inbox.

You can learn how to improve your deliverability in my article How To Improve Your Cold Email Deliverability.

You can also improve your deliverability by sending your cold emails with Emailchaser. Emailchaser has a lot of features that help your emails land in the primary inbox (not spam).

3. Personalize your cold emails

You can increase your open rate by personalizing your cold emails.

If you don’t personalize your cold emails for each recipient, then you will have a very low open rate.

If you start your email with “Hi there,” then people won’t open your email. Your recipients can see the first sentence of your email without needing to open it. If they see that you haven’t personalized your email by including their first name, then they won’t open your email.

You should always start your email by including your lead’s first name, such as “Hi {first_name},”.

You can learn how to personalize your cold emails in my article How To Personalize Your Cold Emails At Scale.

No one has ever gotten a job or an investment starting an email with:

To Whom It May Concern,

— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) October 20, 2023

4. Send your emails at the right time

You can improve your open rate by sending your cold emails at the right time.

Your recipients should receive your emails during their working hours (Monday to Friday | 9am to 5pm).

If your leads receive your emails outside of their working hours, then they are significantly less likely to open your emails.

You can learn more about this in my article When Is The Best Time To Send A Cold Email.

I recommend that you send your cold emails with Emailchaser because Emailchaser allows you to easily schedule when your emails are sent (time, time zone, days of the week).

5. Fix your lead list

If you are sending cold emails to leads that are not relevant to your offer, then you won’t receive a high open rate.

You should not buy existing email lists, as these lists are often inaccurate and outdated, and could have spam traps in them.

Instead, you should use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to create your targeted lead lists. You should also use Emailchaser’s LinkedIn Email Finder Google Chrome extension to export your leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with their email addresses.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the most accurate source for leads in most cases. Other lead softwares are just worse versions of LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

6. Write better subject lines

If your subject line is bad, then you will have a low open rate.

It is important that you don’t make your subject lines sound promotional (they should sound conversational). Also, you don’t want to write misleading subject lines, as this is illegal.

You can learn more about how to write a great subject line in my article 40 Best Cold Email Subject Lines For B2B Sales.

7. Use plain text (not HTML)

You can increase your open rate by sending your cold emails as plain text.

Plain text emails have better deliverability (compared to HTML). If your deliverability is better, then your emails will land in the primary inbox (not spam), and more recipients will see your emails (and open them).

You can learn more about this in my article Plain Text vs HTML: Which Is Better?

8. Use the right domain extension

You can increase your open rate by using a .com TLD.

Other domain extensions (like .xyz) have worse deliverability.

I recommend that you check out my article What Is The Best Domain Extension For Cold Email?

guys please stop sending email from .xyz tld's

you’re going to have a bad time

send from a .com and redirect to your .xyz primary domain

— Chris Frantz (@frantzfries) August 31, 2023

9. Don’t use Zoho

If you send your cold emails from Zoho email accounts, then your deliverability will be poor, and your emails will go to spam.

This will result in a low open rate.

You can learn more about why you shouldn’t use Zoho in my article Is Zoho Good For Cold Emailing?

You can improve your open rate by only using Gmail (Google Workspace) and Outlook (Microsoft 365) for your sender accounts.

I recommend that you read my article Outlook vs Gmail: Which Is Better For Cold Email?

10. Avoid warm-up tools

Warm-up tools can make your deliverability worse, despite what many people in the cold email community say.

If you have worse deliverability, then your emails will go to spam, and then your open rate will decrease.

You can learn more about this in my article Does Email Warm Up Work & Is It Safe?

11. Make sure your name is set up correctly (From field)

You need to have your first and last name displayed in the “From” field.

When your leads receive your cold emails, if it doesn’t display your name correctly, then they won’t trust you, and they won’t open your email, leading to a lower open rate.

You can add your first and last name to your “From” field by logging into your email account and going to the settings section.

12. Write good copy

Your recipients can see the first sentence of your email in their inbox without even opening it.

If your copywriting is bad, then they will delete your email without opening it.

If you sound like you are trying to sell them something, then you will be deleted immediately.

I recommend that you read my article How To Write A Cold Email (4-Step Process). If you follow the advice in my article, your open rate will be significantly higher.

Frequently asked questions

Final thoughts

The most effective ways to increase your open rate is to fix your deliverability, and to personalize your cold emails.

You can learn how to improve your deliverability in my article How To Improve Your Cold Email Deliverability.

You can learn how to personalize your emails in my other article How To Personalize Your Cold Emails At Scale.

It is important to understand that tracking your open rate is not a good idea, since open rate tracking tools hurt your deliverability. The only metric that actually matters is your response rate. If you send your cold emails through Emailchaser, then you can see your response rate in the analytics page.