Instant Opens · Daily Email House

Instant Opens

I think there’s a big advantage to being the newsletter that readers open as soon as it lands in their inbox. Especially given how many distractions there are in the world today. I don’t have any stats to back this up, but gut feel says that if someone doesn’t open my newsletter when they see it, the chances of them opening it *at all* go down drastically. I know this is true for me for the newsletters I read.

Which prompts the question: how to be the newsletter which readers simply can’t wait to open?

A few thoughts:

*** Subject lines: I used to think that the more curiosity or intrigue (i.e. old school direct response style subject lines), the better. I might’ve changed my mind on this though. A striking subject line might get someone to open that specific email then and there, but I’m not sure it does much to encourage instant opens in the long term – and long term is what I’m after

*** First come, first serve offers. I’ve seen

@John Bejakovic

do this. Part of the reason I always open John’s email as soon as it lands in my inbox is in case there’s some great-priced special offer which John is only opening up to 3 people. I want to be one of those 3 people!

*** Write great emails. Maybe this is the key to it all. When I care about what someone is writing, when I know I’m going to enjoy reading that email and maybe even discover a hidden nugget or get a peek behind the curtain, I literally can’t wait to hit open

I’m sure there’s a lot more that goes into the mix here though and I’d love to get everyone else’s thoughts

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