Variables that Affect Your Email Open Rate

I went from being a copywriter who works for clients and only sends an email newsletter one or two times per month, to a daily emailer who sells out of my inbox.

In my observation with growing a list the second time around, here's a list of variables that affect your email open rate:

• The day you send the email.
• The time you send the email.
• The subject line of the email.
• The amount of emails you've already sent that day.
• The weather.
• The season.
• The political happenings of the day.
• What's on the news.
• Whether or not it's a holiday.
• Whether or not the kids are home from school.
• How the internet is functioning that day.
• What your competitors (or collaborators) are up to that day, and what they've sent out.
• The individual circumstance of the person who's on the receiving end of the email.
• The current mood of the person opening the email.
• How often the person checks the email address where they've signed up to hear from you.
• How the emails inside of their account are sorted both before and after reading (gmail... gahh).
• The types of emails you typically send and what people have come to expect from you.
• The amount of "spam trigger words" you use in your email.
• The individual audience and their unique habits.
• Whether or not the recipient is "on board" with daily emails if you send them.
• How honest you were about what they were to expect from your emails when they signed up.
• A whole host of other variables...

You just never know what's going to affect how a person reacts to your emails! Just keep on trying, is what I say.