Open rate is the first domino. If your subscribers do not open your email, they will never read your content, click your links, or take any action. Everything downstream depends on this one metric.
The average B2B newsletter open rate is 28-35%. Our clients average 45-55%. Here is what makes the difference.
Subject Lines That Earn the Open
The subject line has one job: make the reader curious enough to open. Not clever enough to admire. Not comprehensive enough to summarize. Curious enough to open.
What works: - Specific numbers: "The 3 metrics your board actually cares about" - Contrarian takes: "Stop measuring NPS. Here is why." - Direct utility: "A cold email template that books 12 meetings per month" - Curiosity gaps: "The pricing mistake 80% of SaaS founders make" - Timely hooks: "What the Figma acquisition means for your startup"
What does not work: - Clickbait: "You will NOT believe what happened..." (destroys trust) - Generic: "February Newsletter" or "Weekly Update" (invisible in inbox) - Too long: Anything over 50 characters gets truncated on mobile - All caps or excessive punctuation: Triggers spam filters and looks desperate
Preview Text Is Your Secret Weapon
Preview text (the snippet that appears after the subject line in most email clients) is the most underutilized real estate in email marketing. Most newsletters either leave it blank (defaulting to "View in browser") or waste it with redundant text.
Use preview text to complement your subject line. If the subject creates curiosity, the preview text should increase it:
- Subject: "The pricing mistake 80% of SaaS founders make"
- Preview: "And the simple framework that fixes it in 30 minutes."
Together, they create an irresistible reason to open.
Send Time Matters (But Not How You Think)
The conventional wisdom is to send newsletters on Tuesday or Thursday mornings. That advice is fine -- and it is also what everyone else is doing, which means your email lands in an inbox that is already crowded with other Tuesday morning newsletters.
Test unconventional times: - Sunday evening (people are planning their week) - Early morning (5-6 AM, before the inbox floods) - Lunchtime (12-1 PM, when people check personal email)
The best send time is the one that works for your specific audience. Ted A/B tests send times on Growth and Scale plans and optimizes automatically.
List Hygiene: The Unsexy Lever
A clean list dramatically improves open rates. Here is why: email providers (Gmail, Outlook) track engagement at the sender level. If a large portion of your list never opens your emails, providers assume your content is unwanted and start routing you to spam and promotions tabs -- even for subscribers who do want to read you.
Clean your list quarterly: - Remove subscribers who have not opened in 90 days - Send a re-engagement campaign first ("Still want to hear from us?") - Remove hard bounces immediately - Suppress role-based emails (info@, admin@, etc.)
A smaller, engaged list will outperform a large, disengaged one every time. We have seen clients improve open rates by 15-20 percentage points simply by removing inactive subscribers.
Sender Name and Email
Most newsletters use the company name as the sender. That is a missed opportunity. People open emails from people, not companies.
Use your personal name or a combination: "Sarah from SparkMetrics" or just "Sarah Chen." This simple change consistently improves open rates by 5-10 percentage points compared to a generic company name.
Consistency Builds Habits
Subscribers who know when to expect your newsletter develop a reading habit. They look for it. They notice when it arrives. This habitual engagement improves open rates over time.
Pick a day and time and stick to it. Every Tuesday at 9 AM. Every Thursday at noon. The specific schedule matters less than the consistency.