Sometimes the idea that people will open your emails, read them, and interact with them seems mythical, doesn't it? With people's notoriously short attention spans, spam filters, and the fact that the average business person receives approximately 120 emails per day, you might be asking yourself if you should even bother trying to make that myth a reality.

The answer is YES (we know you asked yourself, but we're going to answer for you) because it is possible to increase your email engagement rate. Consider these suggestions:

Be Real

Personalize your emails by making the “from” name your company name or the name of a specific team member. If you consistently send valuable content with the same “from” name, recipients will positively associate your name with emails worth reading.

Do not – we repeat, DO NOT – send emails from a “no reply” email address. It discourages engagement and encourages spam filters.

Don’t Be Stingy

Don’t keep all your premium content locked behind forms. Sharing a piece of premium content, no strings attached, demonstrates generosity, and people are hard-wired to react positively to generosity. You prefer to help someone or take their suggestion if they’ve been helpful or generous to you, right? Generate goodwill by giving something away, and it can lead to people taking the action you want them to.

Harness the Mob Mentality

That is, use social proof, which is a fancy phrase that means that humans are conformists. We take cues from our peers because we want to fit in and be liked – and you can use this to your advantage. Convince email recipients to take action by offering customer reviews/testimonials, case studies, Facebook “likes” and shares, retweets, etc. that prove that their peers are doing it too. (Don’t lie, though.)

Email is tough, we know, but you can't give up. Try our suggestions and check out this blog for a few more.