Low email open rate? 7 reasons why (and how to fix them)

Low email open rates are not random; certain factors contribute to your audience not opening your emails.

After sending out an email to your 5,000 subscribers, you checked your analytics, and it shows that you have 1,239 opens, so you do the math... 1,239 / 5,000 × 100 = 24.8%. This means that 75.2% of your subscribers never saw what you wrote, and you're wondering why...

According to an email benchmark by Mailerlite, the average email open rate across all industries as of 2025 is 42.35%. If your email open rate is sitting below that benchmark, it's not random. Certain factors contribute to having a low email open rate. 

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Why generic emails hurt open rates and how to personalise properly

• How boring subject lines quietly kill engagement

• Why poor segmentation makes emails feel like spam

• How a generic sender name reduces trust

• The impact of bad mobile optimisation on opens

• Why send time matters more than frequency

• How missing email authentication keeps emails out of the inbox

  
  

How were these 7 problems selected? 

Before we dive, a little BTS on how these seven problems were selected.  If you search for "why are my email open rates so low?" on Google, you'll get swamped with a lot of answers because the list is endless. 

At first, I couldn't keep count until I went deeper. To be specific, I identified 19 reasons that can cause a low email open rate. So, how did I filter them to the most pressing problems without stretching myself too thin?

1. I searched through Reddit 

Being a place for organic marketing, I went down the rabbit hole to hear from real people with real email marketing challenges. I found 4 problems that were constantly mentioned, mostly by beginners and experienced marketers struggling with email open rates.

2. I searched Google's (top-ranking content) 

I also searched the top-ranking content on Google for "low email open rate" and found 6 recurring problems. 4 that overlapped with Reddit, and 2 new ones.

3. I searched through YouTube

I watched four videos on YouTube about email deliverability and email engagement and took note of three new problems mentioned.

This brought me to a total of nine problems, and the aim was seven. I looked at the problems and figured I only wanted to focus on the problems that affect customers before they open their email. 

If customers are not opening your emails, the problem is not what's inside the email. It's what's stopping them from opening it in the first place. This last criterion helped me filter down to 7 problems, which I broke down in this article.

Problem 1: Your email is generic and lacks personalisation 

If you want to stay ahead of the competition and boost conversion through email marketing, personalisation is not optional; it is expected. This is because 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that uses personalised emails compared to generic email campaigns.  

If you still use generic emails like "Hi there," "Hey you," and "Dear customer, you're watering down your marketing efforts. 

Now compare that to emails that say: "Hey Sarah" and "Dear Max."  Which would you likely open?

Your emails should feel like a one-on-one interaction with your email subscribers, not a broadcast.  

So how do you fix this?

• Use their first name: E.g, "Hello Boyle," "Dear Sarah". This screams, "I know you” and can improve email open rates immediately.
  

• Reference their behaviour: Example "Hello Jessy, you viewed our pricing page yesterday. Got questions?" This shows you're paying attention to their email engagement and their actions.
  

• Send email based on specific segments: Send different email copy for "free trial users" vs "paying customers." This shows you understand their buyer journey.  
  

Quick Action: Log in to your email service provider. Find the "personalisation" or "merge tags" settings, add {{FirstName}} to your next email subject line and greeting. Send and compare the open rate percentage.

Problem 2: Your subject lines are boring and sound like everyone else

Personalising your subject lines is one email marketing tip you should abide by. Your subject is your first impression and it has one job: tell your email subscribers why they should click.

Poor subject line optimisation is one of the biggest reasons for a low email open rate. It helps your customers decide whether to open your email or scroll past it in their inbox.

This is what a bad subject line vs a good one looks like:

Bad subject line	Good subject line
"Newsletter #42"	"I made a £3,000 mistake so you don't have to"
"New blog post"	"3 email templates that doubled our reply rate"

Your subject line should be written with the reader in mind. Ask what would make them interested enough to open their emails?

To make your subject line perform better:

• Use numbers - "5 ways" or "73% of subscribers." It's specific and builds trust in your email campaigns.

• Ask questions - "Are you making this mistake?" It triggers self-reflection and the urge to reply. 

• Create curiosity gaps - "The one thing I wish I knew about email marketing..." It makes them want to know more.

• Keep it short - Under 40 characters for mobile optimisation. 

• A/B test everything - Test whatever you come up with in your email platform. It helps to improve your average open rate.

  
  

Problem 3: Lack of segmentation making emails feel like spam

In email marketing, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. According to HubSpot, a proper email segmentation results in 50% more click-throughs and 30% more opens. This means that sending the same message to your entire email list, regardless of where they are in their customer journey, is shooting yourself in the foot.

For example: Sending a "Try our advanced power user feature for £79" email campaign to your entire list, including those who just signed up yesterday and have yet to complete onboarding.

They won't find this useful and may consider it spam. Do this 3 more times, and they'll likely unsubscribe, further tanking your open rate percentage.

To avoid this: 

Segment your email list into smaller groups and send targeted email campaigns to each segment.

Segment by:

• Engagement Level (active vs inactive email subscribers)

• Purchase History (customers vs non-customers)

• Behavior/Interests (what they clicked in previous emails)

• Stage in Customer Journey (new subscribers vs long-term)

• Demographics (for B2B email marketing)

Start Simple: Split your email list into just two segments:

1. People who opened your last email

2. People who didn't

Send your next email campaign only to people who opened and monitor your email open rate for improvement. 

Problem 4: Your sender name is generic 

If I receive an email, the first thing I expect to see is who it's from. Subscribers decide to open an email just by the sender's name. If you still use generic sender names like: "noreply@business.net"  or "marketing@company.com", it decreases your open rates because it feels impersonal and your subscribers will not recognise you.  Your sender name directly impacts your email open rate.

Before sending your next email campaign, use a recognisable sender name:

Recommended format: "[Your Name] from [Company]" or "[Your Name] | [Company]" and be consistent with it across all your email campaigns.

So, instead of 

• marketing@acme.com use Bryce at Acme 

• noreply@startup.io,  use Mike at StartupCo

  
  

Adding a person's name makes your emails feel like a 1-to-1 communication, not a 1-to-1,000 broadcast. This simple change can improve your email open rates. 

Problem 5: Your emails have a bad mobile layout 

Over 41% of all email opens happen on mobile devices. If your email campaigns are designed for desktop alone, your email subscribers will most likely skip them due to a poor mobile experience and broken mobile optimisation.

A poor mobile layout looks like:

• Subject lines that are cut off after 30-40 characters (they can't see your full hook in their inbox)

• Text that is too small and requires zooming

• Images are too huge and slow to load, hurting email deliverability

• Tiny CTA buttons that are too small to tap
  

The fix is: Before you design for desktop, design for mobile first.

• Pay attention to your subject line length, preheader text, images, font sizes, and CTA buttons. Make sure they are optimised for the right size and layout on mobile to avoid a low email open rate.

Pro tip: Send a test email to yourself on your phone, scroll through it, and see what it looks like before sending it out to your entire email list. If you can't read it easily, neither can your email subscribers.

Problem 6: You send emails at the wrong time

Sending email campaigns when it's convenient for you, not when your subscribers are actively checking their emails, is a dead bargain and contributes to your low email open rate.

Mailerlite published a chaer showing the best time to send emails for the highest average open rate. This means that you can target your audience at the right time when they are active and checking their emails. 

If your email has not landed by the time they check their email, your message gets buried under 47 other messages, and your email deliverability means nothing if they never see it.

To find your best send time and improve email open rates:

Step 1: Check your email analytics to see when your customers actually open their emails.

Step 2: Run a send time optimisation test by sending the same email campaign to 3 equal segments at different times and compare the open rate percentage.

Step 3: Double down on what worked, but re-test every quarter because audience habits change, and so should your email campaigns.

Problem 7: Your email authentication isn't set up

Email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) prove to email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo that you're a legitimate sender, not a spammer. Without proper email authentication, your email campaigns get filtered directly to spam folders or "Promotions" tabs, and your email subscribers never get to see them in their primary inbox. This affects your email deliverability and causes low email open rates.

So, make sure your email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is properly set up in your email platform to avoid your emails landing in spam and tanking your email open rate.

To check if your email authentication is set up:

Go to MXToolbox and enter your sending domain. It'll show if SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are configured correctly. If they're not, follow your email service provider's guide to fix it immediately.

Problems with low email open rates start before the email is read

Emails still remain one of the top 3 marketing channels to grow your business and interact with your customers, but when they don't open your email, it's either that it lacks personalisation, your subject line is boring, or it's not segmented for the right audience.

These problems can affect your email open rate and water down your email marketing efforts. The good news is: these problems can be identified and fixed almost instantly and you don't have to address all problems at once.  Just start with the easiest, which is adding “FirstName” to your next subject line.

Test it, measure it, and then move to the next problem. By addressing these problems, your email open rates are guaranteed to improve over time. And if you use cold email templates, fix these problems and watch your email open rate percentage increase significantly. That's how you improve email open rates. 

If you enjoyed this, thank Sylvia, an SEO content writer for Saas brands.