The Truth About Open Rates

Email marketing0 comments

If you are using email marketing to promote your business then you know that one of the key things that you need to track after each campaign is to see who is opening and interacting with your emails.   Now many business owners get very discouraged when they see the low percentage of people opening their emails.  They wonder if it’s worth the effort to send out campaigns that only 20-30% of their list is opening. 

If this sounds like you, then here’s some information about open rates that you probably didn’t know.

Your open rate isn’t your real open rate.

The way open rates are calculated means that they are a highly unreliable way of measuring who has actually opened your emails.  The open rate is actually a ratio of the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails delivered.

When you send out a newsletter via an email marketing program, the software automatically adds a small invisible image to each email.  When this invisible image shows up on the server then this counts as the email being opened.  However, many people use email browsers that block images by default, eg Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo.  That means that if people select not to see images on their emails by default then it will not count as an open when they receive your newsletter.   This also goes for people who have selected to receive plain text emails from you when signing up to your mailing list.

This means that your open rate could be affected by as much as 35%!

However, before you abandon open rates altogether, they are still a useful metric to track.  Look out to see if your open rates rise or fall dramatically and analyse what you did differently if that happens.  You can also use your open and click through rates to carry out split tests on the best date/time to send your newsletters and which subject lines are the most effective.

However, don’t get too hung up on open rates if they are low – a lot more people could be engaging with your content than you realise!

5 Things to consider when changing email marketing programs

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Very often when people start with email marketing, they just want to send out a regular newsletter to their contacts, build their list and raise their profile.  Now many of the basic programs will do this without a problem.  However, what many people fail to do is plan ahead and pick the right program at the start.

What happens when you want something more sophisticated?  For example, you may want to start using your list to sell products.  If your current program can’t do this in the way that you want then you’ve got to change suppliers.  But this may be harder than you thought…

So here are 5 things to consider when changing your email marketing program.

Upload contacts.  You might have several hundred contacts on your database that you’ll need to switch over but many email marketing programs are very strict about uploading names on to their database.  Most email marketing programs will force people to go through the double opt-in process before allowing them on to their list.  It doesn’t matter whether your contacts did this when they originally signed up with your previous supplier, they will have to go through the process again and there’s going to be a large percentage of your contacts that aren’t going to do this.  Also, some email marketing programs will strip out names that are generic, eg email addresses beginning with “sales@” or “info@”.

Segment lists.  If you segmented your lists according to topics or categories that your contacts are interested in then you will need to set these up in your new email marketing program and ensure that all your contacts transfer correctly to the appropriate list.

Change templates.  Unless you’re an HTML whizz and have designed your newsletter template yourself using an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, then you’ve got to redesign a new one using the tools in your new email marketing program.   This obviously takes time depending on the ease and simplicity of the design tools.  The branding will need to look similar to the old template so that recipients can instantly recognise it’s from you.

Sign up forms.  When changing email marketing suppliers, you will need to create new sign up forms for your website.  OK, the program will give you the code but very often this needs tweaking so that it fits in with your branding.

Autoresponders.  If you have set up a series of autoresponders to go out to contacts after sign up, then these will need to be recreated in the new email marketing program for each list as appropriate.

So as you can see, there are various things to think about when changing email marketing programs.  It therefore pays to plan ahead at the start, and think about how you will be using email marketing in 12-18 months from now.  You may start off by paying for features that you don’t need now but it will save you a lot of time and stress in the future.

If you need any help with your email marketing, whether it involves setting up a campaign from scratch or managing your existing activities, then check out our email marketing services.

Have You Got the Right Newsletter for Your Business?

Email marketing, Online marketing0 comments

If you’re thinking about using email marketing to promote your services or products then the first thing you need to decide on is what kind of newsletter you are going to send your contacts.  I produce a monthly newsletter which is aimed at giving my contacts money and time saving tips;  however, you may be more interested in getting people to sign up to receive exclusive high value products.  Whatever your objectives, you need to adapt your newsletter format accordingly.

So here are 3 types of email newsletter that you can use to promote your business.

Tips, advice and special offers.  You can provide valuable information related to your services, or to offer special promotions and discounts on your products.  This is content that your contacts can’t access anywhere else – either on your website or Facebook page – and is exclusive to people who have signed up to your mailing list.  Because you are making the content valuable and exclusive, your prospects will feel like they’re joining an elite club and will therefore be more compelled to sign up.

Blog/article digest.  An easy way for you to get content for your email newsletter is to use blog posts that you’ve already written.  If you’re using blogs to share your knowledge and expertise, and build trust with your contacts, then this helps to promote your content to a wider audience.  Some email marketing programs such as Aweber make this easy for you to do by automating the process.  For example, you can specify the number of recent blog posts to add to the digest and how often you want to send it out.

Plain text newsletter.  This is a newsletter that just contains text which leads people back to your website with a special offer.   A lot of internet marketers send this type of newsletter when they’re promoting a product for a limited time.  You click on a link and get taken to a sales page which is geared towards you buying something, or signing up to their mailing list to receive a free product which is then leading on to a sale.

Most small business owners use the first option when they’re sending out their newsletters.  Providing your contacts with valuable information or special offers is a great way to raise your profile and build engagement with your contacts.  So think about what you want to achieve with your email marketing and focus your content towards your objectives.  By doing this, you are more likely to achieve the results you want, and generate leads for your business.

If you want to find out whether your email marketing campaigns are performing effectively, then take our free Email Marketing Assessment.  This questionnaire will take no more than 5 minutes of your time and you will receive 3 key actions that you can take straightaway to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns. Click here to find out more.

5 Ways to Get People to Read Your Newsletters

Email marketing, How to, Online marketing1 comment

As a business owner, you know how important it is to keep in regular touch with your contacts.  One of the best ways of doing this is via email marketing.  It not only keeps your name in front of your contacts but it’s also a way of sharing your knowledge and expertise.

But let’s face it, we all receive masses of emails a day.  So to stop your email getting buried amongst the junk mail, how can you grab people’s attention when your newsletter lands in their inbox?

Well, here are 5 top tips to get people to read your email newsletter.

Make it eye-catching. Email newsletters have notoriously low open rates, which is a shame if you’ve spent time researching useful and interesting information for your contacts.  The best way of encouraging people to even look at your newsletter is to have an attention grabbing subject header.  So rather than put “My Company Newsletter” in the subject line, why not take inspiration from one of the topics mentioned and use that instead.  For example, you may have a link to an article that relates to saving money, so you could have a subject header that says “Find out how to save £200 by using this free software”.

Get personal. If you put someone’s name in the subject header then it will catch their eye when it appears in their inbox.  It’s also less likely to end up in the junk folder.  By personalising the message, you are helping to build a relationship between you and the recipient.

Keep it simple. Choose a simple and clear template with an area at the top for your logo so that people can instantly recognise who the message is from.  Have sections underneath for the text and images, and separate them with headers.  It’s also a good idea to add a short introductory paragraph with a summary of the content so readers can quickly see if they want to read further.

Don’t overload! If your newsletter is made up of long articles then don’t add them all into the email that you send out.  People don’t have the time to read through great blocks of text.  Instead, just have headers with a summary of the article underneath and then add a link to the main article on your website.   This means that your readers can quickly scan which articles they’re interested in and can click on those ones that they want to take the time to read.

Do your research. When writing your email newsletter, don’t make it all about you!  Think about what subjects your readers would be interested in.  If they run their own business, then they may want to know about managing their accounts, online marketing, networking tips etc.  If you’re unsure, then feel free to ask them for suggestions.

If you want to get some more information, then download our free guide on setting up an email marketing campaign.  If you run your own campaign already, then feel free to add your comments below!

Are Your Newsletters Being Seen?

How to, Marketing, Online marketing1 comment

Have you ever received a newsletter from a company that you couldn’t see?  You know the ones I mean – you open it up and all you see are a couple of small red Xs.  The company seems to have forgotten that many people automatically block images in their email browser.  I very often just delete messages like this because I either don’t have the time or can’t be bothered to click and download the images.  This means that these companies are sending out messages that are literally not being seen by their recipients.

Using images to design your email newsletter is great but remember that only a minority of email users have their images turned on by default.  So if you want your emails to be displayed properly, here are 3 tips on how to get your messages seen by your recipients.

1. Keep it plain. When you send out your first newsletter, it’s very tempting to focus on creating and designing an HTML email with layout, colours and images.  But if we are really honest with ourselves, how necessary are some of these design elements?  Can a plain text email be just as effective?  So think about what kind of message you want to put across and whether this can be done with a simple and personalised text only message.  If you do go for an HTML newsletter, make sure that you have plain text version as well.
   
   
2. Use image tags. As with website design, it’s essential to use ALT-text when inserting images into an email message. So if the image cannot be viewed then a text description of the image will appear instead.   Be specific when describing the image or link, eg “businesswoman on the phone” or “Link to latest offers”.
   
   
3. Design with tables. You can design messages using tables which allows you to retain the basic structure of your HTML messages, including columns and image sizes.  You can also use the table to add colours and pictures which can be seen by the recipient even if they have images turned off.

These are just 3 essential tips to help you ensure that your email newsletters can be seen by your recipients and not sent straight to the delete or junk folder.