Keeping customers engaged is one of the top priorities for online marketers. One of the best ways to do this is by sending newsletters. When executed correctly newsletters can provide information, delight customers, spark excitement and create anticipation.
Many people think that emailing newsletters is an ancient marketing method. However, email marketing stays relevant even to this day. In fact, according to a report by OptinMonster.com, 91% of people use email daily compared to 57% for Facebook and 14% for Twitter.
Newsletters have the potential to boost traffic, increase sales and connect with customers.
What is Email Open Rate?
The email open rate is basically the amount of emails opened or viewed within a specific campaign.
Using email providers like Constant Contact and Mail Chimp will let you measure email open rate easily. Aside from this, they can also provide metrics for:
- Click rate
- Delivery rate
- Time spent reading
- Unsubscribes and opt outs
- Bounce rate
- Spam reports
- Forwards Conversions
According to Mail Chimp, a good open rate is 20.81% across all industries. However, rates can still vary depending on your industry.
Be aware of your industry’s open rate if you really want to improve your open rate. Focus on tracking metrics for your newsletter to find out what’s been working or failing so that you can notice trends and adjust accordingly.
Marketers spend a lot of time and effort creating newsletters to make sure people actually open them. Here are some ways you can increase your open rate.
Split Test Subject Line
If you have a decent amount of contact, you can find out which subject line gets more opens through split testing. This allows you to send subject line variations so you can see which of them have more impact.
The power of a good subject line is more powerful than you think. Data gathered by OptinMonster reports that 69% of email recipients will report an email as spam based on the subject line alone. You can avoid this by creating engaging subject lines.
Follow these tips when thinking about a subject.
- Keep the recipients in mind. What is their age? What will catch their attention and what will turn them away?
- Make the subject line descriptive so the recipient will have motivation to open the email. However don’t make it too long. Lengthy subject lines get ignored. A line of around 50 characters is good.
- Don’t overthink. Less is more is best when it comes to subject lines.
Find Out The Right Time To Send
Do research on the right time to send newsletters. There is a lot of data on the right time to send on the internet but there is no one-size-fits-all best time.
Instead of wondering about the best time to send, check out your data or experiment so that you can find the optimal time based on this. Your email list and newsletter is unique to other businesses so the best time to send will differ from others.
Keep It Personal
It’s natural to think that a lot of people will open and read a newsletter from your company. However, it is best to keep the content personal. It is more effective to write as if you’re writing to just one person.
If you have a contacts list you can try adding their names to the subject line. According to Campaign Monitor, personalizing your newsletters will help it avoid the “promotions tab”. Personalized emails have 26% more chance of being opened.
Email marketing is here to stay and remains relevant with your audience. Giving your email marketing more effort can result in good results for your business.
