The success of
email campaigns can be gauged by the number of email open rates. The more number
of readers read the email, the greater chances of people taking the desired
action. But for this, the readers must be motivated into clicking on the link.
The very first
thing which any reader will notice is the subject line. It is the most
important factor which should resonates with the mind of the readers and should
compel them to open and read the email. The subject line should be personalized
depending upon the recipient’s interest, and other factors. So creativity needs
to involve creating words of motivation. The brand should make its mark so much
so that the customers must set up expectations for the brand. Recipients should
be anticipating the emails. For this the services or products provided by the
company should meet their current needs and interest. The recipients should
know what to expect when they are opening the email and they should be made to
feel that they will miss something very important if they didn’t open your
email.
Apart from the
subject line, lot of attraction also lies in the content of the newsletter. The
content must be original along with being compelling. If the content of the
email can be found elsewhere, the customers may forgo the thought of opening
the email and instead going for the one of a kind content. The content should
also have valuable information which can be used by the readers. It could
concentrate on the free offer, or the big discount.
Another factor
which forces the reader to open the email is his relationship with the company.
Email readers fall into different categories. They can be irregular purchasers,
potential clients, information hungry subscribers or existing clients. The method
by which they decided to subscribe and the reason also tells a lot about the
customer’s interest. Did they find the website through a search engine or did
they sign up when buying products? The subscribers who have sought for
information and then signed up for the emails are more likely to open the
email, when compared to subscribers who signed up while buying a product
because of a pre-checked box meant for signing up which they forget to unchecked.
A strong
personality is must for the success of the email. If the actual CEO or the
marketing director is behind the newsletter, the readers get more interest in
the email and the email open rates will boom immediately. The email list should
be of high quality and should be well-maintained always. Also, efforts must be
made in expanding the email list with targeted audiences which are more likely
to open the email and take the desired action. Most of the times, long-time
list members become inactive. So the list must be segmented based on list age
and the inactive customers must be offered interesting incentive to bring them
out of the hibernation.
The mailing
frequency is also a very critical issue. Too frequently send mails will hamper
the growth of email open rates as the recipients will get irritated, so does
scarcely send mails as the recipients will not remember who you are. The time
of sending also is important. Test different time and days for finding out
which time works best for every type of audience. The time of the year should
also be considered here. People tend to open emails less frequently in summer
which means lower email open rates. Holiday
season means good email open rates for commercial emails and lesser email open
rates for information oriented emails and newsletters. The number of legitimate
opt-in emails being caught in the spam filters is increasing by the day.
Although the message is being shown as ‘delivered’, the end recipient won’t be
seeing the email at all. Care should be taken to avoid certain words and
symbols which are the cause of spam filtration.
The bottom line
is to do every job exceedingly well in order to achieve higher email open
rates. For email newsletters, sixty percent email open rates can be achieved
and for commercial emails, about forty percent email open rates can be
achieved.