Email marketing lessons
Sending an email newsletter is simple. Compose it, copy in your list and then hit the send button.
If only life were that simple. The ever evolving email marketing landscape has communicators struggling to overcome the electronic version of the same issues direct marketers have struggled with for decades.
Getting your email delivered into an inbox, opened and read is no longer a hit and miss affair ... it is a science where experience, technical comprehension and a good understanding of 'the numbers' go together to create a successful communication. And that's all before you can start to construct the words, images and design that create good communications.
With all that trouble, why would you even bother with email as a marketing communication tool? Well, quite simply, it works. It works in the same way that direct mail 'works' - there is a large wastage factor but the return on investment is positive.
Here's three concepts that have been on our radar lately you need to know about:
Comparing open rates is not as important as you think ...
Clients frequently ask us the same question about email communications as they do about direct mail communications. "What is a good response rate?" And our answer is the same for email as it is for direct mail. "It depends on the audience, the message and the economics."
It's very easy for email marketers to get sidetracked by benchmarking their open rates to 'industry standards'. But the cold, hard facts are that the industry standards don't apply to you. You and your company are not 'standard'. It's another way of saying that you'll be happy with 'average'.
Your clients are different to other companies'. I'm sure your customers are even different to your competition. Your products and services are probably different. Most importantly, your offer is (or should be) different. So why should you compare yourself to other companies who are not like you? You shouldn't.
Open counts do not determine success. Meeting the brief is your measure of success. That could be measured as sales, relationships, enquiries, staff engagement or ad-hoc feedback.
When you measure open counts, the only benchmark is your previous open rate history with the same audience. The rate of change in your open rate when measured campaign against campaign is a far more important statistic than the actual open rate itself.
Free offers deliver higher audience participation ...
It makes sense when you say that a free offer increases response (usually about double according to US research). Again, just like direct mail. So are you offering free stuff to engage your reader? Why not? Because it's hard work. But it should be having an impact on your content strategy.
Free offers in an email context are usually downloads that you prepare ahead of the campaign, with automated delivery. But beware. Just like direct mail, it's easy to entice with a free offer only to get many more prospects who are not as well qualified. Like all communication strategies, test it until you know what works for your audience.
Keeping key content 'above the fold' ...
'Above the fold' is an old newspaper term for stories, headlines, photos and advertisements that were situated on the top half of the first page. When the paper was folded for news stand display, only the content 'above the fold' was visible.
The email equivalent is the preview pane in Outlook. Research has consistently shown that most Outlook users (69 percent of them) don't truly open emails, they simply read them in their preview pane. As most email users use Outlook as their email client it makes sense to take this into account when composing your email.
Keep key information such as offers, headlines and summaries up high and 'above the fold' to make sure your message gets read, even if it's not opened. A good guide is to craft your email to no more than 650 pixels wide and to keep your 'above the fold' area to about 500 pixels high.
A closing thought on open rates ...
Comparing open rates against your own track record is valuable. Benchmarking against others may be useful. But have you ever thought of asking yourself how many people have opened some of your emails?
Email marketing guru Mark Brownlow asked the question and even he was surprised. The average open rate for his newsletter is 41.8 percent, but 64.9 percent of recipients had opened at least one of his last four newsletters.
That's another 23.1 percent!
It's easy to forget that it's not always the same group of people opening your newsletters each edition. A better way to think about your list is to consider how many are 'active' - and you'll need to arrive at your own definition of what 'active' means for you.
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