Melon Corporate Blog
How do I Increase my Open Rates?
An open rate is a measurement that describes how many people have opened your email. Usually this is a percentage measured against how many emails you sent out. It is difficult to pinpoint what is an acceptable open rate because every database and industry is different. But a round figure for an email marketing campaign to aim for would be 25%-35% open rate.
If you are looking to increase your open rates, there are a few factors you need to consider.
1. Subject LineI have seen so many clients who always leave the subject line as an afterthought. Don't underestimate to value of a creative and short subject line. After all, in email marketing the subject line is essentially your headline.
It is what is going to compel users to open and read your email. Try and allocate 10 - 15 mins to really stop and brainstorm some catchy subject lines. And don't be afraid to experiment!
TIP - Try making your subject line a question. The human brain can't resist a challenge and will subconsciously want to answer any question that's thrown at it. For instance a newsletter with an article about property valuations could have the subject line 'What's your property worth?'
2. Timing Your SendAllocating a suitable time to send your emails is also an important factor in increasing open rates. You need to take into consideration the demographic that you are sending your emails to. Are they home users or corporate users? If they are home users you might want to schedule to send out your emails on a weekend or after work on a weekday. Whereas corporate users will be reading their emails at work so sending the emails right before they get to work is a good idea. That way you ensure your email sits on the top of the pile and not buried under the myriad of other emails out there.
3. Segmenting Your DatabaseThis may not be applicable to all of you out there, but segmenting your database into more targeted send criteria can help you to ensure you are sending communication that people are more likely to find interesting. The recipient list may be smaller, but you will get a lot more of a response. You might find that this technique also helps to reduce unsubscribes.
An example would be if you were advertising an event in NSW and VIC, contacts in all the other states would not find this email interesting. So, assuming you had this kind of info in your database, you could flag the send to only go out to recipients in NSW and VIC.
Thus you will get a much higher open rate.
By using one or all of these techniques, you will definitely be giving yourself a chance to see those open rates increase.
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Comments - oldest entries appear first, most recent entries at the end.
I thought it a good point to make the subject line a question and also thought it a good idea to point out the obvious and not say “Read This!!!” in the subject line! There is some really good info on this page and the other pages, I never knew half the things i know now about email marketing, it is so much more complicated than I thought!
By Sarah Kaley on 24 01 2008
Hi Sarah
Yes questions work terrific as subject lines.
You are also correct in that email marketing is not as straight forward as sending an email to your colleague. There are quite a few issues to think about.
Regards,
Kevin Garber
By Kevin on 24 01 2008
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