Category Archives: Email Marketing

Email marketing posts show you how to build your email list, and starting email marketing campaigns without your own list. There are details on some common errors, what you can do to avoid them, and how to fix mistakes you’ve already made.

There are also posts on how to measure your email marketing results, and what metrics really matter. You may think the list size is the most important thing (but it isn’t). Getting a high rate of unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports? Find out what to do about it.

Find out what your response rate should be and how yours compares to your industry counterparts.

Plus, posts on easy ways to improve your email design to improve readability and increase your click through rates (a metric that does matter). There are also posts with tips on how to write subject lines that sell. Since the subject line is the first thing your readers will see, it’s important to get that right!

How to Use Email Autoresponders Effectively

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Autoresponders are the email marketer’s secret weapon. Many forget this and just mechanically send out messages (or worse send out messages from an email box that isn’t even monitored).

However, used the right way, autoresponders can build trust with your readers, send more visitors to your website, and increase your business.

The most popular emails

Some of the most effective (and frequently opened) are welcome messages, thank yous, and transactional messages. The reason these emails get the best open rates (nearly 50%) is because they are relevant to something the visitor just did, such as sign up or order something. That’s the best time to talk to them and engage, when their interest in your company and products is high.

The next most effective emails are messages that are triggered when someone does something or that are connected to a specific event. This includes activating a special code, an anniversary or birthday, or a renewal date.

The key is to balance your messages between information and sales. Tip too much one way and you’ll get no sales (because you never asked); overbalance the other way and your subscribers will flee.

The right ways to use autoresponders

Welcome new subscribers to your e- newsletter. Give them a clear idea what to expect from your messages. You can even send a sample issue or an extra report as an added bonus. It’s all part of building trust, and establishing yourself as an expert on the topics you choose to write about.

The more your readers trust you, the more likely they will be to buy from you, and to keep buying.

Help new customers use your product/service. Send a series of helpful messages on how to use the product they just bought. If you have a note taking app, highlight how to format the notes, or ways to add video or audio recordings to the text. Point out hidden keystrokes or tool tips. You want them to feel comfortable with the product, happy with their choice, and pleased with your service.

Create a virtual classroom. Offer a series of emails that teach your customers something in your area of expertise. Show them how to get more referral business. Or send a series of tips on techniques for protecting their computers from viruses.

Highlight past posts. New subscribers haven’t seen your old blog posts or read your older reports. If they’re still relevant, add them to your newsletters. Or send them as a separate series all centered around a particular topic. That way, you can get a second, segmented newsletter.

Sell something. Create a collection of past posts, or write extensive new material on a popular topic, and make it into an ebook. Or, turn it into a paid course. This is also a chance to upsell something. People who bought your referral tips ebook might also be interested in a full-fledged course or a membership in a forum dedicated to getting more referral business.

Be responsive. If someone replies to your email with a question, answer it (and as promptly as feasible). It’s a great opportunity to talk directly to a customer (or potential customer). If they have a problem, try to fix it. If it’s a question, give them a thoughtful response.

Don’t just send an email saying, “We have received your message. We’ll get back to you.” That’s almost worse than no response. It’s canned and it sounds that way; it doesn’t show you’re trying to do anything about the problem.

This can also be a good source of more content or new products. Are there questions that get asked over and over? Do many people have the same problem? Use that as the basis for a new course, a webinar, or an FAQ page.

Test and check

Once it’s all up and running, check your sign up rates carefully. See what percentage of subscribers are going through the entire signup process. If they are abandoning it midway, where is the falloff occurring? At the confirmation? After the download (if you have a free report)? Or further down the line?

Look to see which emails in the series are doing better. Do some get opened more than others? Which gets the most clicks? Are you selling more of product A than product B?

Should the emails be longer, or are they too long? You can check this by using multiple calls to action or links to the same spot and looking to see which links get more clicks.

Are your readers largely on desktop or on mobile? If you have images, can they see them? Do you need to change the design accordingly?

Photo: Tama Leaver

P.S. In case you’re wondering, the photo is an electric meter, circa 1968 Australia. EMAIL is an acronym.

What Open Rate Should Your Email Get?

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

If you check the Q&A on LinkedIn, Marketing Professionals or other business forums, you’ll see lots of questions about email open rates. What open rate will I get? How many people will click on my link? What will my response rate be?

They’re tough questions, and you’ll see lots of answers (including mine) saying that “it depends.” Not that I (and my fellow responders) don’t want to be helpful, it’s just that the results you will get depend on lots of different factors (list you use, your niche, what you want people to do, what they get for doing it, the words and design you use, even time of day). Too many options for a one size-fits-all answer.

Average email open rates by industry

Each year, Mailer Mailer puts together a detailed report showing open, click through, and subject line performance for over 1 billion emails. Here are a few highlights from 2008 (when I first posted this) compared to the latest 2015 report.

2008 Highest Average Open Rates
General Small Business: 16.49%
Education/Training: 15.76% (largest gain over 2007, when it was 13.76%)
Government: 25.6%
Nonprofit/Trade Association: 14.6%

2015 Highest Average Open Rates
Museums and Galleries: 24.9%
Manufacturing and Distribution: 24%
Arts and Crafts: 20.3%

Average email click through rates by industry

2008 Highest Average Click Rates
Religious/Spiritual: 6.66%
Real Estate: 6.35%
Transportation/Travel: 4.65%

2015 Highest Average Click Rates
IT Services: 3.4%
Transportation: 3.4%
Food, Beverage and Agriculture: 3%

average email open rates by subject line length

2008 Email Open Rates by Subject Line Length
Under 35 characters: 19.64%
Over 35 characters: 14.83%

2015 Email Open Rates by Subject Line Length

16-27 characters: 12%
28-39 characters: 12.6%
40+ characters: 11.1%.

Open rates have risen since 2008, but the industries getting the best open rates have changed completely. Extremely short subject lines used to do well, but now the sweet spot seems to be somewhere in the middle.

The important thing is that each industry is different, as is each offer, company, and so on. While the absolute numbers are best as a big picture view, don’t worry too much if your numbers are lower than your peers. Instead, use the report as a guide for which stats to watch and what to test.

How to improve your email open rate

Test your subject lines. If you’ve been using long very short subject lines, try something a bit longer. If your long subject lines aren’t doing well, shorten them.

Watch the click to open ratio (meaning how many people opened, read, and clicked on something in the email message). Has it been going up? Or down? Sunday had the worst open rate, but the highest click rate. Track the numbers and see which ends up being more profitable (or meeting whatever indicator you’re tracking: downloads, sales, queries, etc.).

Change days of the week, or times of day: are you doing better on Monday? or do you get better results on Wednesday? Emails did better this year on Mondays and Wednesdays. These are likely business to business, if you’re selling a consumer product, you may do better on weekends. Try sending later, or earlier, in the day and see if it makes a difference in your open rates.

Personalize or not? Interestingly, something that used to work well in 2008 can now backfire if you overdo it. Personalizing in the body of the message worked well, but personalizing the subject line reduced open rates from over 17% to 11. Personalizing both reduced it even further, to only 4.9!

Which Email Subject Lines are the Best?

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

The subject line of your email is your entry (or quick exit) to someone’s time and attention. After the list, it’s the most important part of the email.

A good subject line will get your email opened. A poor one will send it straight to the trash bin (or worse, the spam folder).

Which subject line is the best?

There are quite a few factors to consider when crafting your subject line. How long should it be? Is shorter better? Should you personalize it by putting the recipient’s name in each email? Should you be formal? Or write more casually?

Best subject line length

Conventional wisdom says that shorter subject lines are better since they don’t get cut off in phones and tablets. However, Marketing Sherpa recently reported on a Return Path study that analyzed the length of subject lines and compared the subject length to the rate at which the emails were read.

It turned out that longer subject lines had a higher read rate (meaning more people marked it read in their email clients)

Even so, the difference wasn’t big enough to be statistically significant. The takeaway here is not so much to count letters as it is to try to tweak your subject line to get the best response from your own list.

To personalize or not?

As you can see in this more recent Marketing Sherpa article, some industries, such as consumer products, showed a marked increase in both open rates and transactions. For others, such as entertainment, the impact was negligible. Personalization used to work well overall, then it dropped off, now it seems to work well again (at least in some cases). The best approach is to try it and see whether it works for you.

Best email subject lines

As a general rule, show your readers a clear benefit in the first two words. Stay away from hard sales pitches, and include something that invites action or curiosity:

Simple Email Change Boosts Sales 55%
Text or HTML: Which Gets More Clicks?
Your Copy of Email Open Rate Study Enclosed
A simple email marketing formula
The Google slap is coming

Try a casual approach

With the latest political season in full swing in the U.S., candidates from both parties are frantically trying to raise money. One side is doing much better than the other. They test and retest everything, and often find that a simple, “[candidate/celebrity] wants to meet you” or invitation asking readers to join them for an event outperforms more conventional subject lines.

Use emotions and hot button issues

Try a subject line that reacts or references recent news or events, or expresses outrage at something they’ll also find objectionable, “media says I’m to blame.” Use a call to action to encourage your readers to do something (take advantage of a special offer, buy a new product, pass along something to a friend).

Keep it short (generally)

Top performers are usually short (30-40 characters) and this is usually seen as the ideal length for an email subject line. However, longer subject lines can work better with a download, such as an ebook or a report.

Worst performing email subject lines

Anything that sounds too pushy, talks about the sender (rather than the recipient), or asks for an action before gaining trust

Uh oh
Forward this to your friends
Big Riches, Small Investment
ENDS TONIGHT! Training expires AT MIDNIGHT

The first one is negative and so vague that it’s discouraging. The second one asks you to spam your friends (no thanks). The third is just plain spammy. The last one looks like it’s shouting at you.

Compare performance

Look at your own data. See which subject lines got the most opens and click-throughs to your sales page. Also check to see which emails had the highest conversion rate (signups or sales).

If your list is large enough, try a sample of a few thousand names. Test two subject lines against each other and see which one performs better. Then roll out the winner to everyone else.

How to Engage Your Customers With Email

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Direct magazine reported today (2/24/09) that “[e]-mail and social media marketing boosts customer loyalty and has a positive influence on purchasing decisions.”The magazine says that according to two recently published studies, recipients of permission-based email are 56% more likely to buy something in a store and 48% feel more loyal towards retailers.

87% of the people who have opted-in to receive marketing email use it to learn about new products, and like receiving personalized offers based on previous purchases.

Approximately 77% of consumers take online reviews and ratings from other consumers into consideration when making purchases.

What does this mean for your business?

Engage your customers

It means that it’s critical that you interact with your customers. Allow them to rate and review your products online. Have someone answer questions and respond to complaints (if any) in public. Don’t hide behind a wall of FAQ’s. Make it easy for your customers to contact you if they have a question or problem, and respond quickly when they do.

Segment your list

Don’t send the same offer to your entire database. Review customer behavior and break up your list into smaller pieces. Use past purchase history, inquiries, and areas of interest. Suggest new purchases based on older ones, and adjust your message and product offers to fit each segment. Personalized, relevant messages will get better response rates, and increase loyalty to your brand.

Don’t abuse the privilege

Tell your customers upfront how often you will contact them. Don’t automatically sign them up for new offerings or communications. Ask first.

Photo: MK Media Productions

Why You Should Clean Your Email List

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

This little guy has the right idea. Lists (and floors) should be cleaned regularly. If not, the floor will get dirty and look bad. The list will get dirty too.

A dirty list doesn’t show the dirt the way a floor does, but it will affect the quality of your marketing and how much money you make.

List hygiene isn’t glamorous, but a clean list means more money, a better return on your investment, and the ability to better target your audience’s needs.

Size doesn’t matter as much as quality

Why is quality important?

A dirty list means more bounces. That can get you in trouble with your email provider. It can also mean that you get too many people unsubscribing from your list (which also makes you look bad). And those things can lead to being labeled a spammer.

A dirty list can also cost you money. Most email providers charge by your list size. A bigger list is great if it’s clean, updated, and responsive. It’s less than ideal if you’re spending money to reach old, outdated email addresses.

Update your list regularly

If this seems daunting, it’s easier to do it in small steps. My grandmother had the world’s cleanest house. Her secret? She did a little each day, rather than all at once.

Check the names on your file on a scheduled basis. Remind them why they signed up, what kind of information or emails they’ll get from you (particularly if you haven’t emailed them in a while. Give them the option to confirm they want to stay on your list or to unsubscribe. Offer a small gift or report in return for a response.

Remove people who are inactive

Check your list for names that are still valid, but inactive. If someone hasn’t opened your email in six months or more, send a friendly reminder. If they still ignore you, remove them from your list.

Get better engagement

A smaller, more active list is better than a large, indifferent one. You’ll get a much better idea of the topics your readers are interested in and can better target your messages.