In this article we will give you several tips that can help you
in improving your open and click-thru rates.
1) Open rate
In order to your email campaign be successful the first
necessary thing is that people open and read your email
newsletter. Online publishing is very similar to traditional
publishing. When you buy a daily newspaper, you probably don?t
read everything. You don?t have that much of free time and not
every subject is equally interesting for you. If you are a
sports fan you will read the sport section but you might skip an
article about latest movies . In most cases you will decide what
you are going to read upon subject titles.
Same thing with email newsletters. One of the two most important
factors that influence whether or not your subscriber will open
your email newsletter will be your subject line. In order to
have good open rates and click-thru rates you have to know your
audience. Your message has to be well targeted.
There are several rules you have to follow in order to make
effective subject lines.
Subject lines
Your subject lines should be short and snappy to get attention
of your subscribers. Many people receive dozens of emails every
day and some other people that have web sites and often make
posts on different places like web forums, discussion lists,
publish articles, can get more than 100 emails per day. So your
message will have a very big competition in your subscriber?s
inbox. That?s why your subject line has to grab attention of
your subscriber. This doesn?t mean that you have to use usual
spam techniques. On the contrary. Avoid using words FREE,
GUARANTEED, Make Money Fast, Limited Offer and other
get-rich-quick schemes words. Not just because of your
subscribers. If you use these words it is most likely that your
emails will never even reach them. Their ISP will take care of
that with their spam filters. Also don?t capitalize every letter
and don?t put several times exclamation. You don?t need to
shout, people will ?hear? you if you know how to ?tell? them
your message.
So your subject line has to be short and snappy, best thing is
that you include one title from your articles in your subject
line. It can be some breaking news or exlusive interview. People
like to read breaking news or exclusive interviews that can?t be
found anywhere else. Also, people often read how-to articles
(for example - How To Choose The Right Email Marketing Software)
or so called ?number? articles (for example ? 7 Tips For
E-publishers On A Shoestring Budget).
Good thing is that you put your newsletter name in brackets, at
the beginning of your subject line in order to be easily
recognized from other emails in inbox.
Please bear in mind, that your subject line has to be
consistent. What do I mean by that? Of course that you will
change the title in your subject line but you have to find the
best subject form and stick to it. For example:
[NewslettterName] Your Subject Title, Issue #x, Date Don?t
forget, in order to make effective ads and this apply to subject
lines, as well you have to remember 3 words ? test, test, test!
You have to experiment with different models and find out which
work best for you. From field
Beside Subject line, From field is another info that your
recipients will see in their inbox. People have to trust you in
order to decide to read your emails. You don?t open your doors
to every person who knocks, don?t you?
If you are well-known person, trusted expert in your industry,
for example some reputable Internet consultant and you are the
only person that is involved in creation and publishing of the
newsletter put your name in From field. If several people are
involved in that process and if it is a corporate newsletter,
use your company name.
Most important thing with From fields is that you don?t
experiment with it. Choose one From field and stick to that. It
is very un-professional that you often change your From field
and beside that, in that case, your open rate will decline.
Useful tip is that you ask your subscribers to make a filter
rule for your email newsletter, based on your email address,
From field or some part of your Subject line. For example, they
can put [YourNewsletterName] in a filter rule for your
newsletter or your From field name so every time they get the
email newsletter that matches that rule it will be moved to a
specially designed folder, for example YourNewsletterName. So
this way your newsletter won?t end in their Bulk folder. That is
also one of the reasons why you should be consistent with your
From field and subject line.
2) Click-Thru Rates
Clicks come once your email newsletter is opened. With good open
rate you have finished only one part of the job. Now, your
newsletter has to be well designed with appropriate content and
concept, and most important, well targeted in order to have a
decent click-thru ratio (CTR). You have to know your audience.
You can increase your CTR if you put your most important
articles and ads at the top of your email newsletters. Don?t
write too long articles. It is better to write articles where
you will list several tips. Also, don?t overload your newsletter
with ads. People want to read useful things and not lots of ads.
Also, you know that a picture is worth more than 1000 words, so
it is good that if you publish a HTML newsletter that you
include photos that will be relevant to your articles and that
are clickable. Click-Thru rates get higher if you give some
value-added services to your subscribers. You have to make a
good relationship with them. Treat them well, write useful
articles, give exclusive discounts to your subscribers and they
will show their appreciation.
Different types of email newsletters have different click-thru
ratio. Click-Thru ratio is important, but it is not the most
important. Just because many people click on your follow-up
article or offer doesn?t mean that they will actually buy your
software or service. In some cases, lower CTR can get you more
sales than some good CTR. Think about that next time you start
your email campaign.
About the author:
Dejan Bizinger is a Contributing Editor for Infacta. Infacta is
email messaging services company providing powerful, yet
easy-to-use award-winning Group Mail, software for sending
highly-personalized email messages and Group Metrics, software
for email tracking. For more information visit:
target="_blank">http://www.infacta.com
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