Understanding Open Rates

In the email marketing world, the sun rises and sets on measurable statistics. By measuring how many people are opening your email monthly campaign, and monitoring which links are being clicked most often, one can make informed decisions on how to continually improve those numbers.

A common misconception among those who are new to the practice of email marketing is the expectation of high open rates. It's best to maintain realistic expectations in this matter, and work to improve. So what's a realistic open rate? Let's be blunt. It isn't going to be 90%. Not even close. If you were giving away free money you wouldn't score that high.

It sounds bad, but it gets better.

The expectations are different for different types of campaigns. A membership organization sending out a monthly or bi-weekly update to its active members can often boast open rates as high as 40-50%. In the commercial world the numbers drop to typically about 25-35%. If you're working toward 40%, you're very likely way ahead of your competition.

Still sounds bad? Let's fix that.

While 40% may seem low at first glance, consider that the people that comprise this 40% are the ones that are the most likely to become a new or repeat client. Imagine what an incredible asset this is for you: The top 40% of people most likely to become your customers are reading your marketing message every month. Show me an advertising campaign that can top that.

List Hygiene - Another Good Thing
You can usually expect the open rates for your first few mailings to be slightly lower. This is especially true if you started collecting email addresses before you began sending a consistent, sustained campaign. But on the bright side, your first few sends will serve to help you do some list hygiene. Those recipients who forgot who you are or who are simply no longer interested will more than likely opt-out early. After a few months, you'll be left with a lean, mean list of people who WANT to hear from you. And those are the people worth marketing to.

Continual Improvement - An Even Better Thing
There are great many techniques involved in improving your open rate. At House & Home we closely monitor such things as the time of day that recipients open their emails. When we notice a trend, we'll try to target it on the next issue. We are also careful to be consistent in our "inbox marketing" efforts, meaning we'll use a consistent subject line and a consistent FROM address, so your message soon becomes recognizable to readers at a glance.

Open Rate vs. Unsubscribe Rate
Everyone's list will experience some churn. New subscribers come in, and others choose to unsubscribe. The important thing is to keep the unsubscribe rate as low as possible. This is done by making sure you deliver quality, valuable, relevant content to your readers. (See my other Best Practices post on The Crisis of Relevance in Email Marketing). By keeping unsubscribes as low as possible, you're still boosting top of mind awareness simply by having your name show up in your subscribers' inbox.

I hope you've found value in this article. I thank you for your attention. If you have questions or article ideas for this newsletter, please send them to me: . Expect another issue of our best practices email in two weeks.