According to the latest Epsilon Report for the Q4 of 2009, the average click through rate for email marketing (newsletters and promotional emails) ranges from 5 to 10%, averaging at around 5.9%. The good news is, that number is much higher for targeted emails and even better for emails sent as a response to something the user did on the site (triggered emails), which can have rates as high as 40 or 50%. But no matter what type of emails are you sending, there's ways of increasing the click-through rate and get better results.
The first reason why your mail blast may be having lower click-through rates than expected is that it may not be reaching the mailbox it's sent to. In many cases, the reason for this is your newsletter or mail is considered as spammy by the recipient's mail server, and it's either rejected or moved to a spam folder. Making sure your emails land in your recipient mailbox is the most important task with any email campaign. First of all, you must make sure your email blast provider follows good practices and isn't blacklisted, and once that is out of the way you will need to evaluate each of your emails using tools to see how spammy they look in the eyes of the most popular spam filters. SpamCheck is a free and really helpful tool for this.
Another frequent reason of low click-through rates (and one that can get you blacklisted for spam) is using a mail list that isn't clean enough. With a clean mail list I refer to a list where all the email addresses have opted in to receive your communications and actually exist on the server. Scrub your list frequently, removing addresses that bounce your messages and allow your recipients to unsubscribe in as few clicks as possible. This will reduce the likelihood of them marking your messages as spam just to stop receiving them. A word of caution here, purchasing a recipients list from a non reputable source may end up with a very low quality address list, that will upset the people receiving your newsletter instead of increasing your click-through rates.
Once you are sure about the quality of your recipients address and the low spam rating of your newsletter, the next factor is making sure the email subject and contents are as compelling as possible and targeted to your audience. Even if you are selling the same product, segmenting your mailing list into several different ones with different audiences (For example, corporate business and education workers) and changing the message on each can give you much better results. However, there's some guidelines that statistics have proven to be true most of the time. EmailStatCenter says that emails with a short subject line outperform greatly those with longer subject lines, and even better if the subject line is personalized. Surprisingly, the higher the number of links, the higher the click-through rate but you must strike a careful balance between enough links and so many links the automatic spam filters consider your newsletter spam.
Another important factor is when is your mailing sent. Try moving it around different days of the week, and analyse when your audience seems more inclined to open them. For example, if you are targeting business users, they are more likely to open your emails if they are send during the week, specially on days that are less busy (so Mondays are usually a big no no). The sending time also matters, if your newsletter is on your audience inboxes first thing in the morning chances are they'll at least take a look, instead of it being lost in the intense email traffic during the long busy day.
Even if click-through rates are generally quite low for the average email marketing, analysing your audience habits and tailoring your emails to their needs will generate much higher results. Make sure your newsletters and mailings have clear calls to action, catch the user attention and are sent when your audience is most likely to read them. And above all, do your best to guarantee that those emails actually reach their inbox by using reputable mail providers, sticking to the best responsible mailing practices such as opt-in and making sure your mailing list is clean and stays so. This way you will be able to increase your click-through and conversion rates, making mass mailing a cheap and efficient marketing channel for your business.
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The first reason why your mail blast may be having lower click-through rates than expected is that it may not be reaching the mailbox it's sent to. In many cases, the reason for this is your newsletter or mail is considered as spammy by the recipient's mail server, and it's either rejected or moved to a spam folder. Making sure your emails land in your recipient mailbox is the most important task with any email campaign. First of all, you must make sure your email blast provider follows good practices and isn't blacklisted, and once that is out of the way you will need to evaluate each of your emails using tools to see how spammy they look in the eyes of the most popular spam filters. SpamCheck is a free and really helpful tool for this.
Another frequent reason of low click-through rates (and one that can get you blacklisted for spam) is using a mail list that isn't clean enough. With a clean mail list I refer to a list where all the email addresses have opted in to receive your communications and actually exist on the server. Scrub your list frequently, removing addresses that bounce your messages and allow your recipients to unsubscribe in as few clicks as possible. This will reduce the likelihood of them marking your messages as spam just to stop receiving them. A word of caution here, purchasing a recipients list from a non reputable source may end up with a very low quality address list, that will upset the people receiving your newsletter instead of increasing your click-through rates.
Once you are sure about the quality of your recipients address and the low spam rating of your newsletter, the next factor is making sure the email subject and contents are as compelling as possible and targeted to your audience. Even if you are selling the same product, segmenting your mailing list into several different ones with different audiences (For example, corporate business and education workers) and changing the message on each can give you much better results. However, there's some guidelines that statistics have proven to be true most of the time. EmailStatCenter says that emails with a short subject line outperform greatly those with longer subject lines, and even better if the subject line is personalized. Surprisingly, the higher the number of links, the higher the click-through rate but you must strike a careful balance between enough links and so many links the automatic spam filters consider your newsletter spam.
Another important factor is when is your mailing sent. Try moving it around different days of the week, and analyse when your audience seems more inclined to open them. For example, if you are targeting business users, they are more likely to open your emails if they are send during the week, specially on days that are less busy (so Mondays are usually a big no no). The sending time also matters, if your newsletter is on your audience inboxes first thing in the morning chances are they'll at least take a look, instead of it being lost in the intense email traffic during the long busy day.
Even if click-through rates are generally quite low for the average email marketing, analysing your audience habits and tailoring your emails to their needs will generate much higher results. Make sure your newsletters and mailings have clear calls to action, catch the user attention and are sent when your audience is most likely to read them. And above all, do your best to guarantee that those emails actually reach their inbox by using reputable mail providers, sticking to the best responsible mailing practices such as opt-in and making sure your mailing list is clean and stays so. This way you will be able to increase your click-through and conversion rates, making mass mailing a cheap and efficient marketing channel for your business.
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