Truth #5: The real reason people
open your email messages
If your email doesn't get opened, your email list
is useless. Effective email marketing means getting
your email opened, rather than trashed, in the first
three seconds after a recipient sees it. But what's
the magic formula for getting your email opened?
I found statistics covering this in the Email Marketing
Metrics Guide from Marketing Sherpa (read my review
of this must-have research at http://www.arialsoftware.com/metricsguide.htm).
These were compiled from a consumer email study that
asked tens of thousands of people what drove them to
open their emails. And you know what single factor
came out on top?
The from address.
That's right: the name that appears in the "from" column
in the recipient inbox is the single most important
factor: it was cited by 60% of the study respondents.
That makes it more important that the subject line
and the email content preview.
But what FROM address
should you really use? What FROM address gets your
email opened?
The answer was simple and straightforward.
It should be:
- Consistent. Always use the same FROM address.
- Recognizable. The recipient should recognize who
you are by reading the FROM address. This translates
into using your company name in most cases. If you're
Amazon.com, for example, the FROM address should
simply read, "Amazon.com"
MISTAKES TO AVOID
Avoid the mistake of using a personal email address
as the FROM address. You don't want it to show, "Mary
Johnson" and then have MaryJohnson@amazon.com
as the email address. That won't get opened because
nobody knows who Mary Johnson really is. But they do
know who YOU are, assuming they subscribed or purchased
something from you to get on your email list in the
first place.
This is a branding effort, too, but its most important
benefit is to simply get your emails opened.
NEXT FACTOR: SUBJECT LINES
The next most important factor is the subject line,
and here's where men and women differ. According to
the same study cited above, 69% of men open emails
that contain the word "news" or promise compelling
information, vs. only 46% of women who open the same
emails.
But women respond better to discount offers: 64% opened
emails that focused on a price discount, whereas only
50% of men opened the same email.
Does this mean you should split your list into male
/ female demographics? It's certainly worth testing,
but an easier way would be to find out who you're selling
to today (mostly men or mostly women) and cater more
of your email announcements to the strategy proven
to work for that group.
FIND OUT WHAT REALLY WORKS WITH THE EMAIL MARKETING
METRICS GUIDE
There's a lot more juicy information like this in
the Email Marketing Metrics Guide published by Marketing
Sherpa. I've read and reviewed the entire manual at: http://www.arialsoftware.com/metricsguide.htm
NEXT: THE CONCLUSION
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