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What is a Good Open Rate for My Marketing Emails?

What is a Good Open Rate for My Marketing Emails?

Sending marketing emails is still one of the most effective ways to grab attention, though it can become a useless process without thoroughly tracking your metrics. The reality of how many people open your emails could be considerably lower than you might have guessed. Or, maybe it’s higher than you thought after assuming more modest open rates.

Analytics play a major part in how all successful marketing campaigns run today, but have you used the same with your recent emails? Are you still just making assumptions, or maybe using an overly generalized analytics platform?

What you’d probably like to know is what a good open rate is for your emails. This is usually the first question we get, and the answer to this varies since it differs by industry. An open rate considered good in one industry is usually considered bad in another. Constant Contact has a chart that compares open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribe rate by industry.

All these rates sound like something that only data-focused individuals can comprehend, but they are extremely important to the success of your marketing campaigns. Surprisingly, these numbers are not only easy to understand, but increasing your KPI’s can be done with a few minor tweaks to your email strategy.

Timing is everything

According to data from SuperOffice, the best time to send your emails in order to get the highest open rate is on Tuesdays after 12 p.m. Although it may vary slightly based on industry-specific data, this is generally the premium time to reach audiences with your content. Typically, you’ll want to stay away from blasting out emails on Mondays and Fridays. Most of the time these get lost in the shuffle, so keep your important emails during the middle of the week.

Personalize the message

When it comes to receiving emails, there are certain criteria that makes a recipient more likely to open, read, and interact with your emails. Before you can get someone to click a link in one of your emails, you have to get them to open it first. There are a number of reasons a person might open an email, but most often the deciding factor is the return address the email was sent from. In fact, the three most common reasons that a recipient will open an email are:

  1. 64% – sender namer/email address
  2. 47%- an attention grabbing subject line
  3. 26% – a compelling offers

 

One of the most common and easiest ways to personalize an email is to include the individual’s first name in the subject line. Studies how that this simple addition could lift open rates by 20%! By integrating a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM) into your marketing process, you’ll be able to add this to your repertoire in minutes.

Provide relevant content

We’re know this one sounds pretty obvious. However, lots of marketers send content that they believe that their audiences want to hear, when in reality, it misses the mark. Be careful with the content you do publish, as anything incorrect or useless information could damage your reputation among your audience.

When it comes to your brand’s content, it’s more about quality than quantity. Sure, you’ll want to get plenty of indexed pages on your site to climb through the search engine ranks. However if that content doesn’t provide accurate or relevant information, you’re risking turning off potential leads.

To discover what is actually resonating with your audience, it’s imperative to closely track the metrics on every piece of branded content. If you are satisfied with your rates, that doesn’t mean that you should quit while you’re in a comfortable spot. Continue to test different forms of messaging and new kinds of content to keep your brand fresh. After all, there’s a saying in marketing that says, “If you aren’t testing, you’re losing money.”



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