is my open and click through rate any good?
This is one of our most frequently asked questions and unfortunately there isn’t an easy or quick answer.
There are a number of things that will have an impact on your open and click through rates, so we thought we would cover it in depth for you.
Firstly we need to cover how you can calculate your open and click through rates and how newzapp gathers the open and click through statistics for you.
identifying open and click through rates
Definitions:
ES = emails sent
NO = Number of opens
B = Bounces
UC = Unique clicks
Open rates
The first statistic to identify is your open rate. This is the number of opens divided by the number of emails sent, minus bounces. Times this by 100 to get your percentage.
NO / (ES-B) x 100 = Open rate.
Click through rates
Next identify your click through rate. This is the total number of unique clicks divided by the emails sent, minus bounces, times 100.
UC / (ES-B) x 100
Click to open ratio – best metric
This is the key metric for your campaigns. This will truly reflect your campaign's success. Your click to open ratio is calculated by dividing your unique clicks by the number of opens and times by 100.
UC / NO x 100
calculation of open rates via the newzapp system.
Most email service providers will determine your open rate in the same way.
newzapp will determine an open by receiving a reaction to our server. This is when the recipient server calls for the images or the subscriber follows a link. One of these actions must be taken for an open to register.
Always take the open statistic with a pinch of salt. Some of your subscribers will be viewing your email on a handheld device, as text only or with images turned off. If there is no strong call to action to follow a text link or to download images they may read your email but take no action and this will affect your open rate. Bear this in mind when building your campaign. What action do you want your subscriber to take?
now you need to define ‘good’.
This isn’t so easy. Whenever you start a new marketing campaign you should have clear targets and goals in mind. Once you have identified your goals you will have a better understanding how your campaigns are performing.
calculating the success of your email campaigns
There are a number of considerations that you need to be aware of when calculating the success of your email campaigns, as they will have a direct impact on your results.
So here’s a check list of questions you should start with, before you judge your campaigns.
are you sending to Business to Business (B2B) subscribers or Business to Consumer (B2C) subscribers?
Unfortunately most free online email clients such as Hotmail and Yahoo! will block images and what they perceive to be suspicious content as standard.
The best way forward with B2C subscribers is to include a link to an online version of your email so your subscribers can see the full impact of your campaigns without having to download the images. If your subscribers then follow this link we can count this as an open.
B2B emails are also likely to have images blocked, however subscribers are happier to download images if you give them a good reason. Make sure you have a good balance of images to text and include all your links as text links as well. This will help your subscribers make the choice to either download the images to see your email correctly or to follow the links directly.
when did you send?
Let’s be honest, a B2C subscriber is unlikely to open your email at 11am on a Tuesday morning.
So think about who you’re sending to, what you’re sending and when would be the best time to receive this as a subscriber.
The best times to send for B2B are:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at between 10-11am and 2-5pm. Although the office environment can be fast paced, if your email is targeted and relevant then these are the best time to catch your subscribers attention. Avoid times like 9am Monday morning and Fridays. These are the most likely times for your email to get deleted.
The best times for B2C are:
Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays. You can also try the lunch time period during the week. Think about when you have the time to check your personal email.
The key to timing your send is to have your email in an inbox, with the subscriber having the time to read it and without it being amongst loads of other emails that may be more important. As always with these things this will be unique to your database, so test this.
subject line, from name and from email address
This will have more impact than you think. If you receive an email from a source you don’t recognise with FREE SHIPPING TODAY in the subject line, would you open it?
Subject line
Be honest. If you're selling something or providing a special offer, say so. You wouldn’t be happy having opened an email promoted as a newsletter to find it’s a sales email. You would be far more likely to unsubscribe before deleting this email. This comes down to the building and meeting of expectations.
Don’t shout. Consecutive capital letters is the equivalent of shouting at someone. This can be seen as rude and will likely put your email in the junk folder anyway. Try to avoid consecutive exclamation marks and question marks for the same reason. We would recommend following this best practice in the content of your email as well as your subject line.
From name
Do as much as you can here to reiterate who you are. Use your brand name and use a personal touch here if you can. Would you be more inclined to open an email from newzapp? Or from Liz at newzapp email marketing?
From email address
It’s very reassuring to your subscribers to have a real person available if they want to hit reply. Whether you do or not, we would recommend that you have a ‘real person’s’ email address as your from email address. Whatever you do, make sure it’s an inbox that you can check on a regular basis, particularly when you’ve just sent a campaign. That way when your subscribers hit the reply button you can respond appropriately.
is this your first send?
If this is your first send, your results could be dramatically different to what you would normally see. It could swing either way, either everyone will open it as they’re curious about your email, or (and unfortunately more likely) your subscribers will be suspicious about your email and very few of them will actually open it.
You need to start to build trust and manage the expectations of your subscribers to get the best result, which brings us on to the next point.
are your subscribers expecting your email?
The best way to encourage an open from your subscribers is to tell them what to expect and meet that expectation as early as possible.
For example, if you have gathered the subscriber data from an online sign up form, then send them an email as soon as you can with a thank you and a breakdown of what the subscriber can expect from you and how often.
If you have gathered the subscriber data from personal contact – i.e. a business card from a meeting or event, at this point tell them you will follow up so they will expect an email from you. Again include a breakdown of what the subscriber can expect from you and how often to set their expectations.
Stick to this, this is where you are starting to build trust.
are you already in regular contact with your subscribers?
If you already have a database of email address this is not as easy. We would recommend an initial email with the above mentioned breakdown, however sometimes that is not possible.
If you have already been in regular contact with your database for some time, then the likelihood is that a core of your database open your emails and click every time. This is great, however there’s always room to improve. The next points can help you achieve higher open and click through rates.
is the campaign targeted?
You should now be looking to target your emails more effectively to your database. One common segmentation would be to separate your existing customers and your potential customers. You wouldn’t offer the same deal to a potential customer that you would to an existing customer. You don’t speak to them the same way and your emails would benefit from the same sense of bespoke communication.
Everyone wants to be treated as an individual and a blanket email with the same offer could make some of your subscribers become ‘inactive’ if they already have this product. Worse case scenario, they stop opening your emails and unsubscribe as the email isn’t relevant.
is the content targeted?
This is different to campaign targeting and gets a little more in-depth. Moving beyond tone this is where you could really start to personalise your content for your database segments and increase the relevancy.
For example, you purchase a new printer from an office supplies company. The supplies company send you a thank you email with some details or even an offer for some ink cartridges and set the expectation of a newsletter once a month. Fabulous.
The following month would you rather receive details on good paper that go specifically with your new printer? Or that blanket email offering that nice shiny new printer you already bought, but at a cheaper discounted price?
The more relevant your email is, the more likely you are to increase your open and click through rates. Remember to add value. This doesn’t have to be monetary value, don’t offer discounts with every email or these will lose their value. Instead find a way to make your email a valuable part of your subscriber’s day. Become an industry expert, update with relevant news and you could even feature guest authors. Make your email a communication that is looked forward to and your statistics will inevitably go up.
the golden rule
As always the golden rule is to test to your database. Every campaign to every database in every industry is unique. What works for someone else may not work for you so test, test, test.
We’d also recommend that you take a look at your last campaign and use those rates as your starting point. No matter how good or bad they are this is the benchmark for your database. Don’t forget, there’s always room to improve.
The Direct Marketing Association publish quarterly benchmark reports on this. You can find a copy of these on their website.