The Truth About Open Rates
January 29, 2012 by admin
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
by Newsletter and Email Marketing Expert Linda Claire Puig
How many of your subscribers open the emails you send?
Many coaches and service professionals new to email marketing get discouraged when they look at the measurement called “open rate.” Those who’ve been at it for a while do, too.
Why is only a third of my contact list opening my emails? There must be something wrong. Is it worth all this effort if only a few people are reading what I send?
Before you throw in the towel, I want to let you in on a secret that a lot of folks don’t know:
Your open rate isn’t really your open rate.
As a measurement, the open rate is highly unreliable, imprecise and inadequate.
To show you why that is, I have to explain a little about how open rates are calculated and tracked.
The open rate is actually a ratio calculated as the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails that were successfully delivered to your list.
Email marketing software automatically adds a tiny, invisible image to each email delivered. When this invisible image is called to show up (invisibly) from the server where it lives, that tracks the email as being opened.
But this number is skewed — perhaps significantly — by what are known as “image blockers.” More and more people use web mail providers (such as Gmail or Yahoo) or applications (such as Outlook) that allow users to decide whether to view their emails with the images turned on or off.
When you see things showing up in your email with all the images turned off, that’s what’s happening: you have a setting somewhere that is saying “Ask me first if I want to see images.” Your images are “disabled” until you click to “enable” them. So…
If a person elects not to view images when reading an email, it will NOT count as an open.
Likewise, the people that elect to receive text-only emails from you (if you give them the option of text or HTML), also will not register as an “open.” Some mobile devices only allow emails to be viewed in text form.
Your open rate reporting could actually be off anywhere from 11% to 35%, according to generally accepted metrics in the email marketing world. That’s quite a bit!
So while it may look like nobody is opening them, your emails may actually be doing quite well.
So should you just ignore open rates then?
No. Despite their shortcomings, open rates can still provide valuable marketing information. Tracking your open rates can help you:
1. Spot trends. For example, if you notice a significant downward trend in your open rates over time (not just occasional dips, say during summer when folks are out of town more), it may be a signal that you need to do something to re-engage your subscribers.
2. Learn your audience’s preferences. You may be able to notice what days and times of day are better for sending by comparing your open rates.
3. Test subject lines. Split your list into two or three groups, and send the same email with different subject lines to see which one generates more opens (which may indicate more interest).
Is there anything you can do to improve your open rates?
Yes, absolutely! It may not be the most accurate measurement in the world, but there are proven ways to improve your open rates. And improvement is always good.
Of course, your list should be an opt-in (permission-based) list. If not, that’s the first place to start improving. Otherwise, look to some of these areas to improve your rates:
1. Make sure your content is relevant and valuable. Know what your audience wants, and provide it. Relevant content is read content.
2. Examine your frequency of emailing. Too much emailing can cause “list fatigue” and too little can cause the “who’s that?” syndrome.
3. Write HOT subject lines. These short phrases are often the golden key to unlocking your open rates. Make people hungry to open your emails and see what’s inside!
——————————————–
Linda is offering a free training on how to write HOT subject lines on Tuesday, February 7, and I highly suggest that you join her! She’ll be showing you how to double the profits from your list with powerful subject lines, the 7 biggest subject line mistakes sabotaging your open rates, 4 powerful tips to get a huge response every time you send an email and the #1 secret to avoid getting your emails reported as spam!
Please join her for this FREE call by clicking here.
by Newsletter and Email Marketing Expert Linda Claire Puig
How many of your subscribers open the emails you send?
Many coaches and service professionals new to email marketing get discouraged when they look at the measurement called “open rate.” Those who’ve been at it for a while do, too.
Why is only a third of my contact list opening my emails? There must be something wrong. Is it worth all this effort if only a few people are reading what I send?
Before you throw in the towel, I want to let you in on a secret that a lot of folks don’t know:
Your open rate isn’t really your open rate.
As a measurement, the open rate is highly unreliable, imprecise and inadequate.
To show you why that is, I have to explain a little about how open rates are calculated and tracked.
The open rate is actually a ratio calculated as the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails that were successfully delivered to your list.
Email marketing software automatically adds a tiny, invisible image to each email delivered. When this invisible image is called to show up (invisibly) from the server where it lives, that tracks the email as being opened.
But this number is skewed — perhaps significantly — by what are known as “image blockers.” More and more people use web mail providers (such as Gmail or Yahoo) or applications (such as Outlook) that allow users to decide whether to view their emails with the images turned on or off.
When you see things showing up in your email with all the images turned off, that’s what’s happening: you have a setting somewhere that is saying “Ask me first if I want to see images.” Your images are “disabled” until you click to “enable” them. So…
If a person elects not to view images when reading an email, it will NOT count as an open.
Likewise, the people that elect to receive text-only emails from you (if you give them the option of text or HTML), also will not register as an “open.” Some mobile devices only allow emails to be viewed in text form.
Your open rate reporting could actually be off anywhere from 11% to 35%, according to generally accepted metrics in the email marketing world. That’s quite a bit!
So while it may look like nobody is opening them, your emails may actually be doing quite well.
So should you just ignore open rates then?
No. Despite their shortcomings, open rates can still provide valuable marketing information. Tracking your open rates can help you:
1. Spot trends. For example, if you notice a significant downward trend in your open rates over time (not just occasional dips, say during summer when folks are out of town more), it may be a signal that you need to do something to re-engage your subscribers.
2. Learn your audience’s preferences. You may be able to notice what days and times of day are better for sending by comparing your open rates.
3. Test subject lines. Split your list into two or three groups, and send the same email with different subject lines to see which one generates more opens (which may indicate more interest).
Is there anything you can do to improve your open rates?
Yes, absolutely! It may not be the most accurate measurement in the world, but there are proven ways to improve your open rates. And improvement is always good.
Of course, your list should be an opt-in (permission-based) list. If not, that’s the first place to start improving. Otherwise, look to some of these areas to improve your rates:
1. Make sure your content is
by Newsletter and Email Marketing Expert Linda Claire Puig
How many of your subscribers open the emails you send?
Many coaches and service professionals new to email marketing get discouraged when they look at the measurement called “open rate.” Those who’ve been at it for a while do, too.
Why is only a third of my contact list opening my emails? There must be something wrong. Is it worth all this effort if only a few people are reading what I send?
Before you throw in the towel, I want to let you in on a secret that a lot of folks don’t know:
Your open rate isn’t really your open rate.
As a measurement, the open rate is highly unreliable, imprecise and inadequate.
To show you why that is, I have to explain a little about how open rates are calculated and tracked.
The open rate is actually a ratio calculated as the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails that were successfully delivered to your list.
Email marketing software automatically adds a tiny, invisible image to each email delivered. When this invisible image is called to show up (invisibly) from the server where it lives, that tracks the email as being opened.
But this number is skewed — perhaps significantly — by what are known as “image blockers.” More and more people use web mail providers (such as Gmail or Yahoo) or applications (such as Outlook) that allow users to decide whether to view their emails with the images turned on or off.
When you see things showing up in your email with all the images turned off, that’s what’s happening: you have a setting somewhere that is saying “Ask me first if I want to see images.” Your images are “disabled” until you click to “enable” them. So…
If a person elects not to view images when reading an email, it will NOT count as an open.
Likewise, the people that elect to receive text-only emails from you (if you give them the option of text or HTML), also will not register as an “open.” Some mobile devices only allow emails to be viewed in text form.
Your open rate reporting could actually be off anywhere from 11% to 35%, according to generally accepted metrics in the email marketing world. That’s quite a bit!
So while it may look like nobody is opening them, your emails may actually be doing quite well.
So should you just ignore open rates then?
No. Despite their shortcomings, open rates can still provide valuable marketing information. Tracking your open rates can help you:
1. Spot trends. For example, if you notice a significant downward trend in your open rates over time (not just occasional dips, say during summer when folks are out of town more), it may be a signal that you need to do something to re-engage your subscribers.
2. Learn your audience’s preferences. You may be able to notice what days and times of day are better for sending by comparing your open rates.
3. Test subject lines. Split your list into two or three groups, and send the same email with different subject lines to see which one generates more opens (which may indicate more interest).
Is there anything you can do to improve your open rates?
Yes, absolutely! It may not be the most accurate measurement in the world, but there are proven ways to improve your open rates. And improvement is always good.
Of course, your list should be an opt-in (permission-based) list. If not, that’s the first place to start improving. Otherwise, look to some of these areas to improve your rates:
1. Make sure your content is relevant and valuable. Know what your audience wants, and provide it. Relevant content is read content.
2. Examine your frequency of emailing. Too much emailing can cause “list fatigue” and too little can cause the “who’s that?” syndrome.
3. Write HOT subject lines. These short phrases are often the golden key to unlocking your open rates. Make people hungry to open your emails and see what’s inside!
relevant and valuable. Know what your audience wants, and provide it. Relevant content is read content.
2. Examine your frequency of emailing. Too much emailing can cause “list fatigue” and too little can cause the “who’s that?” syndrome.
3. Write HOT subject lines. These short phrases are often the golden key to unlocking your open rates. Make people hungry to open your emails and see what’s inside!
Auto Draft
January 29, 2012 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
The Newsletter Mindset: Chocolates & Flowers
October 31, 2011 by admin
Filed under Professional Development
by Linda Claire Puig, President, Claire Communications
What do you do when you want to impress a sweetheart or thank a dear friend?
Give them flowers! Or chocolate! Or BOTH!
And think now how it feels on the receiving end when you receive flowers or chocolate or both. You feel delighted, appreciated, enlivened.
So what does all this have to do with newsletters?
It’s about the newsletter mindset.
Sometimes when I talk to coaches, mental health professionals and others of you in the “helping” professions, I hear a kind of anxiety that goes like this: “I’m not sure I should send a newsletter. People are already so overloaded with information coming at them. I don’t want to add to their burden.”
I say: think of your newsletter as the business equivalent of flowers and chocolate!
Let’s back up for a moment. It’s important to remember that a newsletter’s primary function is to build relationship with your readers. (Key word: relationship.)
When someone new signs up to receive your newsletter, they are wondering things like:
- Do you understand me?
- Can you inspire me?
- How will I grow from this relationship?
Sending your newsletter (your version of flowers & chocolate) is a great way to follow up this “first meeting.” It’s like putting your best foot forward. And every issue you send shows your readers that you care, that you understand their needs.
Sending your newsletter says, “I’ve been thinking of you.” It says you want their life to be sweet and alive. It lets your readers know that you’d like to get to know them better, to keep the conversation going and the relationship growing.
And you want that relationship to stay fresh and exciting, so you keep up the flowers & chocolate.
Do you see what a difference this mindset makes? “I send chocolates & flowers to my list!” versus “I don’t want to burden people.”
About the Author:
Linda Claire Puig is the Founder and President of Ready2GoArticles.com and Ready2GoEzines.com, which provides coaches and personal development professionals who don’t have time to write – or don’t like to – with high-quality done-for-you newsletters and articles that help them more easily connect with their audience and grow their businesses.
She also teaches service-based solo-business owners how to attract buckets of ideal prospects, nurture those relationships through high-value newsletters and strategically use these newsletters to get more clients, fill more programs and make more money.
An award-winning writer since 1983, Linda’s articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsletters throughout the world. She has produced newsletters for small businesses and professionals since 1990 and has trained thousands of individuals in “the way of the newsletter.” Linda is also an actor, she loves to travel, and all manner of dogs catch her eye.
Auto Draft
December 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Business Operations
3 Steps to Enroll New Clients Like a Pro (and how to avoid the dreaded “I changed my mind” drama)
September 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
Guest Post from Bill Barren
Helping people master the enrollment conversation and sign up new clients is one of the things I most enjoy doing. Today, I’d like to share with you 3 simple steps that can make a huge shift in the success of your one-on-one consultations.
But first, tell me if this has ever happened to you…
A potential client says “Yes” to your high-value services during your consultation, but changes their mind a few days later!
I know from experience, you go from the jubilation of getting a new client to huge disappointment.
Because that used to happen to me, I was so distraught that I set an intention to find a way to make sure this never happened anymore.
The key I discovered: Make sure to end a consultation by getting the new client started right away with your services, because this is the moment when the person is the most motivated to work with you. Once they’re engaged, they’ll keep going.
Here is my simple 3-step process for getting your client started right away, so they don’t have the temptation to bow out.
Step 1 – I schedule our appointments for the first month. Once our work together is in their calendar, it makes it more real for them.
Step 2 - I get their credit card payment information on the phone, right on the spot. Because if you wait until they send you a check or contract, it gives them lots of space to think about it and start to dither. This one can be challenging, so I’ll talk about it more in a moment.
Step 3 – I tell them I’m going to send them a welcome packet with the forms they’ll use in our coaching together, and they’ll also get a short agreement to sign and send back to me. I ask them to send everything in in the next day or two.
So, which of these 3 steps causes the biggest problem?
It’s Step 2 (getting the client’s credit card information) – this is where I see a lot of business owners go wrong.
I want to take a look at this because I don’t see a lot of people talk about it.
Many service-oriented business owners are not able to accept credit cards (or debit cards) because they’re not sure how. And I have to admit, it’s not super obvious. But if you don’t take this step, it may actually be something that’s significantly holding your business back.
For example, when I used to only take checks, it would delay my clients’ ability to make a commitment (and sometimes give them time to back out). I also kind of felt a little like my business wasn’t fully professional yet, in the eyes of my prospective clients. It also made receiving fees from clients a lot more work, for them and for me.
If you follow my 3-step process above, including making it easy for your clients to pay you, you’ll end your consultation with a professional, organized process for getting started, and clients will feel like they’re in good hands.
Auto Draft
September 1, 2011 by admin
Filed under Business Operations
Auto Draft
September 1, 2011 by admin
Filed under Business Operations
Auto Draft
August 10, 2011 by admin
Filed under Business Operations
Auto Draft
April 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Business Operations
Top 5 Ways Newsletters Make You $$$
March 8, 2011 by admin
Filed under Marketing & Promotion
There are two kinds of marketing strategies: active and passive. Active strategies are things like speaking (and selling) or picking up the phone to call a prospective client.
Newsletters and other keep-in-touch strategies fall into the “passive” category. However, they are far from passive in the powerful ways that they can help you increase your income.
Here are five ways that newsletters help make you money:
Front & Center
A newsletter keeps you in front of people. Not everyone is ready to hire you on the spot. Not everyone needs your services this minute. But when they are ready, when they have a pressing need for what you offer and your newsletter shows up in their inbox or mailbox, you’ll be the one to get the call, not someone who’s dropped off their radar.
The Trusted Expert
A newsletter promotes your expertise constantly and creates trust in myriad ways. Top-level content that speaks to your audience makes them trust that you know what they’re going through AND have the capacity and skills to help them with it. Without trust, people won’t buy from you. The more people trust you, they more they will buy from you.
Promotional Support
Your newsletter is your forum. It not only educates your readers with education-based content but also informs them of opportunities to work with you to further their own goals. While I recommend that all promotions be mentioned in both “stand-alone” emails AND in your newsletter, without a newsletter, you’re missing a primary promotional vehicle.
Power in the List
Your newsletter is the focal point of education-based marketing. The list of people you send it to are people who’ve “raised a hand” at one time or another to say that they are interested in what you have to offer. This list is one of the biggest assets you’ll have in your business. Need some extra cash this month? Have a sale on your products or services. One woman I know, responding to a challenge from the leader of a seminar she was attending, created and sold a group coaching program in one evening. Her take: $15,000. She had a list she’d nurtured through the years with her newsletter.
Opportunity Magnet
The opportunities that come to you as a result of your newsletter can be unexpected and often surprising. But if your newsletter is doing its job, promoting your expertise in a given area, people will begin to associate you with that topic or topics. You may be asked to speak for a gathering or to partner with someone on a project or something else. For example, in the last three months, at least 15 different people have asked me to speak to their audience about newsletters. The same can happen for you, and with these opportunities come dollars.
So instead of asking “How do I make money with a newsletter?” try putting out a regular, consistent, high-value newsletter and see what happens for yourself!
About the Author:
Linda Claire Puig is the Founder and President of Ready2GoArticles.com and Ready2GoEzines.com, which provides coaches and personal development professionals who don’t have time to write – or don’t like to – with high-quality done-for-you newsletters and articles that help them more easily connect with their audience and grow their businesses.
She also teaches service-based solo-business owners how to attract buckets of ideal prospects, nurture those relationships through high-value newsletters and strategically use these newsletters to get more clients, fill more programs and make more money.
An award-winning writer since 1983, Linda’s articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsletters throughout the world. She has produced newsletters for small businesses and professionals since 1990 and has trained thousands of individuals in “the way of the newsletter.” Linda is also an actor, she loves to travel, and all manner of dogs catch her eye.
Linda will be our guest on the March 10, 2011 Thurs @ 3 call. To learn more and register for the call, click here.
Linda Claire Puig is the Founder and President of Ready2GoArticles.com and Ready2GoEzines.com, which provides coaches and personal development professionals who don’t have time to write – or don’t like to – with high-quality done-for-you newsletters and articles that help them more easily connect with their audience and grow their businesses.
She also teaches service-based solo-business owners how to attract buckets of ideal prospects, nurture those relationships through high-value newsletters and strategically use these newsletters to get more clients, fill more programs and make more money.
An award-winning writer since 1983, Linda’s articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsletters throughout the world. She has produced newsletters for small businesses and professionals since 1990 and has trained thousands of individuals in “the way of the newsletter.” Linda is also an actor, she loves to travel, and all manner of dogs catch her eye.
