How to Make Emails Work for You

Less than twenty years, the email has gone from obscurity to be a foundation tool in everyone's communication kit. Now, that is on a par with the mobile phone!

And just like mobile phones, the email has evolved.

Despite all the filters, controls and the increasing demands upon our time, emails consistently perform by delivering messages when and how you want them.

Epsilon Research produces trends and benchmarking for emails. The latest shows three metrics - delivery, open and click through.

The research showed the delivery remained fairly constant at around 93%. While, the open and click through rates decline slightly. Knowing the baseline for performance means you can measure what you are doing and make sure you are well above.

Delivery

You may consider that all the emails would be delivered as all the email address you have comes from a personal opt in. But, there are times when the network is busy, mailboxes are full and even your email may be classed as spam by the destination server.

So, if you consistently have delivery rates higher than 93%, then you are doing something right! But continue to monitor those emails that don't get through and consider changing the timing and the day of the week for sending.

Open Rates

The trend information has the open rate declining from 24% to 20% over the past two years. This is the equivalent of an additional 4 for every 100 emails not being opened.

Open rates do depend upon two elements - the relationship you have with your people and how you communicate with them. This is as much the headline as the contents of the email.

Please don't be discouraged by the low open rates. If you nurture the people on your list, remove those who are no longer interested in what you have to say, then the open rate will increase.

You can also make sure the email subject is interesting. When you monitor the open rate, you can see fluctuations. Over time, trends of the better performing headlines will emerge.

Click Through Rate

This does depend upon whether you set up to track the links in your email. By learning what is of interest and the extent of the interest, you can shape future emails to match the trends.

The research showed the click through rate having a small decline from 7% to 6%. So for every 100 emails, 6 respond by clicking the links. But, this does depend upon what you say in the email. If it delivers information, then the reader may be more inclined to click for further details. If the email is used to sell, then the response may well be lower. This may also impact upon the open rates - so monitor the impact of each style of email you send.

So, please take these figures are your baseline and monitor performance. You should always be above the baseline.

Things You Can Do

1. Set up your monitoring system even if you only send out your newsletter regularly

2. Plan the frequency of your emails Change an element and monitor the impact

3. Improve the performance with each email campaign so the baseline becomes irrelevant

4. Monitor the changes in your lead conversions and referrals