“71% of US online advertisers used email marketing in 2004. And another 12% plan to start using it.”
Source: Jupiter Research sponsored by Kanoodle, February 2005
“45% of US email users see email as “a great way for companies to stay in touch with customers.”
Source: Quris and Executive Summary Consulting, November 2004
But, most email marketers have seen a decline in open rates over the last year or so.
The open rate tells you how many people opened your email. It is most commonly calculated by taking the number of emails opened in a given email campaign as a percentage of the total number of emails delivered (“delivered” meaning not blocked).
According to DoubleClick’s Q4 2004 Email Trend Report, the average open rate (32.6%) has declined 11.4% from Q4 2003 (36.8%).
“So, if recipients like email so much, why are opens down?” You might ask. Well, part of the reason why opens may be a bit lower than before is due to the sheer volume of email in recipients’ inboxes. Another reason is due to the effect on open tracking of image blocking techniques used by ISPs and corporate domains to thwart spammers.
What do images have to do with opens? Email marketers, and email marketing services like Constant Contact, calculate the open rates of HTML emails by using an open tracking image or web beacon – a transparent, one-pixel GIF that, when displayed in the recipients email client, indicates the email has been opened.
The problem is that default anti-spam settings in AOL 9, Outlook 2003 and many other email programs automatically block images in an effort to protect recipients from potential viruses and unwanted or offensive visual images. This means images in emails are not visible and cannot be tracked unless the email is from a known sender (i.e. the sender’s email address is in the recipient’s inbox).
How do you solve a problem like image blocking? Here are the tips:
Become a Trusted Sender
This best practice has never been more important. Encourage the recipient to put your From Address in their address book, trusted sender list or approved sender list (whatever the name may be in their email client).
Ask at every possible touch point including at the time you collect the address (e.g. on your opt-in form), in the permission reminder at the top of your email, in the body of your email and on your new subscriber thank you/welcome page. (If you use an email marketing service all of these should be easy to edit and customize).
Make it easy for recipients to add your From Address to their trusted sender or contact list by keeping it short, easy-to-remember and easy-to- type.
Be consistent with your From line and, for better sender recognition, make sure you use a From Name and Address that includes your name, company, product or service name – whichever the recipient will know best. Your brand in the From line assures the recipient that the email is coming from a reliable and trusted source and builds familiarity and credibility – especially when repeated over time. (For 9 more important >From line tips, go to “Your From line: benefit or barrier?”).
As a trusted sender or known sender, your email is more likely to be delivered and remain exempt from anti-spam measures including filters, challenge- response systems or image blockers.
Pay attention to any challenge-response emails coming through to your reply inbox and answer them in a timely manner (most require a response within 24 hours).
A challenge-response message is an automated message triggered by the receipt of an email for the purpose of identifying the sender as a trusted source. The “challenge” is a message to the sender of the email with instructions on how to validate themselves. If the sender provides a valid “response,” his email address is added to the recipient’s list of trusted senders and his message is passed along to the recipient.
Only about 10% of recipients use these systems. As annoying as some people find challenge-response, the method has been adopted as a means of spam prevention and can be effective in getting your email delivered and getting your address effectively “whitelisted” by the recipient.
Test the day of week and time of day you send your emails. Tuesday through Thursday have been considered the best performing days for quite some time, however, new surveys indicate Monday may be the new favorite. As far as time of day goes, some studies now show that, because the volume of email sent is highest between 10am and 2pm, your emails may have a greater chance of being seen from 8am – 10am or 4pm – 6pm.
The bottom line? Keep tracking your open rates, but keep them in context. While open rates have become a somewhat less reliable indicator of email success – you shouldn’t abandon the open rate as a measure of overall responsiveness. Just be sure to look at the open rate in conjunction with other metrics – especially click-throughs.
In contrast to open rates, average click- through rates have held steady or even increased. (According to DoubleClick, click-throughs have remained in the 8% range). This indicates that, though we often cannot count opens due to image blocking, more recipients than you think are actually seeing your email and clicking on your links just like always. So, include some call-to-action links in text, then keep watching those click-throughs.
Finally, don’t forget about other important metrics including email replies, email forwards, new subscribes, unsubscribes, spam complaints and other direct customer feedback.
Michelle Keegan is the Email Marketing Diva for Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) and a recognized expert on best practices in e-commerce and email marketing for small and mid-sized businesses.
Michelle has over 12 years of experience in sales and marketing. Her articles, case studies and tips have appeared in numerous online and offline publications and websites including: Amazon.com, AOL, Boston Business Journal, FindWhat.com, Inc.com, Intuit, Marketingprofs.com, Staples.com and more.
