I get it. B2B marketers spend goo-gobs on making sure each email they send has a certain level of design best practices, attention-grabbing copy, user-friendly CTAs, and a subject line that will, hopefully, knock the socks off of each member of that painstakingly cultivated or costly rented list. It’s hard out there for you. The struggle is real.
But after all that, your open rates may be leaving you to feel more like this:
Than like this:
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Use optimization tools to your advantage: Using subjectline.com, Litmus, and the tools within your marketing automation system will go a long way. Make sure your subject lines are user friendly, concise, and effective before dismissing dismal open rates as sabatoge.
- Know the truth about tracking opens: Open rate can be a misleading metric because of two key reasons: different mail clients track open rates differently and reading an email in preview without downloading images does not count as an open.
- Engaging content will shine in click-through rates. Tracking clicks instead of opens will give you far more insight into whether or not your content is effective. Keep plugging away at interesting, user-friendly content and the opens and clicks will show themselves.
- Open rates can be a useful metric in comparison. Comparing the rise and fall of your open rates against a standard average can give you insight into whether or not a topic was engaging and a subject line’s effectiveness.
Open rate matters. It does. But it’s certainly not the most reliable or important metric in the range of measurable KPIs for email marketing. This week, we’re going to dive into some email best practices specific to HCM.
Have questions about email marketing? Email lizzie@thestarrconspiracy.com and we’ll answer your questions on the blog this week.
