You sent an email to your entire list to generate sales for an end-of-the-month push.... You're desperate and you know that you can wing this. Later you check your reports and see that your open rate were abysmal. It even boarder lined embarrassing. What a bummer! Not only did you fail to generate sales, but a large chunk of your chunk of contacts unsubscribed from your list... Major disappointment right there.
Some people get discouraged when this happens too often... specially when they're just starting out. (ehem, that's a testimonial from experience).
Now, there are a few reasons why this may have happened... You know, there's a lot of other factors, but generally speaking there are four biggies. We'll also look at some solutions to maximize your effort.
1. It’s JHUNK! (Thanks Ryan)
You send junk (been there... this is usually rooted in the drive to make money fast, or the lack of creativity... both are curses you can get out of.)
Here's a few evaluation questions... let me ask you.
Would you send the stuff you send to your list to your friends and family? Confused with that question? Me too.
Let’s get to the bottom line. Are you proud of the stuff you send out to your list? Have you put some real effort into its content?
If your friends read it, would they give you some bragging rights?
If not, think about a different way to touch base with your contacts and provide something that’s relevant to them and their needs.
Not sure if you send junk?
If your email message is useful and full of healthy meat, then people want to save and archive it. Is your message is interesting, funny relevant and good food for forwarding to their contacts. The you can bet that they’ll forward the love. (Sorry about the frequent parallelism to food. Dinner is just being served and I’m famished.
Here’s the MEAT! If your message is neither interesting or useful ... it's junk.
2. I’m sure you’ve heard of DSL right – it has to do with the internet connection to your house or office. Right? Have you ever heard of BSL? What’s that you ask to yourself? It’s a kewl way of saying – BORING SUBJECT LINE!
I’m sure that you’re tire of receiving emails with a BSL syndrome… I confess, I sent them out too. So if you’re tired, don’t chatink that your subscribers are too. The people that listen to us get it! That’s why they won’t bother to open their email with a BSL. (You heard it first here!)
People are tired of receiving the same emails with the same boring subject lines or rehashed from some Guru. They get it. Really, that's why they don't bother reading them.
Be imaginative and creative! People love to think… or at least appear that they are thinking so 1+1 = Make People think with your subject line.
I learned this the hard way! Like end of the month sale hard way! The biggest letter from that sale is a big fat “S,” which “S” for SEERO! See - creative and imaginative or the other way around.
3. Sentimentally attached to your past! Like emailing the same addresses from 1990th century.
(It’s what black hat email marketers do… I have 100,000 in my list, where 80% of them are from1998.)
Lemme ask you again? This requires some deep thinking…. Here’s goes!
Do you use the same email address for everything? Probably not! Chances are, you have a primary address for friends and family and a secondary address for commercial offers. You may also have 50 other emails for different spam filtering, trial sign ups and plus the others that you may have already forgotten!
Guess what! Your contacts are the same way, and are probably using their secondary address with you. Don’t we all?
Here’s another guess what!
Email permission tends to expire in about 10 months!
So the more opportunities to confirm and re-confirm their interest (beyond an opt-out link), the better. To fix this, consider using an alternative follow-up campaign (phone, direct mail, TV ads – yeah right!, but texting, tweeting and yes, direct mail) to have people update their contact information and re-opt-in to your marketing.
Hard Truth… and I have trouble with this too!
Disciplined email marketing pays off when you have a truly engaged, interested and hungry list - and you can really cater to the people who matter.
4. You send just like the rest of 'em
We all get our nighttime to morning email flood. I admit, sometimes I just use my Delete key more liberally during those hours and my reply button during the daytime. To fix this, try mixing up and allowing people to choose if they want your message in the morning, in the evening or mid-day.
Keyword(s) here: TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST and TEST. I know, it’s a drag that’s why the bolded statement above applies.
5. You emailed to your entire list
Not every subscriber is interested in everything you have to offer. Slice, dice, shred, blend, mix and juice your email list into relevant, targeted groups.
Send to those groups of users where the message is attractive, engaging and relevant.
Not everyone's open rates will always improve. It's fact. However, the more you pay close attention to the result of your emails and more importantly your recipients' expectations and satisfaction - the more your email open rates will rise with your fine-tuning.
To learn more about email marketing best practices, download a free report about Email Marketing 2.0.
Enjoy!
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