By Dejan Bizinger
In this article we will give you several tips that can help youin improving your open and click-thru rates.
1) Open rate
In order to your email campaign be successful the firstnecessary thing is that people open and read your emailnewsletter. Online publishing is very similar to traditionalpublishing. When you buy a daily newspaper, you probably don’tread everything. You don’t have that much of free time and notevery subject is equally interesting for you. If you are asports fan you will read the sport section but you might skip anarticle about latest movies . In most cases you will decide whatyou are going to read upon subject titles.
Same thing with email newsletters. One of the two most importantfactors that influence whether or not your subscriber will openyour email newsletter will be your subject line. In order tohave good open rates and click-thru rates you have to know youraudience. Your message has to be well targeted.
There are several rules you have to follow in order to makeeffective subject lines.
Subject lines
Your subject lines should be short and snappy to get attentionof your subscribers. Many people receive dozens of emails everyday and some other people that have web sites and often makeposts on different places like web forums, discussion lists,publish articles, can get more than 100 emails per day. So yourmessage will have a very big competition in your subscriber’sinbox. That’s why your subject line has to grab attention ofyour subscriber. This doesn’t mean that you have to use usualspam techniques. On the contrary. Avoid using words FREE,GUARANTEED, Make Money Fast, Limited Offer and otherget-rich-quick schemes words. Not just because of yoursubscribers. If you use these words it is most likely that youremails will never even reach them. Their ISP will take care ofthat with their spam filters. Also don’t capitalize every letterand don’t put several times exclamation. You don’t need toshout, people will “hear” you if you know how to “tell” themyour message.
So your subject line has to be short and snappy, best thing isthat you include one title from your articles in your subjectline. It can be some breaking news or exlusive interview. Peoplelike to read breaking news or exclusive interviews that can’t befound anywhere else. Also, people often read how-to articles(for example - How To Choose The Right Email Marketing Software)or so called “number” articles (for example – 7 Tips ForE-publishers On A Shoestring Budget).
Good thing is that you put your newsletter name in brackets, atthe beginning of your subject line in order to be easilyrecognized from other emails in inbox.
Please bear in mind, that your subject line has to beconsistent. What do I mean by that? Of course that you willchange the title in your subject line but you have to find thebest subject form and stick to it. For example:
[NewslettterName] Your Subject Title, Issue #x, Date Don’tforget, in order to make effective ads and this apply to subjectlines, as well you have to remember 3 words – test, test, test!You have to experiment with different models and find out whichwork best for you. From field
Beside Subject line, From field is another info that yourrecipients will see in their inbox. People have to trust you inorder to decide to read your emails. You don’t open your doorsto every person who knocks, don’t you?
If you are well-known person, trusted expert in your industry,for example some reputable Internet consultant and you are theonly person that is involved in creation and publishing of thenewsletter put your name in From field. If several people areinvolved in that process and if it is a corporate newsletter,use your company name.
Most important thing with From fields is that you don’texperiment with it. Choose one From field and stick to that. Itis very un-professional that you often change your From fieldand beside that, in that case, your open rate will decline.
Useful tip is that you ask your subscribers to make a filterrule for your email newsletter, based on your email address,From field or some part of your Subject line. For example, theycan put [YourNewsletterName] in a filter rule for yournewsletter or your From field name so every time they get theemail newsletter that matches that rule it will be moved to aspecially designed folder, for example YourNewsletterName. Sothis way your newsletter won’t end in their Bulk folder. That isalso one of the reasons why you should be consistent with yourFrom field and subject line.
2) Click-Thru Rates
Clicks come once your email newsletter is opened. With good openrate you have finished only one part of the job. Now, yournewsletter has to be well designed with appropriate content andconcept, and most important, well targeted in order to have adecent click-thru ratio (CTR). You have to know your audience.You can increase your CTR if you put your most importantarticles and ads at the top of your email newsletters. Don’twrite too long articles. It is better to write articles whereyou will list several tips. Also, don’t overload your newsletterwith ads. People want to read useful things and not lots of ads.
Also, you know that a picture is worth more than 1000 words, soit is good that if you publish a HTML newsletter that youinclude photos that will be relevant to your articles and thatare clickable. Click-Thru rates get higher if you give somevalue-added services to your subscribers. You have to make agood relationship with them. Treat them well, write usefularticles, give exclusive discounts to your subscribers and theywill show their appreciation.
Different types of email newsletters have different click-thruratio. Click-Thru ratio is important, but it is not the mostimportant. Just because many people click on your follow-uparticle or offer doesn’t mean that they will actually buy yoursoftware or service. In some cases, lower CTR can get you moresales than some good CTR. Think about that next time you startyour email campaign.
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com