"We get a ton of email; everybody does now.

It gives us a kind of a pulse that you can feel.

We hear people saying, thank you for being fair, for being balanced."

Brit Hume - American Journalist

Increase response rates from your email campaign

Email marketing can be a bit scary for a newcomer. If you’re using an email subscriber list in conjunction with an email campaign or email newsletter in the hopes of driving more traffic to your own website, your first question should be “how do I know if this is working?” The best way to measure your email marketing success is through a careful examination of the click-through rate (CTR).

How to Calculate CTR/Open Rate?

A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on a particular link in an email by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions), meaning after email bounces. (What is a CTR - Google definition)

If an email link was delivered 100 times and one person clicked on it, the resulting CTR would be 1 percent. The higher the click through rate, the more people are trafficked through to your website, and the greater possibility you have of making a sale.

Some Pitfalls to Open Rate Numbers

This method gives a pretty detailed, but not 100% accurate picture of your open rate. There are some factors which may affect the accuracy of this rate. For example, recording an “open” happens when people actually open the email, but only if that person’s email software is capable of displaying HTML.

Because of this, if you send text-only emails, there is no way to record the open rate. If you are sending text only emails, the only way to record any data is to include a link for readers to click on and then measure that click through rate instead. Also, readers who view your message without allowing the HTML code to download will not be recorded either.

A similar problem arises with people who are running email software with a “preview pane.” This mode allows the email to be downloaded automatically even if the viewer didn’t open it or read it and therefore gives a false “open.” This person may not ever open the email and even if they do you won’t know it.

Because of these inherent inconsistencies, open rates should serve as guides only and not be treated as 100% accurate details of the effectiveness of your email campaign.

What is a good CTR/Open Rate?

There is no rate that is considered “normal” or “expected.” Several variables can affect CTR or open rates; such as the type of list, size of the list, appropriateness of the material, the time the email was sent, the offer included, effectiveness of the message, etc. 
In addition, each different industry will have their own typical open rates, as evidenced by the included chart.

While there is no “right” number for CTR or open rates, there are some trends to note:

• The larger the list, the lower the open rates. This is due in part to the fact that smaller organizations are more likely to have a closer personal relationship with their email list subscribers. Larger companies tend to lose this “personal touch.”
   
• Organizations such as sports boosters and fans, churches, or non-profits will have higher open rates. These groups tend to be more enthusiastic about their list membership and members probably opted in to the email more readily than they would for a private company or business.
   
• The more niche the product or service, the more likely the readers are to open the email and the higher the click throughs or open rates will be as a result. Emails sent on niche topics have higher value than those sent on broader topics.

Okay, but what is a good "Open Rate"?

As a general rule of thumb across all industries, an open rate of........