Most people would agree that their email marketing campaigns are important, if not instrumental, in cultivating a strong relationship with their guests. And yet it's surprising how neglected most email programs are or how little people know about the response they are getting.
There are a number of measurements that are important to understand, including open, click, bounce and spam rates. There are other issues often struggled with, such as how often should I send to my list, what is the best day to send and what type of email will receive a high read rate?
Industry Standards -- Do you measure up?
According to MailChimp.com, our industry averages a 25% open rate and a 5% click rate, along with a 6% bounce rate for emails. If your email marketing doesn't measure up to these numbers, here are a few improvements you might make.
Tip for Better Email Marketing
Pointed subjects and brief messages. Analyze your subject lines and make sure they are brief, descriptive and to the point. Use your company name as it lends credit to you as a sender. Make sure your from name is your company name and your from address is a valid email address. For instance, if your company name is "Big Mountain Rentals" your from name should be Big Mountain Rentals and your from address should be something like [email protected].
If your email has more than one message, make sure your most important message (and the one that ties into your subject line) is at the top or in a position that will be easily read above the fold.
Make links easy to find and click on. Ensure you have plenty of ways for readers to click hyperlinks for more information. For key links, such as to book online, make them bold and blue, since these are industry-standard for hyperlinks and receive higher click rates. If you have multiple web pages you are promoting, use keyword linking instead of text that says "click here".
Remove hard bounces and unsubscribes. Removing unsubscribes for your list should go without saying, and most email marketing systems do this automatically. However, you'd be surprised how many fail to do this, which leads to high spam rates (most email systems allow a spam rate of 0.1% - 0.3%). Hard bounces should be removed from your list, as these are email addresses that no longer exist. Keeping your list clear of unsubscribes and bounces will ensure better delivery and better open and click rates.
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