A Little Less Open Rate and a lot More Consumer Experience, Please!

Author:

Colin Bhowmik

Source:

After a decade of specializing in email marketing optimization, email marketers are still asking "How can I increase my open rates?"
 
Open Rate equals Number of Emails Opened (Unique) divided by Number of Emails Delivered, thus the answer is simple right? Just remove all inactive email addresses from your next deployment and I guarantee that your open rate will go up by over 25-50%! I'm assuming that's not where the marketer was going with their question. I wish for once that email marketers would ask me how they can provide an exceptional online experience to better engage their consumers through the email channel to meet their business objectives.
 
For years, Email Service Providers (ESP) told clients that the two key factors in a consumers decision to open an email were 1) the "from" address and 2) the subject line. These basic factors still hold true for a single email deployment but to look at your email communications longitudinally, the overall consumer experience has much more impact to the long-term engagement of a consumer with your email program.
 
Analysis
From a consumer experience perspective, I will use a magazine publication as an example. When I walk into a book or convenience store, there are hundreds of publications on the magazine wall. I have an affinity towards hybrid/electric automobiles and on the cover of Car and Driver there is feature on the Tesla electric powered Roadster which draws my attention. I open the magazine to the table of contents.
 
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