Tips for Increasing CTR on eNewsletters

[dvduval]

I just recently sent out my first email in at least 1-2 years to all my users, and I have to say I am happy with the results so far. I have never liked to spam people, so I try not to email them too often, but at the same time I want to make sure I am effective when I do send a newsletter.

Any tips for making sure people actually take the time to read the newsletter, and actually click on some links contained in the newsletter?

[ezine ads]

Never ever do this again. I mean to wait 1-2 years before to contact the people from your list. Why do you think they will remember you? It's very easy to hit the button "This is spam" ...

If you signup now for a newsletter called "Bla Bla Newsletter" and that newsletter will come over 2 years will you remember that you signed up for that newsletter? No way ...

Or maybe I misunderstood you ...

[Dave Alexander]

Well, use relevant subject lines and give consistent content and mix in a sale or two in between. I find that honesty works better than hype.

[Keith Kogane]

Condition them to open the emails and click the links. You do this by using the subject line to pique curiosity, use persuasion to carry through to the click. Make sure whatever is on the other side of the click is rewarding enough to have justified their extremely tiny action. Do that on a regular basis (at least once a month, once a week is better) and you will have a list that will make you money for years and years. People may come and go, but if you go for conditioning and consistancy, the ones that stay will be the ones that pay.

Hope that helps!

[James Schramko]

Give then outstanding content - they will look forward to hearing from you.

[InternetMarketingCenter]

We find that regular timing (so they can anticipate and recognize your emails when they arrive), terrific, current content (so it's worth their while to open it *right now*!) and subject lines that are compelling and intriguing are some of the most simple ways to make your newsletter a must-read.

Also, you'll want to balance your promotional content with your value content -- if you're sending out pure pitches, people will likely get tired of reading. Save the salesletter for your page!

[Jack Duncan]

dvdduval,

Make sure you are Split Testing.

Split testing really only takes a little bit to initially setup and makes a HUGE difference.

Here's how to do it quickly:

Step 1: Divide your list up into a few small groups and 1 main group. Let's say you have 1000 people on your mailing list. You can make 4 groups of 50 and 1 group of 800.

Step 2: Move each group to their own list.

Step 3: Make X number of subject lines and X number of emails. (X would be the number of groups you created in step 1)

Step 4: Mail each group a unique subject line version and a unique email body version at the same time.

Step 5: Track the open rate and CTR for each group. (If you have the ability, it's also good to track the conversion rate of each email.)

Example Results:

Group 1: OR 12%, CTR 3% (50 emails sent, 6 emails opened, 2 links clicked)

Group 2: OR 23%, CTR 9% (50 emails sent, 11 emails opened, 4 links clicked)

Group 3: OR 31%, CTR 2% (50 emails sent, 15 emails opened, 1 link clicked)

Group 4: OR 5%, CTR 0% (50 emails sent, 2 emails opened, 0 links clicked)

Now, you need to check for "Statistical Significance"...don't worry, it's super easy.

Go here: http://www[.]splittestaccelerator[.]com/freetool[.]php

Ok, performing this test on Open Rate, we have a clear winner in #3 (The highest Statistical Significance was 100% and the lowest was 82%)

So, we are going to go with Subject Line #3

Now, let's check for email body...which was the best?

When we run the same check for statistical significance, we use Opens & Clicks for our values... So...after doing that we know that #3 and #4 are NOT the best...but #1 and #2 are too close to be statistically sure.

What now?

Well, this is when it is good to check and see if you had any sales from those two emails. One easy way to do this is to just look at the receipts and see if the emails match any of the emails on these two lists...

If that doesn't help you "draw" out a winner, then just stick with the one that had the higher CTR in the test...it's still a gamble to some degree, but you may just get lucky and be seeing something already in the numbers.

So, in our example, that would have us run with Email Body #2.


Step 6: Now, send the Main Group (800 contacts) an email that uses Subject Line #3 and Email Body #2.

Whoila!

You'll now have a higher Open Rate and a Higher CTR for the majority of your list...

While this may sound difficult and "tedious"...I can assure you that if you just try it 1 time, and see how powerful it is, you will never send out a "blind-fingers-crossed" email again!

Cheers,
Jack

[dalepubs]

The key to getting people to open your emails is content - interesting, thought provoking, educational content. I subscribe to 2 newsletters that I always open and read. One is by Jonathan Street and the other by Martin Avis. Both give excellent content and only occasionally market a product.

[Chris Kent]

Take a look at other newsletters and when you find yourself opening emails and clicking links, ask yourself what compelled you to do so? Now copy that technique!

[dvduval]

These are all fantastic answers, and I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I definitely will not ever wait a year to send the emails. Just sending the one email has already helped sales tremendously, and I just want to make sure that I have thought about this some so that I make good decisions about the way I manage this. Again, thanks so much for your answers.

One thing I will add that I did that worked very nicely...
We sent 3 emails every 20 seconds and it took approximately 5 days to send all of them. This worked great because it made it much easier to help people, because they didn't all hit the site at once.