I just had a phone call with someone about their newsletter. While we were chatting I asked how their open rate is. It was okay, but it could be better. As we looked at the numbers I noticed that it’s the same time and day each week (which can be good!) But those open rate numbers could be better. Before you panic…
Anything over 20% is a good open rate
I know right? So maybe you’re already crushing it and can stop reading now. Or maybe you’re panicked that 20% isn’t near where you are. That’s okay, I’ve got your back! Here’s 4 ideas to increase your open rate:
- Try A/B Testing – send the same campaign out at 2 different times to half your list (MailChimp will help you with this, as should most other email campaign programs). Try 7 am and 7 pm (for example) to see when your audience wants to hear from you.
- If you’re B2B then try early morning (6 or 7 AM), lunch (11:45 am is a time I often try to send at) or end of business day (5 pm when people are done with meetings and checking their inbox before they head home).
- If you’re B2C then try evenings and weekends. I have a couple of clients where we send their newsletter on Sunday evening. Kids are in bed and you’re sitting on the couch watching TV and flipping through your phone with time to actually open and read that lovely newsletter you built.
- Re-send your campaign. Yes – 4-5 days after I send out my newsletter I will re-send it to everyone who didn’t open it the first time. This increases my open rate and clicks AND it helps me to see if maybe I need to tweak my send time. I do this for a lot of my clients too. This is a great way to help you figure out if there’s a better time to send your newsletter too.
Bottom line – if you’re sending at 2pm on Tuesday’s and getting a 12% open rate it’s time to change the date and/or time. If you’re sending Monday’s at noon and have a 30% open rate – gold star for you!
Questions? You know where to find me…
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