"One of the little secrets in email marketing is that it's not the same people opening your emails each time," says Mark Brownlow in a post at Email Marketing Reports. "Even if your open rate stays relatively constant, a closer look reveals that it's (usually) different people opening each time." This happens for various reasons, he explains.
But whether one or more subscribers didn't like a subject line or missed a message during a busy day, a quick roundup of previous content might pique their interest a second time around. Brownlow thinks offering seconds is worth a try, and presents a case in point:
He recently added an unobtrusive "Did you miss?" notation to the bottom of his e-newsletter. The brief paragraph—with links to past topics—read like this: "The holiday special highlighted a new article on best practices for animated gifs ..."
While the new feature yielded a slim click-to-open rate of just over three percent, Brownlow says, "[T]hat's a bunch of clicks that might never have happened otherwise."
Even if some subscribers had read the previous message, it's a good bet that few of them minded this recap. And those who didn't see the email the first time around had a second shot at something that could be of real value to them.
The Po!nt: Don't be afraid of a rehash! Consider highlighting archived issues; after all, not everybody reads every email every day.
Source: Email Marketing Reports. Read the full post here.
by Christina "CK" Kerley
