Ask Aunt May: What’s Up With My Open Rates?

Dear Aunt May,

Signed,
Split Personality


Dear Split,

Christmas is just around the corner, and your old Aunt May has a sterling baking reputation to uphold  but that’s no surprise. Still, there’s only so many times I can stand to make the same old amazing shortbread, so I’m always on the lookout for new recipes.

Now there’s no way I’m going to risk my reputation as a master baker on some two-bit recipe I cut out of Woman’s World, so I make a few small test batches of the recipes that sound like they might be up to your Aunt’s standards. I make the rounds with my samples and see which ones make my neighbours swoon, and that’s the recipe I make for the season.

Sounds simple, right? So what’s stopping you from doing exactly the same thing with your emails? Instead of a dozen cookies, whip up each of your different email recipes and send it out to 5% of your distribution list. Keep track of which email recipe gives you the best result and make it the one to send out to the rest of your list - it sure ain’t rocket science!

That being said, there’s lots of things that can affect how your audience responds to what you’re offering: the colours in your template (or icing), the wording of your subject line, even the day of week and time of day can change your results. I’m certainly not going to get any positive baking reviews if I show up on your doorstep on a weeknight at midnight with cookies in hand, am I?

So quit being lazy and just wondering why sometimes you get good results and sometimes you don’t! Your Aunt didn’t get to be a menace with a rolling pin by resting on her laurels - I worked through trial and error to get the results I wanted from my oven, and you can do the same with your distributions.

Experiment with different times of day, different days, and even breaking up your full mailout into different days - change it up to see what works best for you. Just don’t expect your Aunt to show up with a steaming tray of cookies once you figure it out!