6 Rules for Ensuring High Open & Click-Through Rates with Your Email Marketing

By Stephen Palmer - Mar 08 , 2011

I’ve been in the trenches of email marketing for more than four years. I’ve sent hundreds of emails to more than a dozen databases.

I’m obsessive about analytic data. I explore the tiniest details to maximize my open, click, and conversion rates.

According to this 2008 report, the average open rate in the industry is 13.2 percent, and the average click rate is 2.73 percent.

The databases I manage average an 85 percent total open rate and a 20 percent click rate.

So how do I do it? By religiously following the rules below:

1. Set Clear Expectations Up Front

On your webforms, make sure people know what they’re signing up for. Tell them how often they’ll receive emails from you and the type of content they can expect.

2. ALWAYS Use Double (or Confirmed) Opt-In

A common debate among online marketers is whether your email marketing database should be single or double opt-in.

With single opt-in, website visitors simply enter their name, email address, and any other data in a web form and they automatically receive their free gifts and are subscribed to your mailing list.

Double opt-in adds another step—people who enter their information on your site receive a confirmation email with a link. They must click that link in their email to confirm their subscription.

Our stance is firm: We use double opt-in in every possible scenario.

There are extremely rare circumstances where we would recommend single opt-in for technical reasons, but they are so rare that they’re not even worth mentioning.

Confirmed opt-in ensures that you can never spam—and no one can ever accuse you of that. It increases your open rates and decreases the likelihood of your emails being caught by spam.

Proponents of the single opt-in method argue that many people don’t actually see the confirmation emails and therefore subscription rates are lower. We see this is a positive—it creates a higher-quality list of people who really want what you have.

Think of it this way: Would you rather have a database of 100,000 people with a 2 percent open rate, or a database of 5,000 people with a 50 percent open rate?

When it comes to email marketing, more names isn’t necessarily better—more people who legitimately want what you have and who stay actively engaged is better.

3. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

Furthermore, assure people on your webforms that it’s easy to unsubscribe.

Don’t hide this in an effort to prevent people from unsubscribing. That will cause you nothing but trouble.

On many of our databases — including our own — we actually invite people to unsubscribe right at the top of the email.

Why? Two reasons: 1) it prevents people from marking your emails as spam and raising red flags with servers, and 2) it simply makes people feel comfortable with your correspondence.

They’re constantly reminded that they’ve given you permission to send them emails, and they know they can disengage at any point.

4. Deliver High-Quality, Relevant Content

This is your best assurance for high open and click rates.

Reserve your best content for your emails to your database. Don’t waste your database capital on skimpy, generic content that they can get anywhere else.

Spark new insights. Challenge assumptions. Reveal your secrets. Offer in-depth research and analysis. Make them feel like they simply can’t do without your emails.

Specific offers exclusive to your database can also be a good strategy.

5. Find the Right Contact Frequency

No matter how good your content is, if you hit your database too frequently, they may tune out, either because they feel overwhelmed and can’t digest it all, or because they feel they’ve learned everything they can learn from you.

For most of our databases, we find that bi-monthly contact is about right, which includes a monthly newsletter that they expect on the first of every month.

However, if your content is off the charts and you’ve built an extremely engaged following, once a week may be appropriate. Roy H. William’s Monday Morning Memo is a perfect example of this.

6. Guard Your Database Vigilantly

Put simply — if a bit crassly — don’t be a database pimp.

A lot of people get excited about having a large database, and they start opening it up to other people and random offers so they can make more money.

Joint ventures — where you offer other people’s products to your database, or vice versa — can work well and be appropriate, but they can also diminish your brand and erode your social capital.

Be extremely careful about to whom and for what you open your database.

Your database is a golden goose — don’t kill the goose for short-term profits.

Cultivate it as your most valuable asset and you’ll always keep your community engaged, and your open, click-through, and conversion rates will dwarf the statistics.

Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and writer with KGaps Consulting. His firm uses their methodology Hub Mentality to help small businesses generate more leads, sales, and referrals while making their marketing budget more efficient.

Stephen is the co-author of as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interactions as well as the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.