Why people open emails: what 1.7B emails reveal, w/ Mixpanel & AdRoll

+

THE EXPERTS

#adrollwebinar

AGENDA

Why Do People Open Emails? Mixpanel Reviews 85k campaigns

Do’s and Don’ts of Great Email Marketing

Live Q&A

WHY DO PEOPLEOPEN EMAILS?

A look at 85,637 subject lines,1.7b sends & 232m opens

MOST EMAILS AREN’T OPENED :(

85,637 campaigns232m opens / 1.7b sends

13.53% open rate

+

WHY?What gets a person to click/tap through to your email?

+

WE GET TOO MANY EMAILSHow do you get people to open

yours? +

TESTING 5 ASSUMPTIONS1. How long should a subject line be?

2. Does personalization matter?

3. How does word choice affect open rates?

4. Does creating urgency in the subject increase opens?

5. Does sales-y language decrease open rate?

+

1. SUBJECT LINE LENGTHWhy do people open emails?

(26 characters)

How will you help your company survive? (42 characters)

Hunter Walk grew YouTube by 40x. Here’s his advice to startups (65 characters)

+

OPEN RATE BY SUBJECT LENGTH

+

APPS LIKE GOOGLE’S INBOX TRUNCATE AFTER 27 CHARACTERS

+

PEOPLE READ EMAILS ON MOBILE

<30 characters have a 15.05% open rate (+1.52%)

>30 characters have a 12.92% open rate (-0.61%)

+

BE MINDFUL OF MOBILESubject lines can be hard to get that short, but at least make the first 30 characters compelling

• How will you help your comp…

• Hunter Walk grew YouTube by…

+

2. DOES PERSONALIZATION MATTER?1 in 14 subject line included a variable (7%)

33% decrease in open rates

+

PERSONALIZATION CAN BE COMPELLING

Putting “Justin” in my inbox ain’t gonna get me to open

34% open rate when using cart item as variable (+20%)

+

3. WORD SELECTIONDon’t shout (Includes ‘!’)10.92% open rates“!!!” dropped open rate to a dismal 7.59%

Be nice (Includes ‘thanks’, ‘thank you’, ‘please’, ‘sorry’)22.98% open rate

+

FORMAL VS. INFORMAL

+

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

Ask a question (Includes ‘?’)

• 27m opens /180m sends

• 15.21% open rate (+1.68%)

Tell them what they’ll get (Includes ‘How to’)

• 2.7m opens / 13.3m sends

• 20.66% open rate (+7.13%)+

4. DOES URGENCY MATTER?

Urgency is supposed to put pressure on a reader to open when they first see the email

Includes ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘tonight’, or ‘now’

• 11.9m opens / 94.5m sends

• 12.67% open rate (-0.86%)

+

5. DOES SALES-Y LANGUAGE HURTOPEN RATE?

Includes words like: ‘offer’, ‘code’, ‘coupon’, ‘sale’, ‘$’, ‘discount’

• 10.34% open rate

+

AVOID ‘FREE’?

Includes ‘free’

• 17.27% open rate

Your guess is as good as mine

It looks like “free” is working – so let’s all go ruin it again.

+

DON’T BUILD TOMORROW’S EMAILS WITH YESTERDAY’S BEST PRACTICES

☑ Don’t write best practices in stone, be empathetic and think about your reader as a person

☑ It’s a mobile world, get your subject lines under 30 characters

☑ Talk like a real person, be nice and be compelling

+

The Do’s and Don’ts of Great Email

Marketing

DON’T send an email from your company

#adrollwebinar

Email Don’t #1

Send Emails from a PersonEmail Do #1

● Female names have higher open rates than male

names

● Names with two syllables perform better than names

with just one syllable

Email Don’t #2

DON’T use a non-attention grabbing

subject line

Subject lines should be:

Short Action orientedUrgent

Email Do #2

#adrollwebinar

Email Don’t #3

DON’T use an unclear CTA

We see marketers make these two common CTA mistakes:

Including too many CTAs (e.g., “You can read more about it in our whitepaper here, or start a free trial”)

Using a vague CTA (e.g., “Check it out” instead of “Browse new arrivals”)

Email Don’t #3

Have a concise, direct and

definitive CTA

Email Do #3

#adrollwebinar

Email Don’t #4

DON’T leave your subscription box at the footer

Your subscription box should be close to the navigation bar or sidebar.

Ensure a proper CTA with the subscription box

Email Do #4

#adrollwebinar

Email Don’t #5

DON’T guess your customer’s decision

making process

Answer the following questions before creating emails:

How long do customers take to make their buying decisions? How many times do they return to your website before finally checking out? How long do customers leave things in their cart?

Email Do #5

#adrollwebinar

Email Don’t #6

DON’T just capture emails at checkout

Gather emails early in the purchase funnel:

Email Do #6

Add an opt-in form on a Facebook page.

Create a retargeting ad campaign with a sign-up CTA.

Embed a newsletter sign-up form at the end of blog posts.

Design an email newsletter landing page that can be linked to in emails and on social media.

#adrollwebinar

AdRoll’s newest product

Q&A [email protected]

[email protected]#adrollwebinar