from Net Atlantic
If you've sent any email campaigns in the past few months, you've already noticed that your traditional metrics no longer seem to matter. Opens and clicks are down, while unsubscribes seem to rise. It's time to admit it: Open rates and clicks are becoming old hat. Engagement is a powerful metric but it means nothing if you can't reach your audience. Deliverability is the metric you need to optimize.
Open and click rates are very different for every industry, and even vary by company and brand. The rise in social media even has an impact on open rates. For all the same reasons your company is not exactly like its competitors, your open rates won't be either. What you really need to focus on are the trends in your own reports, and how they may reflect a more disturbing shift in your deliverability.
How do you know your deliverability is down? Without an email deliverability tool like ReturnPath or 250okay, it is difficult to tell. A large one-time drop in open rates, all other things being equal, can be a clue.
Also, outside forces keep changing the game, such as when ISPs like Hotmail change their delivery requirements. If you aren't up to date with current wisdom and best practices, you can be shut out of most inboxes.
There are many ways to improve email deliverability:
There is so much more to understand about deliverability, which is why ESPs focused on deliverability and various deliverability tools thrive. Your job is to keep your audience engaged, but you can't engage until you deliver.
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