They ignore you!
10 reasons why your recipients ignore your emails
You have high expectation regarding email marketing campaigns? You are right! Email continues to outperform other digital channels in terms of marketing impact and return on investment. An impressive number of books and studies report credible data on this subject. It is therefore normal that you spend a lot of time doing email marketing campaigns!
Are your expectations realistic?
It’s important to look at your campaign results after sending a newsletter to keep doing what you’re doing right and change things that need improvement. When looking at a newsletter performance, your eyes direct towards the opening rate and your right. This rate corresponds to recipients who have a real and eminent interest for the information you send. They believe that they have benefits from reading your newsletters. They see the advantage in your teaser or you have demonstrated the added value in their past experiences.
You can therefore conclude performance results for a specific newsletter but be careful not to put everything in the same basket. Just because one recipient did not open a newsletter doesn’t mean that they have not opened others.
In the following lines, we expose 10 potential reasons that might explain why your recipients did not open a specific newsletter. We are not trying to identify zombies emails and dead bodies , which should be analyzed over a period of time of time.
The goal is to give you analysis tools to improve your campaign performance by newsletter and consequently, your opening rate. Keep in mind that even if a recipient don’t open your newsletter, they may have seen your email. Like any good advertisement, the more you see, the better!
1. The sender' name
When you open your inbox, you look at who sent you emails. You systematically do this quick analysis and open emails in order of importance of senders. Have you ever junked an email from which you did not know the sender? Certainly! Now, have you even opened an email that you didn’t know the sender name to tell yourself, oh yes … this is the email I was waiting for? Probably!
Not identifying yourself properly is the first mistake of an email campaign, especially if you start in this area. Taking the time to properly set up your account is crucial for a successful marketing campaign.
Be clear and concise about your business or organization. Avoid putting the (Inc.) or reduce the number of characters (The Association of Paramedic of Montreal vs Paramedics Montreal). Your recipients will quickly identify you and your email might be the first ones they opened and you will not be ignored!
2. The subject line
Your recipients have identified you in their inbox, but what do you want? Why should they open your email and not the other 50 they received? Unconsciously, they have only one question: what will be my benefit to open this message …
Your email subject line is crucial, but unfortunately… it don’t always receive the attention it deserves. You spend a lot of time writing your emails and visually formatting your newsletters. Do the same thing with the subject line!
There are some basic rules to master the perfect email line but remember that each recipient interacts differently with their email. It’s therefore interesting to perform A / B tests of your email subject line in order to focus on the one that has obtained better results.
3. Layout
Image too big, text too small, background too dark or distorted alignment… so many variables that can discourage your recipients to open your future emails. If you always receive messages from the same recipient that are quaver, it’s likely that you will not open them anymore.
Your newsletters should be optimized for all platforms to ensure that if your recipient opens your message in Outlook or Gmail, it will have the same visual result. Make sure you use a typography that is not too big, and that your text is well aligned. You also want to make sure that the text color is legible on the background you choose. Use short headers and dispose them in the right area of your newsletter. Finally, do tests, tests, tests and more tests before your final sending.
In addition, optimize your newsletters for mobile devices. Consider that in 2019, almost 50% of emails are open on a smartphone, especially if your newsletters are aimed at the general public. In short, the visual rendering in mobile must be as striking, if not more than the desktop version.
4. Newsletter too long
Please do not put everything in your email. You’re not sending a book! Your newsletters should breathe, summarize information, and engage future readers. Titrate your topics and redirect your subscribers to your website, where all information about your topic will be available. You will then be able to track your recipients on your website and deepen your post-sending’s analysis.
Keep in mind that putting everything in an email is the equivalent of receiving an endless phone call. When this person calls you back, you will say, “Oh no, not yet him …”.
5. Perfect sending timing
Most of your recipients check their emails every day at any time with mobile. So you can send your campaigns anytime! However, the sending time can affect your opening rate depending on your area of activity.
If you talk to companies (B2B), know that 50% of professional executives open their emails in their bed, according to a recent study by McKinsey Global Institue. Therefore, you should consider sending your newsletter at 3 am using a scheduler to maximize your opening rate. On the other hand, if you send your campaign during the day, your newsletter risk to get behind professional emails.
If you target general public, know that 42% of people check their emails in the bathroom. Knowing that, you must plan your sending’s according to the essential needs of all your recipients … good luck! Seriously, send your chicken wings discount at 4pm, or your special offer on clothes at the beginning of the evening. You will get a better results!
6. Sending frequency
You send newsletters to frequently to your recipients? They may disengage quickly! According to a recent consumer survey conducted by Adobe in 2018, 45% of participants said that receiving a newsletter too frequently was “the most annoying thing when we give our consent to receive commercial emails”. It is therefore imperative not to harass your recipients.
Do you send emails every 2 months? Your recipients may lose interest in your communications. You don’t have the time to write and design newsletters more frequently? Cut your content between two editions and communicate with your recipients on a monthly basis! They won’t forget you, since you will have a better communication rate.
7. Customization
Your newsletters talk about dresses to men and ties to women? Outch… you highly risk to be ignored the next time they receive newsletter from you! Your recipients have high expectations for customized content and you need to adapt to their needs. The reason: recipients provide information or solicitation preferences during their subcription.
Adding the recipient name into the newsletter header is the minimal requirement in 2019! You must master the art of customizing recipient lists and send content tailored to the interests of your customers.
8. Imminent needs
Your recipients are not all in the same buying mode at the same time! If you are sending a newsletter titled “Snowblower discounts” in the middle of July, your opening rate will be low. Although … may have a laugh and therefore, attract their attention to you content.
Your electronic retailer sends you newsletters on TVs, laptops, printers on a bi-weekly basis? Maybe you will not open any of them, since you don’t have any imminent needs for these products. Thus, you may have the retailer’s name I mind the day that your cellphone stops working. In short, keep in mind that it is not because your recipients do not open your newsletters that they did not see your brand name.
9. The hygiene of your lists
The hygiene of your lists is very important. Not only does it allow you to improve the quality of your communications, it also ensures that your opening rates correspond to active recipients. Zombie email addresses? Out the dead! If you address recipients who have dropped their inbox, they simply ignore you because they no longer view their emails. Considering a re-engagement campaign can help you improve your opening rates..
10. Spam filtering
Here, it’s not the recipients who ignore your newsletters, but the anti-spam filters that do not deliver it. Optimize your deliverability is an excellent strategy to pass the filters. In short, when your opening rate drops drastically, you have potentially been filtered out and you must imperatively put your finger on the problem to avoid your past mistakes.
Francis Sauvé
Marketing direcrtor
Want professional advice?
Email-based communications strategies are no secret to this email software specialist. When ever you have questions about emailing strategies or how to get to a certain design goal, he his there to handle the situation.
Get more details on why your email marketing campaign might be igored by contacting him right now! He will be able to offer you innovative and creative solutions for your email marketing campaign.
C : fsauve@adnetis.com
T : 1-877-638-6584