Is your email getting to your list members If so, how many of them are opening your message If the email isnt getting through, how many of your messages are undeliverable because of a bad email address And how do you find out what these numbers are
In order to test the effectiveness of an email campaign, you need to use html email. Although I have fought against it for several years, I consented to use it this one time in order to do the necessary tracking.
First, you need to prepare the email. I use the OnlineSuccessCart.com system, so I created the html email in my web creation program and pasted it into the broadcast window. Then I pressed the send button.
I sent a similiar announcement to each of my major lists. And the numbers started pouring in...
Emails sent: this is the total active on the list
Undeliverable: these email addresses bounced or had not completed the newly implemented AOL double opt-in process
Now I had a percentage of the total emails that were undeliverable. My numbers range in the 4-8% range, but I know a lot of Internet marketers who are fighting 25-30% of their lists who are undelivered. Undeliverables is the first figure you want to check.
Next the numbers started returning on the number of people who opened the email. You see, when you open an html email, the sender is able to track it. Thats one of the reasons some people (me!) have fought against html email. Plus, it puts a drain on the system resources all along the line as the email is sent, then the opened message counts are returned.
As I tracked the open rate over the next 24 hours it was interesting.
Within 6 hours, 11% had opened the email.
Within 12 hours, 12% had opened the email.
Within 24 hours, 14% had opened the email.
As a final tracking mechanism, I provided a tracking link within the body of the email. If someone wanted to pick up the gift I offered, they clicked on the link.
Within 6 hours, 32% of the people who had opened the email had clicked on the link.
Within 12 hours, it was up to 36% and thats where its stayed.
So what can you learn from this lesson
1. Not everyone on your list is getting your email. A growing number of them are not, as youve been reading in the Internet marketing literature.
2. Not everyone who receives your email opens it. Well, at least they dont open mine right away (grinning). Instead, some wait a day or two - or maybe a week or two. Or they just file it. Or (shudder!) delete it. And remember, when you send out html instead of plain text there are some people who simply cannot open it.
3. Not everyone who opens your email takes action - even if the action involves a complimentary copy of a $20 book.
4. You dont know anything for certain until you track it.
5. You must continue to track results over a period of time in order to see trends and whats working
So stop fooling yourself and get the facts. Youll be amazed, but youll be informed. And youll understand your online success rate much better.
For details on how I tracked these results, send an email to
Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with experts who are ready to turn their knowledge and their websites into Gold. Her reputation as a speaker and trainer has earned her the title of The Technology Tamer. Jeanette shares her news and views in
I got my first email account way too many years ago.
I was working for a large Chicago bank in the 1980s, when they introduced an electronic message service for internal communications. The only electronic mail that seemed to flow for the longest time were all those official HR notification of vacation time policies, etc., and of course, the ALL CAPS messages from the executive floor.
It took a brave soul to send out the firstso, where should we go for lunch on Friday message.
It took a polite soul to create the first autoresponder message. It was nice of them to let people know that the reason their inquiry would not be answered immediately, and personally was because he (or she) was out of the office until XYZ date.
Im still trying to figure out where the the personal and polite parts of autoresponse messages went. Sometime between then and now, the person who wrote that message left the building, but forgot to turn the machines off.Today,too manyautoresponse messages are anything but personal, polite or informative.
If youve ever been temptedto believethatmessage sound bites strung together by bits of if, then, else coding logic might actually prove to be an asset to your business, you owe it to your business to look at how some of these have played out in the real world.
Heres a brief list of some of my favorite offenders, along with a suggestion or two about what you can do if you find anything like them on your list of messages.
Well return your message within 24 hours, or 12 hours Forgive me if I dont set my watch by that. Despite improvements in so many other areas, surveys still show that only 65% of companies EVER respond to their email, never mind responding within the time theyve allowed themselves And just how credible are you when 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours of silence have passed
We usually respond within two business days . I think this variation is worse. If 48 hours pass and I havent gotten a response, Im not only going to think you cant deliver what you promised in any area of your business, but I might feel personally slighted. After all, if you usually can, why did you choose not to help me
The lesson: Dont Make Promises Unless youre 100% Sure You Can Keep Them
Thanks for your message about broken website links (an obvious fill in the blank). Here is our FAQ list on how Widgets can change your life through better chemistry Do you remember when people got excited by the idea of artificial intelligence and wondered if we would one day need Asimovs Laws of Robotics to protect us. I think we can all breath easy for a little while yet.
Thank you. Your address has been permanently deleted from our database and you will never hear from us again
and its cousin
Thanks for your interest in Widgets. Since youre now part of the Widget family, we know youll want to hear all about everything, so heres this hours special But all I wanted to do was let you know about a broken link on your homepage
The lesson: Dont presume to know why people are responding, or what they want from you.
Youre receiving this because you downloaded a free report from my site 279 days ago, but still havent bought anything and you still havent gotten a clue.
Im only sharing this secret information with a carefully chosen few like you, EAMIC, because youre such a good friend ReallyEven thoughyoure greeting me with a string of letters that isnt even close to myname.
Dear Friend Yes, I understand that software is a black and white kind of thing and that when it comes to personalization your choices are
The lesson:Repeat after me, just because you can, doesnt mean you should. It really is the golden rule of technology use.
Personalization is a very powerful sales and marketing tool. When you personalize a business problem, identify a client need, or use it to demonstrate how your product or service will help that particular clients situation, you are using it correctly.
Machine generated personalization, on the other hand, fits the very definition of an oxymoron. Email autoresponse messages were invented to apologize for a lack of an immediate personal, human response, not to take its place permanently. Unless all of your message is personal, no one is going to believe it really was written just for them. So why slap them in the face with the fact that it wasnt
The bottom line is this: if you find any messages like these in your current autoresponse setup, rewrite them if you can, or just get rid of them if you cant. Silence is better on your part. Your business reputation is at stake. And where your reputation is at stake, so are your profits.
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Liz Micik has been an Ordinary Marketer for nearly 25 years, helping companies tell their story to the right people in the right way to sell their products and services. Visit to sign up for the Inside Edge, a free monthly multimedia newsletter, and find out how you can get extraordinary results from marketing you can live with.