More newsletter subscribers do not necessarily lead to higher revenue
When you send newsletters, many factors determine whether you reach the inbox, the promotions tab, the spam folder, or if your email disappears entirely.
Internet service providers (ISPs) like Microsoft (Outlook and Hotmail), Google, Telenor, and others continuously work to sort incoming emails into the correct folders to protect users from spam. So how do they distinguish between legitimate emails, promotions, or spam?
Send engaging emails
All major email clients monitor whether your contacts read and click the emails you send. They also track how long contacts spend reading them. The more people read and click, the more likely your next email is to reach the inbox.
If you have many inactive contacts who do not even open your emails, you will likely struggle to reach the inbox of the subscribers who actually want to receive your newsletter.
Build quality email lists for newsletters
This has become so critical recently that companies now sell engagement, similar to buying followers on Instagram and Facebook. We strongly advise against this, but it highlights just how important engagement is.
The welcome email. It all starts when you collect consent. This is when you should send a welcome email. This email typically achieves the highest open rate of any send, making it your best opportunity for engagement.
Engagement on key sales days Here is a list of the most important sales days.
The subject line of the newsletter should prompt your contact to open the email Read about the important subject line
Segment your contacts Learn more about segmentation here
Email addresses expire
If your open rate is below 20%, we recommend cleaning your email list. The average open rate with us is 30%, and several of our customers achieve well over 50%.
If you send newsletters weekly, we recommend removing anyone who has not engaged in 180 days. By that point, they have received 25 newsletters without opening or clicking any. You can safely conclude that they are no longer interested.
If you send monthly, you can remove those who have not opened a newsletter in the past year.
In Make, you can easily set up a dynamic segment for this, ensuring you always send to engaged subscribers.
You can also create a separate segment for inactive contacts and send a re-engagement email asking if they still wish to subscribe. Including an offer or other incentives can be an effective way to keep them interested.