Apemag

  • Home
  • Whitepapers
  • Categories
    • Email marketing
    • Personalization
    • Targeting
    • Trends
  • Contact
Strategy

Don’t get blinded by reading rates, focus on viewing rates as well!

In email marketing, we always look at the statistics. We calculate the success of the campaign primarily based on the open rate, and the click rate. But aren’t we focusing too much on those reading rates?

Field_TrialThat our campaigns lead to conversions is normal. And we also use our readers who click through to measure that, where else could they come from? But it isn’t that black and white. First, you can never tell with 100 percent certainty who has read your message. If the images are turned off by default, you can also not detect the pixel that is loaded to measure if the message is being read. So there are always more readers than we see in our reports. That is certainly good news.

Directly to the website or webshop

But we have more. It’s not because your message isn’t being “read”, that there is no conversion. A lot of your contacts – especially regular customers – get enough information from the first look at your sender name and subject line to take action. Not to open your message and click through, but to directly go to your website which is saved in their browser history or bookmarks. Because that link also holds their login or the preferred page. Just because they think it’s easier. “Seeing” your message in their inbox is the trigger to browse for your website. The better your subject line, the better you stimulate this behavior.

Visibility

Don’t think too hard about the logic of your contact. But knowing this, it becomes even more important to focus on those elements that should convince the receiver of your email message.

And that’s these classic elements:

The sender: In every email client this will be the first thing your contact will see. So choose a correct name. The trade name is better than the company name. Go for a name that will generate the best recognition.

The subject line: Lots and lots of pages of texts have been written about the subject line. Taking into account that the receiver should understand the message before actually opening it, you should pay a lot of attention to the subject line. So don’t go for “The latest news about shoes”, but better “Order today to get your shoes under the Christmas tree in time”. Ofcourse with some extra words to trigger the reader.

The Preheader (first sentence): Literally the first sentence of your message in visible in most email clients – like Gmail, Iphone email app, … – right after the subject line. You could perfectly use this text to trigger your contact even more to open or take action. Put the most important information first to make sure it will be seen. Too often you’ll see “click here if the message isn’t displayed correctly”. And that’s a waste. It does nothing for your reader to see this as a preheader. Also make sure there is no repetition: really use the preheader to support and explain your subject line.

New experiment from Google

But there’s even more possible in the future. Google is working on a new lay-out of Gmail. Under the promotions tab – where they store email marketing emails – they are working on a grid view. You can already see it in beta, but it looks very promising. The email messages are presented in grids, where they display the banner, the company logo, the sender and the subject line in a sort of header. Reading emails will be more like looking at pictures. That will also mean that the first elements become even more important.

That means that we can add two elements to the list above:

The main image: At the beginning they will get it from your Google+ account. But we are betting that at a later time, you will be able to let Google know which image to take from your email message with some kind of css style.

Your logo: We always say that it should be the opener of your email message. So always place that image at the top left corner, to get instant recognition in the preview pane. Same thing goes for the grid view of Google.

The grid view is still in testing phase. Want to get in on it? You can get in line here. And we also know that the digital world has lots of copycats. The chance that other ISP’s or email clients will experiment with different types of displays is there. But for now, make sure you focus on the first three items on the list!

Dec 4, 2014Michelle Dassen
Previous storyLet your customer know you want to get to know him in 5 stepsNext story5 ideas to steal from Telenet
Home Don’t get blinded by reading rates, focus on viewing rates as well!
8 years ago Strategy261
Michelle Dassen
Twitter
The best content directly in your inbox

Get notifications for new blog articles or subscribe for your GDPR communication!

Recente posts
  • Adapting your marketing efforts to COVID-19, now and tomorrow 14 May 2020
  • Communicating in times of crisis 20 March 2020
  • “It’s a salesting”, come again? 1 March 2019
  • The real estate industry: Building your client base using email marketing 23 May 2018
  • The tourism industry: A ray of sunshine in your mailbox 2 May 2018
  You Might Also Like  
Strategy

Work towards the perfect match

The perception that an email contact has about your e-marketing, is an important aspect. If he recognizes the added value of your email, the conversion follows naturally. If the contact feels disappointed or even deceived, it’s hard to set that right. Dec 21, 2012Ann Flipkens

Strategy

4 steps that take your birthday message to a higher level

It is a proven recipe that can be perfectly executed by automated email messages. Reaching your e-mail contact at just the right time with a birthday message can sometimes do wonders. Sep 30, 2014Ann Flipkens

Strategy

5 times the product in the center at UI Stencils

Slowly but surely, we’re starting to see that the simplicity of a layout and focus on one specific product in becoming a trend in email marketing. And today’s example is no different. UI stencils specializes in making templates and sketches for digital media design. Feb 6, 2015Ann Flipkens

Email marketing, Privacy, Tips, Wetgeving

How to make yourself GDPR compliant in 7 steps

GDPR has been cause for discussion in many companies. That is why we compiled a list of things you should do now to make sure that you’re ready for May 25th. 1. Awareness Consult different sources to make sure you understand what GDPR entails and what you have to do to be compliant. You can […]

The century of mobile reading

Mobile devices are slowly conquering the world of email marketing. Depending on the list you analyze, about twenty percent and even more read their email on a smartphone. That means that you should keep up. You need to consider some new elements. Apr 25, 2013Ann Flipkens

Afleverbaarheid, Content, Deliverability, Design, Email marketing, Flexmail TV, How to start with email marketing, Inspiration!, List Building, Personalization, Seasonal mailings, Surveys

The ultimate Christmas email marketing checklist Infographic

Christmas is a pretty stressful time for lots of marketers. But it’s because everyone’s so busy that your marketing needs to be on point to get noticed during these busy days of the year. The pressure is on to get ROI on Christmas email marketing campaigns – use our tips to get results! Looking for […]

Cases, Content, Email marketing, Strategy, Tips

Communicating in times of crisis

We have thought long and hard about sending out an email in relation to our services during the current COVID-19 crisis. To start with, a few reassuring words: our entire team is able to work from home. There will be no impact on our services and you will still be able to contact our support […]

Afleverbaarheid, Content, Email marketing

Litmus and Microsoft are cooperating

The message and spam check is a service that Flexmail offers her clients a long time already. Via the message check the users get the chance to test the display of their email message in all well-known email clients to verify whether their email message comes across the most common spam filters. For this service, […]

Most Viewed
1,826

More subscriptions, less unsubscriptions: razor sharp e-commerce of Dollar Shave Club

1,402

An integrated offline and online communication at Nespresso

1,241

10 tips to integrate a promo code in your email marketing

1,238

Bloopers you can avoid

1,089

Was this useful?

1,063

10 elements of a great welcome message

1,045

11 ideas to improve your opt-in form

1,010

Are you using animated images in your emails?

2018 © Flexmail