The myth of declining email open rates
Published: Mon, 08/31/20
And she asked:
“Are you impacted at all by declining open rates or are you finding your approach is bucking that trend?”
The short answer:
Does not affect me in the slightest, as I’ve always bucked that trend.
If anything, sales, response, etc are higher than ever.
The longer answer:
There is nothing new about this mythical industry-wide “declining open rates” problem. People were worried about these things way back in 2002 when I first got up in this business. It reminds me quite a bit of a scene in the book “Obvious Adams” where a bunch of advertising & business executives are wrestling with how to increase sales for their client, when Mr. Oswald — the ad agency owner — finally pipes up about it.
He says:
“We have spent three hours talking about what ought to be done, whereas it strikes me that our first job is to find out what is the matter.”
So it is with people struggling with email.
The problem ain’t about open rates, response, or even sales.
It’s sheer violation of the immutable & unchanging laws of direct response marketing.
The fact people are worried about open rates at all is especially telling. It’s as pointless a vanity metric as so-called opt-in rates. And yet nothing gives a would-be client or a goo-roo fanboy taking notes at a mastermind a chubby like hearing about ways to have higher “OpEn rAtEs!”
But back to the point:
Now that we got the problem — lack of fundamentals — down, what’s the solution?
It’s laughably simple:
1. Build a list of high-quality & responsive leads
2. Send that list daily emails they want to open & read, with offers they want to buy
Do those two things and all those nagging problems with email delivery, opens, clicks, and response vanish like a virgin on prom night.
We’re not exactly talking about rocket science here.
But nobody really wants to hear this.
I’ve been to enough masterminds to see it first hand.
Most people would rather haunt social media groups to find some new tactic someone pretends to have invented but is really 100+ years old. Or switch to a new email broadcasting platform that reportedly gets better delivery. Or find a magical swipe file of subject lines that have supposedly been tested. Or learn gimmicks for “tricking” people into opening their emails. Or any number of nonsensical ideas that not only won’t help them, but can’t help until they get the two things above right, first, even if some of those things were legit.
Enter my paid “Email Players” subscription newsletter.
First:
It comes with a book that can help with both solutions above.
A little bit with the list-building, and a lot with the email writing.
Secondly:
The upcoming September issue reveals a way of writing emails that can help you potentially get extreme new levels of interest, engagement, clicks, and, yes, sales. All you have to do is put the effort in. There is also a learning curve to it, too. And, you will find that to use this method requires writing much longer emails than probably you are writing now.
Thus, if you hate writing, learning, or working, best pass on this one.
To use my methods requires aggressively embracing all three.
Declining opens?
Nobody buying?
Death of email as we know it?
It's a myth.
That is, if you know what you’re doing.
If not, that problem can be solved by hitting the jump below, before tonight’s deadline:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle