What happened to your Email open rates?

You know what’s a big ole’ bummer? When you send the PERFECT email to your list and yet your open rate still lacks proper luster.

Don’t your customers comprehend your genius? Don’t they know how witty you are and how perfect your offer is?! Don’t they understand how much time you spent getting that subject line perfect?!!!

We get it. All marketers do.

A few months back, when diving into some of our own diagnostics, we realized that some of our filters were set up so customers received up to 5 mails a day! (Kosher is 1 mail a day, 2 is a bit extreme but forgivable… 5, we’ll just say that if you were one of those people, we’re sorry.)

We wouldn’t be open to that many emails either. 😬

In the months since, we’ve done some real work to fix our mistakes, and that includes confirming every single email is jam-packed with value! We also built a short checklist (we learned from some of our own mistakes☝️) that we think every marketer should review whenever open rates fall.

It starts by looking at some basics:

Is your Email Too Big? Are there Spam Words? Is your Subject Line Optimal? Are your Subscribers Excited?
The combination of a few small problems can create one bigger issue (ahem… falling open rates), so by following a checklist to help make the small fixes in your emails, we can pretty much guarantee those open rates will start to soar.

As a DigitalMarketer, we believe in first doing, then teaching. Which means before we wrote this checklist, and certainly before we shared it with you, we tried it. We tested our emails and the factors behind open rates, we tried things, we tested things, we did all of the things.  

And guess what: our open rates are up and climbing (you’re reading this, afterall), and with a little elbow grease, yours will too! Your customers will soon know your genius once again. And if you’re still concerned about what’s going on with your email, we got your back with 10 email campaign templates you can swipe! Yep, 2 swipes this week—that’s how much we love our Insiders!
TOOL TIME

This week we tapped our Sr. Social Media Manager, Shannon, for her most essential social tool, and without hesitation she said Sprout Social. This all-in-one social lifesaver is what Shannon uses to track our social analytics and success and also how she schedules our posts across different platforms. And because Shannon also works across multiple brands (remember how we launched Scalable.co last week? 😉), Sprout makes it easy to engage with all our customers in one central location. This has been our go-to social tool for years, and we’ve yet to find any one tool we like better! Check it out for yourself and amp up your social game!
 
INSIDE FIVE
1. Facebook likes money so they rightly assume that you do, too.
Starting last week, Facebook expanded the availability of two of its creator monetization methods, Fan Subscriptions and Stars.

According to a post from Facebook Product Marketing Director, Yoav Arnstein, and Head of Creator & Publisher Experience, Jeff Birkeland, creators that are on the ‘cool kids list’ (AKA meeting eligibility requirements), can now make money from fan subscriptions in a number of markets.

Here’s how it works: supporters pay a fixed price every month and they get benefits like exclusive content, live videos, discounts, and a special “supporter badge” that pops up next to their name in comments, which yet again proves that adults love stickers, and you can’t convince us otherwise!

Similar to filling the tip jar at your favorite bar or deli, fans can buy Stars and send them to creators in the comments section of videos as a way to show some love. For creators, it’s a great way to monetize their live streams and get a nice reward for building up a loyal and generous fan base. They can even set a “Stars Goal” that shows up as a permanent overlay in Videos. What a way to make fans feel involved and like they’re contributing to a goal!
 
2. Last week we talked about the importance of human-to-human (H2H) marketing, so this week we want to give you the resources for this more personal approach to marketing and relationship-building that will set you apart from your competitors.

Okay, so what if we told you the best way to implement a H2H approach was with technology? It may seem counter intuitive, but hear us out.

Personalization. Yes, we know it can be difficult, especially as your business grows, but technology’s ability to segment data can help you keep up with your customers, personalize your approach, and help you provide relevant offers. There’s no sense in offering a free trial offer to a long-time customer, but somehow businesses do it all the time.

With the right systems, you can track and organize your customers’ purchase history, visitation statistics, and email open rates. You can see how they are interacting with your brand and products, and then use that information when you reach out to them. Not only will it be more efficient, but it will make your consumers feel special. Personalization could truly be the best relationship-building tool in the marketing book!
 
3. Since Google has vowed to go “third-party cookie free” soon, businesses and advertisers have been looking for new ways to trade data and information regarding their website visitors. And The Telegraph, a massive British publisher, is testing out a new solution. They have constructed a secure data “bunker,” which lets them anonymously and securely send data directly to their advertisers. That means more support for advertisers’ specific audiences AND more targeted testing! We will all be watching to see if this data experiment proves to be a tasty solution to the cookie conundrum.
 
4. Thanks to Wp Engine’s yearly report, you can find out everything you need to know about this generation, without scrolling through TikTok feeling confused (just us?). With a whopping $150 billion of buying power in the global market, and the largest reliance on digital ever, this is a generation you don’t want to overlook. Here’s our 2 favorite takeaways, and how you can take action on this data now:

“Brand loyalty won’t sustain itself for Gen Z, you must continually earn their business”: Better pull out those Customer Value Journey sheets and make sure you’re providing value at EVERY STAGE—not just the first few!
“58% can’t go without internet access for more than 4 hours”: This means Gen Z will be more engaged via mobile, so make sure your landing pages, websites, and content are optimized for on-the-go!
Check out the full report here!
 
5. Looks like Twitter is getting into the paid subscription game, judging by a job listing they posted, then edited to make more ambiguous, then edited back as the proverbial bird was already out of the bag.
So, what could this mystery platform entail? The DigitalMarketer team made some guesses…

Graph = social graph and python = database. I’m guessing something in between a new advertising service and advanced features for pro users.”
Kevin Kramer, Etymologist and Logic Puzzle Enthusiast
“Could be a Patreon-type service where users can support their favorite accounts.”
Asha Bynum, Patron Saint of Context Clues

“A new social media platform that could compete with Facebook. Maybe they’re trying to fill an ad gap that Facebook isn’t taking seriously.
Justina Fenberg, Newsfeed Junkie
“Could be similar to Twitch, but for legitimate brands and influencers. In a world of incessant noise, consumers are showing a willingness to pay for filters as opposed to paying for the content itself.
Ryan Deiss, Voted Most Likely to Be the Boss

“Probably something that gets built, rolls out to 10% of users, then dies off.”
Jenna Snavely, Glass Half-Empty
Speculation is fun, and we want to hear what you think! Tweet us @DigitalMktr to share your brilliance!
SWIPE FILE
After ogling over that impressive infographic from the WP Engine study above, it got us thinking about how beneficial graphics really are to marketing. So we dug around and found the Definitive Guide to Marketing Infographics (because nothing is definitive unless it’s a guide in the marketing world 😎)! But in all seriousness, this is a beast of a guide AND includes infographic templates, so you don’t have to be intimidated if you’re not some savvy designer. It actually dives into the nitty gritty of how to make sure you’re educating your audience while also maintaining that visual appeal. If you haven’t given infographics a shot before, now’s your chance!
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