There are always more to-do’s than time to complete them. So it’s a relief to check off something substantial, like completing your monthly blog or email newsletter. But simply hitting publish and closing the door is a missed opportunity.
What do you do with your email marketing metrics? Perhaps a cursory glance at the open and click rates over your morning coffee? Drill down to see which links garnered the most clicks? Or do you stalk your results, revisiting your open and click rates countless times and comparing with past email metrics?
Data-rich email marketing platforms
Since crafting email content typically requires a significant time investment, you want to leverage your efforts.
The power of email marketing platforms is in the plethora of marketing intelligence provided. You can track your open and click rates based on seasonality, day of the week and time of day to determine what works best for your subscribers. Test subject lines to understand which phrasing resonates with your audience. Assign subscribers to relevant lists based on actions they take.
Putting your marketing data to work will help you maximize your results and better leverage your content development time investment.
Your email passed the sniff test
An email open is an expression of interest. A deeper level of engagement is indicated by a click to your website, landing page or other content. The icing on the cake is the direct call or inquiry from the prospect about your product or services.
There’s another subscriber action on your email that is
more subtle, but demonstrates a strong level of interest.
And that’s a “repeat open” or “multiple open.”
These people opened your email more than once — showing that something resonated. Perhaps these individuals subsequently clicked through to a web contact form or landing page, but for any number of reasons, they may not have. Neglecting to act on these warm leads is like not answering the door when a customer knocks.
Where to find repeat opens
The visibility of your repeat opens varies based on the email marketing platform. In Mail Chimp, this data is easily accessible when viewing the report for a particular campaign. (This summary report also provides a chart of opens and clicks over the first 24 hours and the top links clicked.)
The Subscribers with most opens data in Mail Chimp includes the number of times the email was opened by each subscriber. If your uploaded list includes subscriber name and phone number, that data is also provided. The report can be easily exported with a single click for additional follow up.
While Constant Contact also provides data for repeat opens, you need to work a little harder to get to it. The reports for your email campaigns show high-level stats, including open rate. Beneath the open rate for each email is the number of opens, which is clickable to a list of the email addresses which opened the email. The default list view is Unique opens, which can be toggled to view All opens instead. (Stay with me; we’re almost there.)
Unlike Mail Chimp’s list, which shows the number of times a particular email address opened the email, the Constant Contact report lists each open by day and time. The report must be exported to easily sort and identify multiple opens. But it’s worth the effort.
Now lay out the welcome mat
Armed with the knowledge that they opened your email multiple times, it’s acceptable to be a bit more direct with these warm leads. Start with your exported list of repeat opens.
If you have a phone number associated with the email address, call directly and acknowledge that you noticed they opened your recent email. Ask if you can be of assistance. Consider extending a special offer or discount to nudge prospects to the next step.
If you don’t have a phone number, send a personal follow up email with the offer or discount. Be creative and consider other ways (including social media) to connect with these warm leads.
Take this important step to turn those repeat opens into closed leads.
More tips to leverage your email marketing
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