Two Easy Ways to Increase Open Rates for Your Employee Newsletter
Get a 5–7% bump
Open rates are a necessary evil in our business.
On one hand, opening an email doesn’t tell you whether it was read, let alone whether the information was absorbed or a call to action was heeded.
On the other hand, a precipitous drop or a sudden spike in open rates tells you something, either that you had a killer subject line or your newsletter delivery technology went down overnight.
It doesn’t matter. Your stakeholders want to know how many people opened the damn email.
A higher number is never a bad thing. So here are two easy ways to increase open rates that also don’t take up too much time.
Resend the Email
💰 You’re leaving money on the table if you don’t re-send your newsletter.
- But…don’t resend it to everyone! Employees who opened it the first time will be unnecessarily annoyed if they receive a duplicate email.
Instead, resend the newsletter to only the employees who didn’t open it the first time.
Figuring out who did or didn’t open an email can be tricky, but with the right technology — like Mailchimp or Poppulo — you can easily identify and segment the audience.
Wait a couple of days before resending the newsletter. The employee might be out of the office the day it was originally sent, or hasn’t had time to go through their inbox. But don’t wait too long.
- If the original email went out Monday morning, try resending Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday, it’s really old news.
- Pro tip: add ICYMI — short for “in case you missed it” — to the beginning of your original subject line, to indicate that this is a re-send and not breaking news.
On average, I increased the open rates on newsletters by 5–7% simply by resending the email to employees who didn’t open it the first time around. Your stakeholders will love that bump.
A/B Test Subject Lines
You can judge a book by its cover and you can judge a newsletter by its subject line. Winning subject lines get employees past the gate. Once they’re in, it’s up to the quality of the content to keep them there.
In one experiment, the greeting card company Lovepop conducted A/B tests for the subject line and a couple of other variables. After the test they found that version B:
- Had a 1.1% higher open rate
- Also had a .3% increase in click-through rates
- Read about Lovepop’s A/B experiment with Mailchimp.
Note: You can A/B test a lot of things, like days on which to send the email, the number of photos, the sender name, and more.
I once spent six months A/B testing subject lines of an employee newsletter. The variations included:
- Straight news
- Lists of what was inside
- Short phrases
- Complete sentences
We learned that a few enticing words garnered the highest open rates. Again, back to the pros at Mailchimp, who offer similar advice:
- Keep it short
- 9 words max, or
- 60 characters max
You don’t need to spend six months A/B testing subject lines, but make sure you spend a quality amount of effort. The effort will pay off.
If you need ideas on how to up your newsletter game, reach out. I’d be happy to provide some advice and consultation. Email me at editorshaun@gmail.com.
