As an association membership business, your email marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool for reaching out to your members and keeping them engaged with your organisation. However, if your emails aren’t being opened, they won’t be effective and your members may be missing out on the hard work your putting in, or worse not seeing the value of their membership.
What’s a good marketing / sales Email Open Rate?
Short answer: A good email open rate can vary depending on the industry, but in general, a rate of 20-30% is considered good.
Long answer: A good email open rate meets the average, which is 20.94%. The results for your organisation, however, will be dependent on the health of your list (When was the last time you cleaned your list?) and of course, the quality of the content in your emails.
Compare your email open rates
It’s important to compare your own email rates to this benchmark to ensure you are getting the most from your campaigns [1]. Furthermore, the benchmark stats on email response vary depending on the types of email platform used to send email, so it is important to stay up to date on the latest industry standards [2]. For example, the latest stats released in January 2023 showed an overall average open rate of 16.97%, with a 10.29% CTR [3]. Is this a sign emails are not working as a channel? or that more marketers are getting it wrong.
How to check your email open rate
Usually you can find the open rate metric on the published email page in your email provider software. We use Hubspot so I’ve included a screen shot of where to find the open rate below.
How to improve your email open rate
As an association membership business, your email marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool for reaching out to your members and keeping them engaged with your organization. However, if your emails aren’t being opened, they won’t be effective. A good email open rate can vary depending on the industry, but in general, a rate of 20-30% is considered good.
To improve your email open rate, there are several steps you can take:
1. Clean your email list:
If you have inactive or invalid email addresses on your list, they can hurt your overall email deliverability and lower your open rate. Make sure to regularly clean your list and remove any inactive or invalid addresses.
2. Personalise your emails
Personalized emails can have a big impact on your open rate. Use the recipient’s name in the subject line or greeting, and consider segmenting your list to send more targeted messages based on their interests or behavior.
3. Write compelling subject lines:
Your subject line is the first thing your recipients will see, so it’s important to make it compelling and relevant to them. Avoid using generic subject lines like “Newsletter” or “Update” and instead use a clear and concise statement that will entice them to open the email.
4. Optimize for mobile:
Many people check their email on their mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile. Use a responsive design and keep your content short and to the point.
5. Test and analyze:
Finally, it’s important to test different elements of your emails and analyze your results to see what works best for your audience. Try testing different subject lines, send times, and content formats to see what resonates with your members.
By following these steps, you can improve your email open rate and create more effective email marketing campaigns for your association membership business.
References:
[1] 2022 Email Marketing Statistics & Benchmarks – Mailchimp
[2] Email Open Rates By Industry (& Other Top Email Benchmarks)
Have you tried this quick win?
Was it easy to follow? Did it take more than 5 minutes and has it had any impact (so far)? Share your thoughts and help other membership organisations achieve their Membership goals.