Have HTML Newsletters Lost Their Mojo?

With continuously dropping open and click rates, it’s easy to think that emails and newsletters are not a valid comms vehicle anymore. Here’s a few stats to prove that email marketing is in fact here to stay, and it’s you, the brand, that need to adapt your approach to keep in the game.

Did you know?

• 33% of opens are from an iPhone, with Gmail being the second most popular at 15% (Source: Litmus)

• 55% of emails are now opened on mobile devices as opposed to 8% in 2011 (Source: Litmus)

• 65% prefer emails to contain predominantly images, compared with 35% who prefer mainly text. (Source: HubSpot)

• 58% check their email first thing in the morning. (Source: Customer Intelligence)

• 89% of marketers believe email to be the primary channel for lead generation (Source: Mailigen)

• 61% enjoy receiving weekly promotional emails with 28% preferring them more frequently (Source: Email is not dead)

• 68% voted email to be their #1 preferred channel for receiving commercial messages (Source: Direct Marketing Association)

That said…

Kathleen Lopez, Senior Director, Partner Marketing Communications at SAP says, ‘It is always a challenge, no matter what industry you are in, to reach your target audiences’ attention in a cost-effective, targeted way.’

The approval time for; signing off all email content, HTML coding as well as creating variations of the same email for all international audiences are certainly challenges we can all relate to. We do however need to overcome these if we seek to truly maximise our email marketing potential.

Where to start?

1. Personalisation – One size definitely does not fit all, you need to create different versions for all users. To create this by hand, using HTML coding I’m sure you’ll agree would take a considerable amount of time (and budget). And how can you possibly decide how many different variations to create when users each have their own preferences? They are not all interested in all you have to say….

Solution – Invest in an email marketing platform, like our own newsondemand, where you can 100% personalise your email newsletters to your and your recipients’ preferences. You can restrict access to certain news by what you know about the audience, allow users the option to select the frequency they want to be updated and let them decide which topics they want to hear about. This will enable you to automate the ‘targeting’ process… no HTML required.

2. Varied Topics – Your target audience does not all have the same interests. It is important to provide a variety of topics to suit their individual tastes and preferences. Only by doing this will you retain them as subscribers as well as receive a positive click through rate.

3. Appealing structure – An email or newsletter that looks physically appealing will receive a lot more engagement that an email with no structure or format. When I say physically appealing I mean clean lined, easy to understand and not forgetting enticing enough to make recipients click to read more. Use of imagery, headings and a brief description are a great way to achieve this, with newsondemand creating all of this for you, whilst also allowing you to prioritise certain articles over others.

4. Quick turnaround – No HTML coding is required when you use newsondemand. All you need to do is create and approve the articles you want to include within the newsletter, and only the articles recipients select will appear. This reduces the time to create one email drastically.

Since using newsondemand SAP open rates are up by 49%, with their average CTR being 5.9%. Some newsletters even receive 17% click rates. Content is relevant, up-to-date and useful to each recipient. This shows that when the right tools are invested in, it can significantly alter your results.

So to answer the question, HTML email newsletters have certainly not lost their mojo. It’s you the brand that need to change your efforts and invest in an email marketing platform to suit your needs so you too can benefit from email marketing that has certainly not lost its edge.

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