I subscribed to Mailchimp (Can't remember who suggested them a few months ago in a thread but Thankyou )Anyways..I send out a newsletter every month and out of the 110 cake customers I send to only about 40 or so open up the email..


Why do you think that would be??I realize some spam filters and secuirty on email but do people just not want to at leats look or care??


What are your opinions when emails are sent to you whether advertising or a newsletter like CC??


Thanks

It may be that they use an alternate email address for certain things that they open when they have time for it...I opened an email account many years ago. When I can't view a site without enrolling or registering, I use it.

Hi KiddieCakes,
I am very guitly of not opening these kinds of emails. I get added to numerous email lists for example hotels that I have stayed at in the past or companies i have ordered from one time. I am a computer junky and probably get 30 or so emails a day to my 3 different email accounts. My spam account I probably get 50 or so a day. I only open things that look relevant to my life. Also the title of the email will be critical. If it's "Cake Newsletter" I probably won't open it. If it says "Special on 2 dozen cupcakes" or new flavors for the fall...I might check it out. For me I'm in email overload for other people I know they never ever check their email so in that case they're just not seeing the emails.

Thanks guys..It's good to know others perspective on these things so I know how to market better...Keep the opinions coming!!

Definitely put something about any sales or coupons in the title of the email, and be specific. When I open my email in the morning and there are 25 from companies selling me something, I just start clicking the boxes to delete them. The ones that would catch my eye would be very specific titles saying what coupon was in the email. Like sillywabbitz said, if it says "This week's specials" I might not bother looking, but if it said "50% off" I might.

The difference for me is if I asked to be added to a list or not. And of the places I subscribe too, I may let the emails pile up until I feel like reading them.

I have several email recipes I get that may pile up. With one of the groups I am close to unsubscribing too because they also send in an 'extra' email that I don't want but you can't unsubscribe to it personally. I don't want it, but they don't give you an out function.

like others have said first it has to have something in the subject that makes me want to open it up. Coupon, or seasonal favorite might for the food.

The big thing though is whether or not i'm looking to buy something of that item right now. And whether or not i have time, I get quite a few emails a day and unless it catches my attention i won't open it.

I get emails 2-4 times a month from Gap and Snapfish. I shop both of these websites, but not monthly. Sometimes they're only a few times a year. I scan the subject line to see if they have a really good sale on, or something that i could use, otherwise i don't open them unless i am planning on making a purchase sometime soon.

Honestly the only "spam" emails i open all the time are toys r us and babies r us, and that's b/c i have two kids, two nephews, and a neice. So even if i'm not looking to buy something right then i always take a look to see their whole ad b/c i may be able to purchase something now for a gift later.

I'm guessing that a bunch of it goes into their spam folders. For me though on days that I am super busy or just plain don't feel like it, I delete a ton of stuff without bothering to look at it. Things like Shutterfly or Hey Butler or notices that replies have been posted to a thread at CC

If you're dealing with brides, know that the magazines advise them to give vendors not exactly a fake email but something they set up on a free email account that they never intend on checking. The fact that we send coupons and special offers seems not to have factored into the magazine advice columns.

BTW I'm a big MailChimp fan also.

However, having said that, I'm finding that I use Facebook more and more for posting specials and other info.

Did the people you're sending to ask to receive emails? Or did you just start sending them because you had their email address from a prior order?

We lived overseas for many years so I did A LOT of internet shopping so I get emails from companies that I only ordered from once or twice, some more than 5 years ago. I should opt out, but they all go to an email I set up specifically for shopping so I'll scan through them and only open ones that I may be ordering from soon. If I'm not in the market for something then I delete it. There are only so many occasions someone would order a custom cake for and if your customers don't have anything coming up then they probably don't feel the need to open the emails.

Maybe you could keep track of those that are opening the emails on a regular basis and start only sending to them. The ones that aren't opening them you can take off the list.

The other factor for me (I don't know if this is true for others) is when the e-mail comes in. I don't tend to check my e-mail much at night or on weekends, so when I first check it in the morning I have a ton of e-mails and I'm pretty quick to delete a lot of them if they don't immediately catch my eye. On the other hand, if one comes in while I'm at my computer, I'm much more likely to open it up because it's just one e-mail alone. A lot of automated e-mail, newsletters and sales e-mails seem to go out in the middle of the night, but that just puts you in the pile of junk. I don't know if you can schedule when your newsletter goes out, but if so, you might look at sending it at different times and seeing what time gets you the best response rate. Or maybe it's just me!

Just curious, how can you tell if they are opening them or not? My computer program gives me the option of the automatic reply that I received the e-mail if requsted by the sender but I don't use it. I use the option that I am asked each time if the sender requests notification that I received it. I always mark do not reply, even for family. I figure it is not anyones business to know if I opened it or not. Maybe there is another way you track it that I am not aware of. I would be curious if there is.
I always get a lot of regular junk mail that I delete without reading. I know if I am in the market for something, so I don't waste my time if I am not.

If you're using a service like MailChimp it tells you who opened your email, when it was opened, how many times it was opened and if the person forwarded your email or clicked on a link.

This isn't regular email - it like a newsletter/email marketing service.

Thanks, did not realize that was possible.

What day are you sending the newsletter/email? Don't send it on Monday or even Tuesday. These 2 days are the heaviest junk-mail days becuase they also have the Sat/Sun emails backed up in their inbox (especially if using a work email account). Newsletter emails are more likely to be deleted or ignored.

A co-worker sent me an email once (he and I sat face to face across from each other). My email inbox was set up with a preview split ... meaning I could read the email in the bottom pane without even opening it in the top pane. I read it .... then deleted it. Whatever notification system he was using sent him an email that said "Debi deleted your message without reading it". He looked up at me and said "Why did you just delete my email?" (Huh? I said.) He said, "You deleted it w/o reading it."

I then explained that I read it in the preview pane and didnt have to open it.

It may be few and far between but it's another possibility.

That actually sounds like a pretty reasonable open rate. My husband used to work in marketing, so I know just enough about open rates to be dangerous. You can google "email open rate" to find more about normal open rates, and things you can do to improve them. This site says:

If you are getting an open rate between 20% and 40%, you are probably somewhere around average.

Not that I would ever suggest there isn't room for improvement, but your statistics suggest that you're doing a pretty good job.

I delete without opening anything I didn't subscribe to. If I patronized your business and you added me to your distro list without asking me first, I won't patronize your business anymore. And don't ever, ever add me to your paper mailing list.

We use twitter to make announcements about new products or events, to be honest I hadn't even thought of setting up an email-based mailing list. Of course we still use email for one-to-one communication.

Twitter is more flexible in terms of the timing of your announcements (if not the length) -- people who follow your feed are more willing to read multiple announcements over short periods of time than email recipients. There have been occasions where we've published several tweets on a single day, and other times we go months without an announcement.

There is also a widget that will display your recent tweets on your home page (see my site for an example). You can also use twitter to advertise your business to people who don't follow you by including keywords -- for example, if I put "#glutenfree" in a tweet, anyone on twitter who is watching the term "glutenfree" will see my post, even if they aren't following my business directly.

Facebook also works, but other than the "Like" button, I've found that it doesn't integrate well with an existing web site.

Twitter is great and that's exactly what I use it for - to follow businesses, catch their daily specials, etc.

hi all

Just another thing that may be affecting it is the viewing pane on emails. I tend to use this to read my emails without actually having to open it. I know i used to get into trouble at work as people didn't think i had read the email as they wouldn't get the open receipt

Just another idea

I use outlook express which provides a preview pane. This allows me to click on the e-mail in the pain which then shows the e-mail so I can read in full, but it technically isn't opening the e-mail. There all the other Outlook users that do the same thing I do will not register as an opened mail in the mail tracking systems.