Ryan Dohrn explains why email reply rates have dropped even when opens and delivery are good: cleaner lists, smarter spam filters, and faster unsubscribes. He recommends three-word subject lines, three-sentence emails, plain text over graphics, and buttons instead of links.
Hey friends and fans, Ryan Dohrn here answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, next question comes from Mel in my home state here of South Carolina. So Mel over in Columbia, I think I might know who Mel is. Mel, thanks for your question. Ryan, why is mass emailing not working the way it used to work? Meaning deliveries are good, People are opening it, but they're not responding as much. What's going on? So Mel, a really good question. The answer is actually moderately simple. During COVID every marketer turned and really stepped up their email game. They got their email list really clean. It was one of the most efficient ways, and it always has been one of the more efficient ways to reach people. Now what's going on though is that everybody's kind of figuring it out, and the Email filters have gotten to be really, really good. People know to unsubscribe from things. And also Google's made it really easy just to click the spam button and get rid of those emails. So one of the things I would encourage people to consider is subject lines are king. Experts tell us that 50+% of people open an email based on subject lines and nothing else. Are those subject lines really great? The next thing is, are you following my rule of 3 and 3? Mel and everybody out there, my rule of 3 and 3 is 3 words in the subject line, 3 sentences max in the email. Are you actually following that rule? So if you're getting decent open rates, people aren't clicking. The other thing is, are you making it really clear what you want somebody to do? See, a lot of times in the emails that are sent, there's way too many images, there's not enough clear calls to action. Remember, a button is always going to get a better click than just a regular link. Use images with graphics on the image— click here for this offer— whatever that circumstance is. Now, I'm not saying that email effectiveness has dropped completely. I'm just saying that a lot of people's habits have changed. Remember, friends, plain text emails, those continue to do pretty well. When you get too crazy with graphics, tend— people tend to kind of ignore it. And if an email is really long, people just tend to delete it, not pay a whole lot of attention to it. Also, inside most email service providers, you can resend an email if somebody doesn't open it. So you might want to consider utilizing that service as a part of your email service provider apparatus, if you will, as well. Friends, love to talk sales and marketing all day long. I love it. So if I can be of help to you at your sales and marketing conference as a keynote or a workshop speaker, let me know. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. All right, we'll see you next time for more listener questions.
