How To Create A Perfect Newsletter And Get 60% Open Rate: Asking Experts

The newsletters I send out from my personal blog simply inform my subscribers about the newest articles. When working with clients who sell products/services, the newsletters naturally vary from educational to promotional ones.

Mostly informational and promotional ones. However, I always try to make my emails look natural by telling stories. For instance, if I need to promote something I try to tell a story from my life that is somehow related to the promoted activity and, this way, persuade our readers to check out the promo.

We use emails as a tool to add value and build relationships. All our newsletters are in a plain text format. I think that the best way to drive engagement through the newsletters it to make them super simple for our subscribers. Let's take Brian Dean's newsletters for example. It's a plain, readable and mega-short text, no images, usually only one link, and straightforward subject line.

I do stripped-down HTML, it's more personal, easier to read and has consistently performed better than designed emails. We send weekly emails with articles, guides, worksheets and many free conversion optimization resources people can use to optimize their websites and we also send invite to live workshops, AMAs and more.

I send a weekly/bi-weekly newsletter to my subscribers with links to our latest blog posts and additional insights when relevant.
This sometimes includes direct links to additional resources - particularly if we've published an article with a content upgrade, or some form of subscriber-only content. We'll occasionally include deals, or other recommendations.

Our newsletters include industry news recaps, recent blog posts and new trial lead nurture sequences.

We focus on reader-base type of newsletters that focuses on what would interest the subscribers.

Our emails are always text-based. We may sprinkle in an image or GIF every now and then, but our goal is to send emails that look like the ones you'd get from a friend or colleague.

The emails I send are usually related to a specific offer rather than a general email regarding content that was recently published on the site. I want the content I send to have value to the people who read them.

Moosend has a built-in "reports" feature that makes tracking my email campaign progress fast and easy.

I use MailChimp analytics to keep an eye on the open and click rates. Plus, with the help of Google Analytics, I check whether there were any users that converted through the last-click attribution.

Intercom comes with a built-in Messages Insights page that enables its users to get an overview of the performance of each email campaign.

We use Drip's analytics and are also integrated with Google Analytics and Teachable (our course platform).

To track analytics I always use combination of my email provider (ConvertKit) and Google Analytics.

ConvertKit has simple analytics but I mainly rely on Google Analytics for more detailed and Ecommerce metrics.

Using the analytics provided by the tool we use for email automation and besides that, we add UTM parameters to the links we add in the email to track how many people clicked and moved ahead.

Sadly ActiveCampaign's reporting is pretty basic (and just not good) on their lower-priced tiers. It's tough for us to consistently monitor engagement rates, but we do track traffic from email inside our Google Analytics. We also try to always attach UTM's to our links so we get campaign level data as well.

I use the inbuilt analytics of the email management platform to track open rates and other stats.

My average open rate is 30% for my personal blog, and 18-20% for clients. Regarding click rate, it is 4-5% for my personal blog, and 2-4% for clients.

Our average open rate is 44%. Actually, I'm pretty proud that some of our segments are getting such great open and click rates: they go far beyond the industry average benchmark. I highly appreciate our Digital Olympus community for supporting us, so keep opening our emails!

I can say that average open rate of Albacross newsletters is 42%, and our average click rate is 6%.

Average open rates for newsletters (not automation sequences) tend to be around 25-30% and CTR is around 5%.

It depends on the type of email but for monthly industry news catch ups, these are around 25-30% open rate, and 3% click rate.

So our average open rate lies between 21 to 24% and click through rate ranging from 6 to 12%

Since cleaning our list earlier this year, we average between 30-40% open rates and 2-5% click rates on average. Before cleaning, each number was less than half of what it is today. We were hitting the spam folder big time.

My average open rates vary by list. Generally, it's somewhere between 18% - 40%. The click through rate is usually lower at between 5%-20%. This varies depending upon the offer - what I'm trying to get them to click to - and the copy.

One tip that I do not often see used is to experiment with different approaches to the opt-in forms. It is so common to invite everyone to leave their email address and wait to see if what we offer is suitable for a potential lead. It is far more unlikely to see a website/business that reverse-engineer this process by taking back control and choosing who can be the right match for them.

In short - we are using scarcity and exclusiveness as our strategy to draw highly qualified leads, letting them know that it's you choosing who can "join the tribe", even when it comes to free newsletters.

This strategy could be smartly used along with the regular email newsletter sign-ups. Skillful copywriting that speaks to the needs of your new audience can substitute the lead magnet incentive (if done well).

The best way to create a newsletter that people enjoy is to keep testing and tweaking your emails. With each email you send, you'll gain a bit more understanding of what your audience likes (and dislike). You could even ask your subscribers directly for feedback and suggestions (which also creates an opportunity to connect better with your subscribers).

I'm not a big believer in hacks. Work hard, publish great content, do good work and be helpful to your customers.

Get a creative professional to design your template and teach you how to plug and play - this helps keep brand consistency and UX solid
Have a QA team - someone who checks links, someone with a creative eye to check images, someone who digs in on the copy. Splitting up jobs allows you to keep the workflow of the people you're asking for help low while making sure your audience receives a solid product. You as the builder of the email are going to miss A LOT if you just QA yourself. You're too close to it.

Develop your own tone of voice and style. I think it's very important to make your users smile and let them feel your empathy. This way, they will be really looking forward to receiving your newsletters. Plus, try to minimize the number of promotional emails and focus on providing value. The companies that manage to add exclusive content to their emails have the highest click and open rates.

Needless to say, not all content will be suitable for all subscribers. Thus, you should segment your audience into separate groups based on not only their interests but also on their position in the buying cycle. As a result, your readers will receive the most relevant emails, and you'll get your prospects to move forward in your sales funnel and prevent cases where they get stuck in the same stage of the buying cycle.

Take stock of what aspects of your life inspire you and which aspects hold you back or create unnecessary fear. Do more of what inspires you and cut out things that can be damaging - such as mainstream media. One of the best things I've done is to cut out mainstream media. As a result, I'm happier, healthier, and more productive.

The biggest one really is to segment your email list. This could be by their industry knowledge of your product or service that you offer. To do this, I'll place subscribers into one of three or four buckets when I capture their email details through a drop-down form, and then tag them in my email autoresponder. When I do this, it's easier to market in a more personal way which increases the conversion rate of a sale in the future.

In the emails we send, we mostly try to add our social media handles to show them that how active and engaging the business is. To show that you are active on social media, you need to create that presence and a tool like SocialPilot helps you automate your social media postings to make your social media marketing effortless. This helps the user with some credibility of your brand and helps them building trust.

Send emails you would want to receive yourself. If you're just blasting out boring links, you're not helping anyone. Strive to give your list things they can actually get value from.

My number one piece of advice would be to focus on value. There are very few people who are interested in receiving updates about a new post you just wrote week in and week out. Rather align the emails you send with the outcome you want to achieve.
If people are interested in what you have to say they will always open your content, regardless of how infrequently you send a message. The second tip I have, which I mentioned earlier, is to set expectations. People want to know what they are signing up for. You can easily cover this through a welcome email campaign.