By “opens,” I mean open rates, the ratio of people who receive a marketing email to those who actually open it.

Image via Shutterstock

Opens are a very popular stat to track, talk about and try to increase.

It’s great to do those things, but opens aren’t the stat that needs the most focus. There is another stat that deserves far more attention, because it shows you if your campaign is doing its job and earning its keep.

But Opens Are Important!

Yes, they are. If someone never opens an email, they never click on a link inside. They don’t end up at your site — at that point, at least. And most likely, without opens, they don’t immediately go and buy from you.

But, just because it’s the first step in the conversion process doesn’t mean it’s the most important.

Translation: How much does your business grow if someone opens one of your emails?

None.

And how much income do you get from a click to your site?

Nothing.

So, when do you actually benefit from your email campaign?

When you make a sale.

What About Building A Community Of Subscribers?

People who read your emails and visit your website do develop loyalty to your brand. They get to know you, and hopefully, they get to like you and appreciate the content you send.

This community-building is an important thing for a business to do, and email can be a wonderful channel to do it with.

Opens and clicks are the stats that will track that kind of engagement. This means they are definitely important to check in on occasionally, to make sure you’re getting the results you want and to identify spikes and dips. (Those tell you what content did the best — and what did the worst.)

But, let’s take a second to analyze this.

The reason for building a community, besides the warm-fuzzy feelings (which are certainly nice in themselves), is to make sales.

Otherwise, you’re not getting any return on the money you are spending on email marketing. And you’re certainly not getting compensated for all the time and energy you’re putting into creating your emails.

So, How Do I Track Those Sales?

If you’re using an email service provider, you most likely have a tool built into your account that can track how many sales come from each of your emails. You set this tool up by assigning a monetary value to certain pages on your site.

For example, the order confirmation page that someone hits after they purchase a $10 album from you would be assigned a value of $10, because you know you’ve made $10 off that person.

Then, once your sales tracking is set up, it will “cookie” a subscriber when they click over to your site. If the subscriber makes a purchase on that or a future visit, the tool attributes that sale to your email. (Visits to that order confirmation page that are not cookied as coming from your emails will not be counted toward your sales in your email marketing account, so you can get an accurate picture of the effect your campaign is having.)

The thing is, most businesses aren’t using this tool. That’s a shame, because it’s the strongest indication you have of which emails are bringing in actual revenue (and which are tanking).

If you use an email service provider, you’re not going to want to let much more time going before you set up sales tracking for your campaign.

Then, watch your sales. Check them after every send, and compare them to your overall average.

When you see a spike in the rate of sales per email, take note of what caused it. Most likely there’s something in that particular email — whether it be a strong subject line that garnered lots of opens, truly helpful information, or a strong offer — that’s responsible for the uptick. You’ll want to use a similar technique in the future to keep those purchases happening.

The same goes for those dips. If your sales from a particular email are far lower than usual, take a look at what caused it. Perhaps you alternate between sending interesting content and making sales offers. In that case, a dip in sales is to be expected on the emails that don’t contain offers. But, if you see low sales on an offer you’ve made, you have something to think about.

Do You Agree?

It’s true that one person’s perspective is limited. Even one industry’s perspective is limited.

So, we’re asking for yours. Do you consider sales the most important report to track?

What your readers see in the email you send (its layout and design) significantly impacts how they react to it; namely, whether or not they respond in a way you’d want them to.

So, when you really want them to react in a particular way (like taking a survey or buying your new product), your call-to-action should be designed and placed carefully.

Why “The Fold” Can Help You Do This

“The fold” is the bottom of your readers’ browsers — the point they can’t see beyond unless they scroll down.

The term originated in newspaper publishing, where the plan was to put eye-catching content above the literal fold in the page so passersby would be enticed into purchasing the paper to read more.

Since the fold is such a key aspect of an email’s design, the question is whether you’ll get more response from readers if you place your call-to-action above the fold or below it.

What The Experts Have Said

Some experts think readers will better respond to emails when calls-to-action are placed above the fold. This way, those busy readers don’t have to bother to read a lot of text or scroll down the page to respond — they can do so after a mere glance.

If you choose to place your call-to-action above the fold, make sure you also provide enough information at the top of the email for readers to understand what they’re being asked to do.

Others theorize that below-the-fold placement works better. If readers are interested in your topic, they say, they’ll keep reading. And, it’s important to ask them to keep reading (a small decision on their part) before asking them to respond (a bigger decision, and easier to make once they’ve already decided they’re interested).

“Trust me, having no space and information overload will most definitely make your visitors leave before three seconds are up,” says user experience designer Paddy Donnelly. Instead, he encourages marketers thusly: “Think about the ultimate journey you want them to take. Entice them in, make them actively want to scroll and read on, and on, and on.”

What We Discovered

Curious about which was a better approach (and of course, wanting the highest response possible), we at AWeber decided to run a split test.

For a month, we sent out two versions of each email. The only difference between the versions was the order of the calls-to-action. In one version, Call-To-Action A was above the fold, and Call-To-Action B was below it. In the other version, the order was reversed.

Our results showed that the calls-to-action above the fold were clicked on more often than those below the fold in 78% of the emails tested.

Within the emails, above-the-fold calls-to-action received an average of 13% more clicks than their below-the-fold counterparts.

What This Means For You

In terms of checking email, human psychology and habit can be expected to remain somewhat constant across the board.

Additionally, the data we gathered was strongly in favor of above the fold calls-to-action, which indicates that other audiences may be likely to react the same way.

But, it’s worth noting that we are a B2B software company with a specific type of audience, so our readers’ habits may be different from yours.

The answer, of course — as with every “rule” in marketing — is to test for yourself different placements of your call-to-action.

Track how many clicks you get on offers above the fold and how many below it. If you see a consistent trend, you’ll have learned what your own readers prefer, and you’ll know where to place your calls to action in the future.

Stock image from Shutterstock used under license.

As an email marketer, you know that the most valuable connections happen in private email inboxes. But activity on social networks, where fans can share with friends who share with contacts, is more visible.

Where To Market?

Choose a social network or two to be present on (consider where your target demographic hangs out to help you choose). You’ll only be able to share bits and snippets, but you’ll be highly share-able. Supplement that with email, where you can follow up with those interested over the long term, engaging them more deeply and eventually securing their business.

To make the most of your social and email marketing efforts, tie them together with a campaign that engages your fans on both platforms. I’m going to provide two examples of brands that do this well.

Lara Landon

Spiritual singer Lara Landon has a thriving Facebook following. Because she wants to send her fans messages that are longer than a Facebook post allows, she invited them to join her email list.

Note that she mentioned the special content she’d be sending her email subscribers twice. Once someone is following your brand on one platform, they need a good reason to join you on another, as well.

EmergenC

EmergenC came up with a fun way to get their loyal followers to evangelize for them. They invited their email subscribers to “Say It With Fruit,” by sending their Facebook friends a special, customized video.

This strengthened the loyalty of the sender and gave the recipients a fun, personalized experience they associated with the brand. At the end of the video, recipients had the opportunity to “like” EmergenC’s page and create their own video.

First, the email went out.

Subscribers created videos on Facebook.

Recipients enjoyed the video while being exposed to the brand.

Merging Audiences, Separating Content

The main benefit of merging your social and email audiences is enabling greater exposure to your content, and therefore, greater engagement with your brand. As with all privileges, however, this does come with a responsibility: creating separate content for each channel.

If you post the same information on social media as you’re including in your emails, you’re likely to lose readers on both sides.

Instead, carefully select unique content for each channel, keeping in mind the limitations and benefits of each platform, and you’ll be well on your way to having an audience that enjoys following your updates wherever they find them.

If you’re an experienced marketer, you probably have some tried and true techniques for getting more email subscribers. But you may be leaving many potential new subscribers on the table.

How can you ensure you’re accomplishing everything that’s possible? Go beyond the tried and true and test new approaches.

Split testing helps you figure out which factors of your online sign-up form are drawing subscribers and what changes you can make to draw more.

There are many split tests you can run on your web form: using inline forms vs pop-ups, including a description of your emails vs displaying a text-free form, even using a “Mad Libs”-style form vs a standard sign-up.

But no matter which test you run, there are a few guidelines you should follow to get the best results.

Choose A/B Testing Over Multivariate

With A/B testing, you create two nearly identical versions of your web form, changing only one component. Once you’ve determined which version to move forward with, you test the next component, and so on.

Mulitvariate testing is when you test two very different versions of your form against each other. Basically, you run numerous A/B tests at the same time, which saves you the time of testing each change separately.

But what does your form look like, and what does it say? Do visitors respond well to it, or do they ignore it? Would a different form do better?

By taking 5 minutes to create  a split test — a presentation of two forms to see which does better — you can find out.

They’re very easy to set up. When you’re ready to, follow these instructions (or these if you use AWeber). But before you get started, let’s discuss:

What You Should Test On Your Web Form

You’re going to want to consider the design, the wording and the presentation. We have a test to offer for each.

Design: To Image Or Not?

Including a background image on your web form can make a big difference, for better or for worse.

An image can draw attention to your form, especially if it evokes something site visitors are interested in. It can reinforce your invitation with a positive visual association.

On the other hand, if the image attracts too much attention, it could distract from the actual invitation to sign up.

Wording: Your Call To Action

Your call to action — the actual words of your invitation to subscribe — is the point of decision for your site visitors. Split testing this to find the most effective invitation helps you get as many people as possible onto your list.

Image from aweber.com

Presentation: Subtle Or Surprising?

Most sites use inline forms — the kind that live right on the page, usually in the sidebar. Visitors might notice them or they might not, depending how much looking around they’re doing, but they’re accessible if they’re wanted.

Popups are different — they present themselves to every visitor and insist on attention, at least the amount required to close them. Though you may have mixed feelings about their interruptions, they’ve proven to be pretty darn effective.

It’s All About Finding Out What Works

As you can see, each option listed above has its pros and cons. Since your audience is going to have their own opinion, the only way to determine which option you should use is to test.

Run your test long enough to get significant results (“2 out of 3″ is not exactly scientific proof; calculate significance with this).

Soon, you’ll have a web form with a design, wording and presentation that makes your audience sit up, take notice and subscribe.