Comment: Set realistic expectations

The best way to find out if anybody is reading you is to check the metrics. They will give you a realistic expectation of what is happening once your e-letter arrives (and if it arrives).

For instance, if you send out html e-letters, and if you use software or an e-mail delivery service that provides “tracking data,” you will get to see delivery rates, open rates and click through rates for each of your mailings. These rates will tell you how many letters were actually delivered to the intended inbox, how many of those recipients opened the letter, and how many times that readers clicked on links in the letter to view the related material on your website.

If you send out text letters that include plenty of links to your own website, and if you sign up for web traffic data for hits to your site, you too will get a good idea of what is what. (No, you won't get "open" rates--the number of recipients who clicked on your letter an opened it--because that is only available in html letters. But you will see how many people clicked through, and to what part of your website, and that is very meaningful data.)

I assessing reader response, it is important to keep in mind that many readers do their responding several days, or even weeks, after your mailing--because they were busy when your e-letter arrived, out of town, sick, or battling a computer meltdown. Many respond only when especially moved or stirred. These non-data understandings also help to set realistic expectations.

Sadly, many e-newsletter professionals are reporting that, even when people have data like open rates, say, or click-through rates--they do not use the data to inform them about how to improve their letter. Some never even look at the data, or if they do, they do not realize its import.

This is sad, because that data can provide telling insight to what draws reader interest and what doesn't. If readers are really interested in butterflies, for instance, but the Insect Bytes e-newsletter only includes items on butterflies once in a blue moon, the e-newsletter is missing a valuable opportunity to reach readers where they live.

What brings all this to mind is a conversation I had not long ago with a woman who started to do some e-advertising about her firm via an e-newsletter platform. She was getting clicks to her site from that ad but she was unhappy with the response.

Why the unhappiness? It turns out that the woman had the wrong expectation about to expect by way of response rates to a single ad. She had expected that most all the e-newsletter readers would click on through as soon as they saw the ad.

When she later learned that her ad actually pulled a very high response rate by e-ad standards, she was chagrinned. She apparently had expected most of the recipients to click on her ad. She also did not know that readers view the letter over a period of several days, with a second wave of clicks 2 weeks later--in response to having heard about something in the e-letter from friends and associates (the buzz marketing effect).

This lack of awareness reminded me of the lack of awareness that some e-publishers have about their e-newsletters. They will spend extraordinary amounts of time designing and promoting an e-newsletter, but relatively little or no time learning the ropes of response rates. If the phone doesn’t start ringing off the wall once the e-newsletter goes out, they are mad. They may start blaming people, or needling them to perform better.

What a waste of energy and emotion. A better response would be not to assume automatically that the letter is not being read or that it needs a major overhaul.

In the first place, in e-publishing, the phone doesn’t typically ring off the wall. That is the kind of response that occurs (sometimes) with print publishing. But with e-newsletters, no. Instead, watch for an increase in email responses.

Also, even if there is no up-tick in email responses, it is wrong-headed to assume that the letter is not being read. To find out what is really happening, it’s far better to resolve to track the online delivery statistics over several months, in order to develop a set of realistic benchmarks and then compare those to industry benchmarks for the same class of e-newsletter that’s involved. (Vertical Response --www.verticalresponse.com--has industry benchmarks, as do many other email service providers. Just check around and you will find what you need.)

Only after benchmarking in this way for several months should an e-publisher consider revamping an e-newsletter--if the response rate is not realistic, that is.

Regarding the advertiser mentioned above, once she learned about realistic response ranges for ads (and for her own ad), she quickly became a happy camper--and she is still advertising online. That speaks volumes about the power of data, and setting appropriate expectations.

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--Linda Koco

e-Newsletter SIG leader