Sent to me from our eNewsletter engine, Real Magnet, some revealing stats that challenge the value placed on open rates. Only under certain circumstances will an email viewed in a preview pane register as an "open." So, chew on this: 52 percent of B2B email newsletter readers say they always use the preview pane. A further 17 percent say they frequently use the preview pane to read email.
It follows that if we are reporting open rates of 23%, we can effectively add to our opens some 50% of those delivered, as well. More views, whether in an opened email or one viewed in a preview pane means more value for our advertisers and sponsors.
How about you? Take my poll.
Friday, November 9, 2007
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Well, maybe. But I'm not so sure that's the case. We're looking at an additional 50% who might be reading the e-newsletter (which is great), but it might not really add value for sponsors and advertisers unless their content is text-based.
ReplyDeleteWhat registers as an "open" in the preview pane? Do images have to load?
If so, that extra 50% who aren't showing up as opens might be reading the editorial content, but they're not seeing the display ads because they aren't loading.
Open rate still seems like a pretty iffy stat to me.
Excellent points. To clarify, an open is registered when a particular graphic in the email is loaded and displayed. For that to happen while in the preview pane, one would have to have that email "open" in the preview pane long enuf for the graphic to load. So if that graphic loads, stands to reason the other graphics (logos, ads, photos) are loading too.
ReplyDeleteOpen rate is a good debate topic, but only useful in context, such as is it improving or not, issue to issue.