Do Email Marketing Resends Work?

Do Email Marketing Resends Work? - Email Marketing Lounge Products Services News Clients Resources Company Blog Email Marketing Lounge Share Do Email Marketing Resends Work?  By

Preethi Dumpala on May 23, 2012 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) We get this question a lot when working with clients, and here is what we'veseen - every resend email campaign, on average, results in a 5% increase inopen rate and 2% increase in click rate.  So the question becomes, if you can get these additionalopens and clicks with minimum effort and cost, why not, right? Well, like mostmarketing strategies, it is going to depend on the situation.

Repeat WhenNecessary, Use With Caution

If your email marketing campaign performed poorly thefirst time, it is always worth considering resending the campaign tonon-openers. Without annoying your customers, of course. Considerable time,money and effort (perhaps along with approvals from legal) go into building anemail, and thus we always advise squeezing out as much ROI from it as possible.But always use caution as it is best not to overuse this tactic.

When a Resend is a Good Idea

Deployment time and/or day affected the performance

If you believe the time and/or day of sending affectedthe campaign's email open rates, and that resending the email at a more optimaltime will help boost performance. Examples of this may be if the email went outon a Friday night when most people are probably not checking their email, or ona Monday morning when your message might have gotten buried under hundreds ofother emails.

Poor subject line

If you feel confident that the subject line was theculprit the first time, and plan to resend to non-openers with a differentsubject line.

Technical errors

If there were technical errors - the website or emailservers were down during the deployment time - that might have hampered yourcampaign the first time.

Non-purchasers

If the main objective of your email was to get peopleto buy, it's always a good idea to resend an email. This is because you canaccurately determine which of your customers have not made purchases. Ofcourse, whether or not a recipient makes a purchase depends on a lot of otherfactors such as product selection, site layout and navigation, so tread lightlyand don't over resend.

Key Don'ts When Resending

Never resend with the same subject line

Never resend with the same subject line - this maymake the customer wonder why he is receiving an email twice and think it is anerror, or worse, SPAM.

Never resend to openers

Never send to customers who have previously opened theemail. You don't want to risk annoying your active openers and creating emailfatigue.

How to Get More Out of a Resend

Resend to active non-openers

Resend your email to non-openers who have been activeduring the last 30/60/90 days.  By resendingto active non-openers, you are retargeting the base that is most likely to openyour emails. This may include people who are interested in your emails buthappened to miss reading it the first time.

Resend at the optimal time and day

Look at your email performance trends, determine whenis the best time to send emails, and resend the email at that time. You can dothe same analysis for day of week, and resend on the best performing day.

Alter subject line based on past performance

Resend with a more aggressive subject line. Highlightan offer or call-to-action that got the most clicks on the first send.

Why will someone who ignored your email thefirst time read it when you resend? There could be many reasons why someone whois interested in your emails did not open a message the first time--the emailmight have gotten buried under a flood of other emails, the recipient was in abad mood or received the email when they were in a meeting-- but might be moreinclined to open the next time. The best way to know is to always test it, like these guys.

So do you use email marketing resends in your programs? If so do you find them effective? If not, are they on your radar now? Leave a post on this blog or feel free to contact us at marketing@yesmail.com
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