3 big reasons why email open rates don’t matter (and what you should measure instead)

First, a short story
Recently I participated in a roundtable discussion led by a salesperson for one of those cookie-cutter planned giving website companies. She was showing off her firm’s marketing emails. As she presented her Powerpoint slides, she kept emphasizing how wonderful the open rates were.

17% open rate. 28% open rate. 34% open rate.

“Oooh. Aaah. Wow” said the others seated beside me.

Then I asked, “Why are you measuring open rates? They don’t account for the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of email marketing. No smart marketer cares about them. I don’t get it. Why do you keep talking about open rates?”

Stunned! The sales rep was stunned. She had no idea what to say. 
That’s because she didn’t know a darn thing about effective marketing. She was just spewing misinformation. Sadly that’s what I see happen at most fundraising conferences. That’s why I rarely go to them.

Some people call email open rates empty metrics. Others say they are just a vanity metric. I’m here to tell you that there’s simply no good reason whatsoever to measure them. Here’s why:

1. Most email programs that block images misreport open rates;
2. Many opens on mobile devices such as Blackberry devices do not report that the email was opened;
3. And, finally, emails read in preview panes are usually not reported as opened.

So what should you measure instead?:

• Clicks
• Number of pages visited
• Types of pages visited online
• Time on site
• Forwards/shares
• Shares on social media
• Inbound requests for more information
• Inbound phone calls

What really matters is engagement! Email open rates are faulty and useless! 

So the next time you hear one of those cookie-cutter planned giving website salespeople tell you about their open rates, tell ’em you know better.

Recommendations:

>> 15 Powerful Nonprofit Statistics for 2015
>> 14 Tips for Making Your Nonprofit Email More Effective
>> The Top 3 Kinds of Emails Your Donors Actually Want to Receive From You

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