ccording to the company’s analysis of 4 billion emails between January and June 2019, the most successful emails often tell exactly what the email includes, such as “newsletter” (31.43% click-to-open rate), “PDF” (30.31%), and “ebook” (27.84%).

In the novel Emma by Jane Austen—and in the film that's out now—Harriet Smith shows Emma a letter of proposal from Mr. Martin, a farmer. Not realizing at first that Mr. Knightley helped him with the letter, Emma is quite "surprized" by the strength and style it commands.   "There were not merely no grammatical errors, but as a composition it would not have disgraced a gentleman; the language, though plain, was strong and unaffected, and the sentiments it conveyed very much to the credit of the writer. It was short, but expressed good sense..." (In the movie, we even see how short and neat the letter is.)   I bring this up because in an article on CNN last week, Todd Rogers, a professor of public policy at Harvard University and chief scientist at EveryDay Labs, wrote that there is a problem with the way organizations, schools and airlines communicate in crisis times like this. Above all, they write too long.   "...if t ...

The Boomtown Rats once sang (Tell Me Why) I Don’t Like Mondays. But I don’t think they were speaking about it from a publisher promotional point of view. Apparently, they could have been. According to The Best Time to Send Emails (for Better Sales) a new study by Omnisend, Monday is the worst day to send promotional emails, even worse than Saturday. Their examination of over 2 billion promotional campaigns confirmed that the best day to send promotional email is Thursday, followed by Tuesday. Here are some other data points from the study: Send Thursday morning. The optimal time for sending email newsletters—those that contain retail offers—is at 8 a.m., just before the workday starts. Those earned an average open rate of 20.32% and a click-through rate of 7.79%—and even more importantly, an average of eight orders per campaign. Thursday is the best day followed by Tuesday and Wednesday. If not early in day, ...

According to SendGrid's 2018 Global Email Benchmark Report, readers are more likely to open their emails but less likely to click on the links in messages. The report found a sharp increase in opens overall—an aggregate open rate of 18%, up from 14.6% in 2017—and a click-to-open rate that continues to slump. While the aggregate click rate increased to 2% from 1.7% the year prior, the modest increase in clicks compared to opens meant the click-to-open rate fell from 11.6% to 11.1%. "These changes reinforce our belief that recipients are becoming more discerning on what they click on," the report states. "While recipients may open more emails, they aren't necessarily going to click on links within the message."

It's good to send personalized email, but you better get the spelling right. 

The opportunity to drive even higher engagement—mentioned earlier—will come courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the study says.And companies seem to acknowledge that, with 96.2% believing those tools can improve the customer experience. But the study also shows that 38% do not yet trust the effectiveness of AI. "Moreover, marketers are concerned about the challenges of converting to those technologies. Of the 486 marketers polled, 70% are worried about the obstacles in implementing and training. An equal percentage are concerned about the hassles of switching or adding a platform. In addition, 67% fear giving up editorial control, and 54% added investment." "Like any relationship, be honest and do what you say you are going to do," Hernandez advised. "Be clear." If your first email promises new benefits coming their way, those benefits should come. Use analytics to id ...

Brian Cuthbert of Diversified Communications, who recently delivered a webinar for us on Aligning Editorial Strategy with Sales and Marketing, has his editors reach out to five cancelled members each month to ask "What can we do better?" and see if they will come back. "We've picked up 3% of cancelled members by doing this," he said.

"The majority of your email success happens outside the envelope: the 'to' address, the 'from' address, the subject line, the preview, the format, and the deliverability. Nail them all and your success rates will increase. Period."

Email provider SendGrid wanted to reach donors so they tested an email with three forms of a teachers' thank-you note, hoping to bring people to a landing page.