[epub] Newsletter Open-rate tracking

["Mark Brownlow" <mark.brownlow@xxxxxxxxx>]

A standalone "open rate" is a fairly meaningless statistic because of the
way they're usually measured. Previous discussions have covered this. For
example:

* a message is often counted as open if it appears briefly in the preview
pane on its way to the delete folder.
* it often doesn't count people reading mail offline

As such, always take declarations of open rates with a large pinch of salt.
I understand companies are working on ways of making the measure more
accurate, though.

Open rates are more useful when you're able to compare them for your own
publication *across time*. An increase or decrease in open rate can perhaps,
for example, allow you to consider things like the impact of changing your
subject line or the day you send out your newsletter.

There's a good article on email metrics which addresses the open rate issue
at:

http://www.grokdotcom.com/emailmarketingmetrics.htm

And FWIW, the numbers I usually hear quoted around the Web (notwithstanding
the above) are open rates of 10-50%. There are so many factors impacting on
whether people open and read your newsletter (not to mention the way each
publisher chooses to measure and define "open rate"), that such variation is
not surprising.

Mark
"The Keeping the Key Report"
Learn how to give your email newsletters impact & influence
http://www.KeepingtheKey.com/



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