Email marketers can spend hours crafting the perfect email. From determining your concept and strategy, to writing copy and creating graphics, and setting up link tracking and completing quality assurance checks, building a great email is no small feat. That’s why it’s so tempting to resend an email to those who didn’t open it the first time it was sent. But is this a good strategy? The short answer is: Yes, when done carefully.
First, let’s look at the numbers. Our clients who resend email campaigns typically see about half of the open rate on the resend as the original email. That means if your first email had a 20 percent open rate, you can expect to see around a 10 percent open rate on the resend. That’s a substantial increase in the number of subscribers who view your email!
Click-to-open rate, the percentage of unique email openers who clicked on a link, is similar between the original email and the resend.
The percentage of recipients who unsubscribe is slightly lower on resent email. The percentage of spam complaints are similar on the resend to the original email.
Based on these metrics, it might be tempting to think email marketers should be resending every email. Not so fast! One metric that helps marketers get their email in the inbox is engagement. Gmail and other inbox providers favor delivery of email that users are opening and clicking on. Resending every email reduces your overall open rate, so we recommend monitoring inbox placement when resending high numbers of email.
Here are some dos and don’ts for email resends.
Do:
Change the subject line. While some research shows keeping the same subject line can drive higher opens, changing the subject can prevent your message from threading on Gmail. Also consider changing the preheader copy, which is visible in the inbox. A revised subject or preheader may appeal to subscribers who didn’t open the original email.
Exclude previous openers. It’s a good idea to exclude anyone who has opened or clicked on the original email.
Wait at least 24 hours to resend. Take a peek at when most of your subscribers open your email. Typically, the majority of opens happen within 24 hours of delivery, but some brands see a shorter or longer window in which opens happen. Try to provide the biggest window of opportunity to open the original email before resending.
Resend emails related to events or expiration dates on special offers. Any email with a call to action that contains a sense of urgency is a prime candidate for a resend.
Track deliverability metrics and inbox placement. This is especially important if you resend a lot of emails. Keep a close eye on unsubscribes, complaints, bounces and blocks. You’ll also want to run a few inbox placement reports, available from companies like Return Path or 250ok. Inbox placement reports show you if your email arrives in the inbox, the junk folder or is missing altogether. We can help you run these reports!
Don’t:
Don’t resend every email as standard operating procedure! Pick and choose emails that contain the best offer, a special promotion, or that are particularly important to your subscribers or company. If an open rate is low on the original send, you’ll want to analyze why the rate is low, then make content and list segmentation changes to improve it on the resend. A resend is not a magic bullet for improving open rates.
Savvy email marketers rely on message relevancy, timeliness, testing and subscriber behavior triggers to craft high-performing email campaigns — regardless of whether they are sent once or twice.
Adestra MessageFocus Makes Resending Email Easy
Katey Charles Communications now has a partnership with Adestra MessageFocus to bring our clients a powerful, easy-to-use email platform. One of Adestra’s many features is easy automation of email resends. Before launching your original email, marketers can pre-schedule a resend to those who don’t open and also modify the subject line in advance. No more segmenting a resend list, duplicating and launching a campaign! Schedule a demo to see how easy it is.