I improved my newsletter open rate by 50%
https://marketingexamples.com/conversion/newsletter-signup-flow
When I started out building my email list I thought all I've got to do is collect email addresses' and that's job done.
So, the first batch of people who signed up to my newsletter never got an initial email. I quickly realised how much I was leaving on the table, so I added a new welcome flow which looked like this:
- Confirmation email on sign-up.
- Reminder to check spam, preventing initial email getting lost.
- Ask recipient to add to address book.
I segmented the two lists and found that 73% of those who received my new welcome email opened my latest email newsletter, compared to just 48% of those who never got an initial email.
So yes, a good welcome flow and asking to whitelist does seem to make a big difference to open rates. I've wrote a longer article, showing exactly what the new flow looks like which you can check out here
Any questions, let me know :)
Do you anticipate updating your welcome letter ever?
Err, yeah quite possibly.
But not a priority atm. This one seems to be doing well, and there's a million other problems with my site.
What would you change?
I wouldn't change anything, just wondered about your strategy if you would include the latest blog post.
Sorry, don't understand haha!
My new strategy is straight from the latest blog post! It's a copy of Revue's flow.
Interesting, thanks👍👍
Pleasure :)
Thanks for writing about this.
Btw, What software do you use for the mailing?
I use Email Octopus and I thoroughly recommend. Little bit of setup but far cheaper than Mailchimp. And MJML for actually writing the email, converting that to HTML
It's the second time I heard about Email Octopus. How does it compare to ConvertKit?
I've never used convert kit so I can't really say. But if you're after something simple, not too fancy, and cheap I'd go with Email Octopus.
There's a little Amazon setup at the start, but once you through that you're sailing. Docs are good and clear.
Appreciated!
I'm curious — how do you prompt folks to add you to your address book? I've been thinking about adding something similar for Buttondown but am not sure if I want to go with something gmail-centric or just more generic.
So if you read the full article you'll see exactly what my email looks like.
I basically just give short sweet instructions for GMail Web, App and iPhone. Worth testing more though :)
Thank you. This is really interesting how big difference can be achieved with small changes.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
To decrease the chance that this result is due to chance i.e. decrease the statistical p to increase the confidence in results.
You might want to randomize sample, correct for geographical differences in time of your audience, and send the newsletter at the same time to the test and control group.
Yeah, all valid points. Thank you :)