Most email marketers fap over their open rates.
Me?
I don’t even look at them.
Okay, okay. I do look at some open rate metrics for my client accounts.
But I don’t pray at the altar of open rates like most (cringey) email marketers do.
And here’s why:
1. Open rates aren’t accurate.
There are some very smart engineer types who have been saying open rates don’t matter for years.
But Apple dropping iOS15 makes open rates even less accurate. Apple now either overinflates (or underinflates) open rates. Plus, Android and Google are following suit.
If you gimme a second to put on my tinfoil hat… aha, here we go:
Now that’s it fitting snug on top of me noggin:
Metheorizes that Apple plans to start its own advertising arm — due to iOS15 and the even more deadly iOS14 updates.
iOS14 basically made Facebook Ads stop working. Apple stopped letting Facebook track your every move online. And iOS15 made open rates metric go bananas.
No, I don’t think Apple did this out of the goodness of their heart. Maybe if Steve Jobs was still alive, but, alas, he is not. Instead, I think Apple wants to take a big, fat bite outta the advertising apple Facebook, Google, and YouTube enjoy.
We shall see.
Anywho:
Regardless what happens, Apple made it so your marketing (whether Facebook Ads or emails) don’t work as well as they used to. Making hiring a professional—like, cough, me—to run your emails is even more important than it twas just a few months ago.
Alright, we got off track…
Let’s continue, shall we?
2. Open rates are a vanity metric.
Open rates are just there to please your ego. They serve no other purpose, especially due to the problems Apple and other tech companies caused.
They used to have little importance. Open rates were a feasible metric for tracking engagement, creating segments, and a bunch of other “behind-the-scenes” email marketing tricks.
But now they have no purpose nor importance.
3. You can’t pay your bills with your open rates.
Believe me, I tried. I went to Chase and told them the first email in my welcome series has a 94.1% open rate — they laughed in my face.
4. They’re not even the best “engagement metric”
What’s an engagement metric?
Glad you asked.
These are different metrics the likes of Google, Yahoo, and etc.’s algorithms like. If you’re in a good spot with the algorithm, they’re more likely to send your emails to the primary inbox (instead of the dreaded Promotions tab or spam folder).
But there’s a much better metric than opens for this.
It’s something I include in all my welcome series I write for my clients. It’s a “sneaky” way to make the algorithms like you… and it works like gangbusters.
I’ve used it in this list if you caught on.
I use it in all my clients' automated sequences.
And you know what?
I also use it in some strategic broadcast emails.
Wanna know the answer?
We’re gonna have to work together.
Mwahahahaha (in my most evil laugh).
Speaking of…
Not only will I share this sneaky trick with you, but we might end up working together. Meaning, you can enjoy more of your hard-earned freedom whiiiiiiile making way more “easy-earned” income.
Win-win if’n you asked my biased self.
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