I finally stopped ignoring email open rates last month

For three years straight I only cared about click through rates. I thought opens were vanity metrics that everyone just faked anyway. Then last month a client showed me their data comparing subject line types to actual sales over six months. Turns out emails with personalized subject lines had 40% higher open rates and those people bought 25% more stuff. Now I spend way more time on subject lines than I used to. Has anyone else seen a real link between open rates and revenue in their own campaigns?

2 comments

2 Comments

butler.shane20d agoMost Upvoted

Maybe it's just me but open rates are still pretty easy to fake with bots and previews. I've seen subject line A/B tests show big open gaps that never translated to a single extra sale.

palmer.ryan20d ago

Yeah, I heard a marketing guy say something similar on a podcast once - that Apple's mail privacy update basically made open rates useless for a lot of people. It really makes you wonder what metrics actually matter anymore.