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How do you know what content resonates most with your readers? The simplest means to answer this seemingly daunting question is to test different styles of content and track which articles are clicked on the most. We put this approach to the test ourselves, analyzing reader actions from recent Intevation Report mailings.
You and your team put passion into your newsletter articles each issue, but your click-through rates aren't where you think they should be. Perhaps your content is great, but it just isn't what resonates most with your readers at the moment.
We sought answers to this challenge for this very newsletter and you, our readers. The answer turned out to be quite obvious and not at all surprising. What you like most are simple articles that lay out specific tips and steps that can be implemented to improve the performance of your email program. When we pushed the loftier, bigger picture stuff, you weren't buying.
We'll ignore the reasons for this and focus on how we came to this conclusion:
1. First we analyzed open rates over the life of the newsletter. We discovered that simple and "tip" oriented subject lines generally drove higher open rates.
2. Next we analyzed split tests we had conducted - testing different subject lines for a few issues of the newsletter. Again, subject lines that suggested actionable information out performed the informational only topics.
3. Then we looked at which specific articles typically drove the highest click-through rates. Looking at the click-through rates for individual articles within each newsletter, we looked for any specific trends. We discovered that articles that dealt specifically with newsletter topics generally outperformed other topics.
4. Using this information, we put it our analysis to the test. We focused the lead articles and subject lines of the April and May issues on straight forward tip oriented topics. The articles, "28 Ways to Grow Your Email List" and "15 Tips for Improved Subject Lines", produced the two highest click-through rates (overall and for the individual articles) in the history of the newsletter.
For EmailLabs these findings were clearly not surprising, but we now have a very clear picture of the type of content our readers are responding to, and we can't ignore it. If you manage a newsletter we suggest undertaking a similar process to bring the content needs of your subscribers into sharp focus.
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