How to Increase Your Email Ad Open Rates - Part 2

In Part 1 (see here) I discussed how you can increase your Email open rates by keeping your message simple. Here, I'd like to focus on how to make you Email ads more appealing to the Pharma Marketing News (PMN) subscriber audience.

Suggestion #1: Offer special discounts to PMN subscribers in promotions.

In "My Pledge to Subscribers and Advertisers" (pdf file) I promised to offer subscribers (and advertisers) more value-added services. Specifically, I said:

"Because PMN subscribers are very valuable to me and to my advertisers, I will fight for special discounts for subscribers from advertisers and include a personal thank you and endorsement in the ad when such offers are made. These days, every one needs a break and I pledge to pass along as much savings as I can to my subscribers."

I'm not sure how much my personal endorsement is worth in terms of getting more responses to advertisers' Email ads, but I know that everyone appreciates special consideration and money-saving deals. So, offering special discounts to PMN subscribers is very effective in increasing the effectiveness of your promotions to my subscribers.

Hopefully, this discount is unique for my subscribers. If it is, I can make a big deal about it in my upfront personal endorsement. I may even Tweet about it to my Twitter followers, many of whom are NOT subscribers to PMN. I not only do this to help my advertisers, but also to recruit new PMN subscribers. It's a win-win-win situation.

Suggestion #2: Avoid sending the SAME EXACT message to multiple lists.

I know that many of my advertisers send messages to other subscriber lists. Often the EXACT SAME message is sent to EVERY list. Many of my subscribers are on multiple lists. Consequently, they are likely to get the same message multiple times. This is a problem because these subscribers will think they are being spammed even though they have agreed to receive ad messages in exchange for a free subscription. They may not realize that the messages are coming from different sources and will think that PMN is sending them the same exact message over and over again. This is exacerbated when the advertiser uses the SAME subject line and times their message to go out the SAME day to multiple lists!

Therefore, I suggest to my advertisers that in addition to providing special offers and discounts to PMN subscribers, that they also:

1. Compose a UNIQUE message for PMN subscribers. Try at least mentioning "Pharma Marketing News subscriber" in your message or addressing the message to "Dear Pharma Marketing News subscriber:". If you need help and more specific suggestions, ask me (call 215-504-4164 or email editor@news.pharma-mkting.com).
2. If you can't change the message, at least use a UNIQUE subject line.

Although I cannot PROMISE that advertisers who follow my suggestions will get a better response to their promotions, I can promise this:

1. I will give your message the best personal endorsement I can
2. I will reward you with better discounts

As a last resort, I reserve the right to REFUSE to send an Email promotional message to my subscribers if I believe it is not in the best interest of my subscribers. Keep in mind that ALL Email sent to PMN subscribers comes from me (John Mack, Editor) personally. And I don't want to be perceived as a spammer!

P.S. I realize that some advertisers may not think it is fair to offer PMN subscribers discounts that are not offered to members of other lists. Hmmm... what can I say? PMN subscribers may be more valuable than members of other, less focused lists. Therefore, PMN subscribers may deserve special treatment. If you don't buy that argument, then at least you should offer PMN subscribers the SAME discount you have offered to other list members that receive your promotions. Also, you can make the offer more specific by using a special discount code for PMN subscribers. This way you can track whether or not the offer was successful.