If you’ve ever scrolled down to the bottom of a WorkPuzzle email, you’ll notice that we use a company called MadMimi to distribute our blog content. We chose this company because they have fun way of looking at business, and they do a great job of delivering our emails to our subscribers.
MadMimi is also a thought leader in the arena of email
marketing. Over the last couple of
years, I’ve learned a lot about marketing from Dean Levitt (I think he’s the
guy who runs the company) and his crew.
Dean recently wrote a blog that is one of the best I’ve ever read on the best practices and metrics of sending marketing emails. It’s a very long blog with lots of rabbit trails you can follow to learn more. If you have the time, read the whole post. Since many of are pressed for time, I’ve selected the top five questions/answers that most apply to recruiting.
Before revealing the top five questions, I want to offer a disclaimer. I have not been a huge fan of using drip emails in the recruiting process. The best way to use email in recruiting is to keep your active pipeline numbers low (25 to 50 candidates) and send personal emails to each candidate on a regular basis addressing his/her unique needs and circumstances. This takes work, but pays the highest dividends in the long term.
So why am I addressing this issue if I believe it’s a bad idea?
It’s because I get questions concerning this topic so often from our clients and prospects. Many of you are trying to manage and engage larger talent communities (100+ candidates) in addition to your high-priority active pipeline. For this purpose, drip email campaigns may be helpful.
Here’s the risk of using drip email: There are many ways to screw it up! So, if you’re going to use this tool, listen to Dean and become a student of effective email marketing. Here are the top 5 questions:
How Long Should Your Drip Emails Be?
Consider this: the average reader spends less than 20 seconds reading your newsletter. Consequently, the links that are clicked most are those links that are up top, or at the very least, visible without scrolling.
With that in mind, I’d say your newsletter can be as long as you’d like but make sure your most important info goes up top. If your newsletter needs 5 minutes of uninterrupted attention by your readers, then you need to be comfortable knowing that most readers won’t make it to the bottom. Also, if your newsletter is taking you hours to compose, it’s probably too long.
What if you have a lot to say? Consider hosting the main content outside the inbox. If you keep your content on your site or blog, you give yourself the luxury to send out much shorter newsletters that then drive traffic back to your site or blog. I’ve found this to be very effective. It can open up new opportunities to engage your subscribers on your site as well as presenting a lot of information in the newsletter as bite sized chunks. This way, your readers can see more within a shorter time span and if something piques their interest, they can click through to your site.
How Often Should You Send Your Drip Emails?
The ideal frequency depends on your content and what your subscribers prefer but if you’re unsure, some experimentation is needed.
Most businesses should send a monthly newsletter and then possibly increase frequency from there. If you find your content is making your newsletter longer and longer then consider increasing the frequency and splitting up the content.
With increased frequency you’ll notice an increase in unsubscribers and lowered view rates but don’t panic. Add up your open rates over the entire month and if you’re reaching more people by increasing your frequency then that may be the right tactic for you.
When Is The Best Time To Send Your Drip Emails?
This depends on you and requires some experimentation. The studies focusing on best times to send a newsletter tend to look at averages which, when it comes to you, your list and your content, may be meaningless.
That means that while your competitors are sending on Mondays at 8am, and seeing good responses, you might too. However, you also may see better results if you send on the weekend or afternoons and stand out more.
Testing will be needed to find the right time for you, but make sure you’re not basing your email marketing strategy on one test. Test a few newsletters on weekday mornings, midweek afternoons, weekends and evenings. Watch for trends and then decide for yourself if there’s any significant gains at a specific time slot.
Experian Marketing Services found that people responded more to email marketing emails sent on the weekend. They also found that, in general, response rates were higher in the early mornings and in the evenings. That makes sense considering that people tend to check emails with less distractions before and after work.
I’ve seen data hinting that Tuesday through Thursday has higher view rates but an Experian email benchmark report found that Monday emails generated the highest revenue per email.
What Is A Good Or Average Response Rate For Drip Emails?
This is one of those questions that has no straight answer. It’s like asking what the perfect weight is. Everyone is different!
Overall, average view rates are somewhere between 10% and 25%. If you’re consistently getting below 10%, I’d recommend making some changes. You could adjust your sender frequency, work on improving your list health by removing non-responsive email addresses, work on improving your subject lines and maybe make some changes to your content.
It’s extremely rare to see emails with view rates above 40% but it is possible with opt-in practices that result in highly engaged subscribers. Targeted, niche market newsletters with strict double opt-in, combined with regular, consistent sends and valuable content tend to have above average results. They also tend to have smaller list sizes.
Your view rate should be something you’re happy with as well as being realistic. Take small steps to improve constantly.
How Do I Avoid The Junk Folder?
Avoiding the junk folder is actually quite easy, provided you stick to some best practices that are more common sense guidelines than strict rules.
The logical starting place is the list itself. If your subscribers signed up, directly with you, and expect to receive your newsletters, you’ll be just fine. If you’d like to stay out of the junk folder, don’t purchase an email list. Nor should you add anyone to your list without their permission.
Staying out of the bulk folder also requires maintaining a view rate that shows ISP’s that people want your newsletter. Aim for a minimum of a 10% view rate. By delivering the type of content your subscribers expected and signed up for, you’ll maintain an engaged audience and keep your view rates up.
Similarly, by removing old, defunct email addresses, you’ll avoid “bounces” and that’s good. A bounce is when we try to send to an email address that’s non-existent, inactive or otherwise undeliverable. ISP’s look at bounces as an indication of a poorly managed email list.
Specific content makes a big difference too. Here are some tips:
- In general, it’s a good idea to avoid hard-sell catchphrases like: Free, Instant, Double your money, Sex, XXX, Win, Cash, Bonus, Membership, Free Offer, Call Now, Rates, $$$’s, Success, etc.
- Excessive use of CAPS LOCK can cause issues, as well.
- Avoid excessive punctuation especially in subject lines. Multiple !!!’s and ???’s can be troublesome. Keep your promotion conversational rather than hard-sell EXTRA!!!! BUY NOW!!! style.
- Keep a reasonable text to image ratio. Email marketing promotions that are all images can trigger spam filters because it looks like you’re hiding something.
I know this was a long WorkPuzzle (I definitely broke the first rule on the list), but hopefully you were able to quickly scroll through the issues and find the one most interesting and relevant. If you’re able to apply even one or two of these best practices, the effectiveness of your recruiting drip emails will improve.
Question: Do you have things you’ve noticed as you sent recruiting drip emails? Email me with your lessons learned and I will publish them in a future WorkPuzzle.
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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.
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