How-To Guide: Optimizing your newsletter engagement rates

As your subscriber list grows, optimizing your newsletter engagement rates will be an ongoing effort. This guide will help you understand what newsletter engagement metrics mean, what actually impacts your engagement, and provide four actionable steps to improve.

What are newsletter engagement rates?

To measure the success of email newsletters, we look at engagement rates. These engagement rates tell you how the newsletter performed. 
The core newsletter engagement metrics are: 

• Open rate = the percentage of newsletter recipients who actually opened the newsletter. 
• Click-through rate = the percentage of newsletter openers who clicked on a link in the newsletter. 
• Unsubscribe rate = the percentage of newsletter recipients who unsubscribe after receiving the newsletter.

‍What defines success for your newsletter? 

It’s recommended to choose one core metric to focus on and optimize for at one time. That doesn’t mean to ignore the rest, but optimizing for more than one at a time can be less effective. 

It’s common to choose to focus on click-through rates as the ultimate measure of success for your newsletter, but it doesn't have to be. You can still serve your audience without sending them to your website. 

The average open rate in student media is between 20 and 30 percent, while the average click-through rate is between 2 and 5 percent. Keep in mind that larger lists may see lower numbers, especially if the subscribers came from a FOIA request. 

If your metrics fall below average, it’s time to explore what is affecting your engagement rates. 

What impacts your open and engagement rates 

There are a few reasons why your engagement rates may be low. 

1. Your subject lines are not enticing or interesting to your reader. 
2. It’s not clear who is sending the email. 
3. The story choice or subject matter doesn’t align with your reader's interests. 
4. You’re giving too much information away, so no one needs to click to read more
5. It’s not clear where to click.
6. The newsletter doesn’t deliver on the promise you made to your readers when they signed up. 
7. Your newsletter doesn’t follow all of the required security protocols. 

The actual design and aesthetic of your newsletter does not impact your engagement rates. 

What you can do to fix it 

Subject lines and preview text

Subject lines serve as your first chance to catch your readers' attention. Preview texts serve as your second chance. 

Your subject line should: 

• Be short enough to show in full without cutting off (around 50 characters is safe; some email providers show more, some show a little less)
• Match the tone of your email and your brand
• Clearly tease the biggest, most interesting, or most important news of the day
• Be consistent from the day before / historically
• Be free of typos, errors, filler text

Your subject line should not:

• Be overloaded with emojis, spammy, or gimmicky words
• Be the exact same every day (“News from The Flytedesk Times”) 
• Waste characters on things like the date, day of the week, or time

Your preview text should be: 

• Short! It will fill whatever space is left after the subject line
• About something different or varied from your subject line
• Thoughtful — avoid filler text like the date, day of the week, or a generic intro you use every week

Story promos

When you are writing your story promos for each content piece, you don’t want to give the reader all of the information they need. Your story promos should give them just enough to pique their curiosity. 

Here’s an example. 

Too much: Flytedesk U’s Student Government votes 7-2 to increase activity fees by $50 after heated debate over funding shortfall

Too Little: Student Government met yesterday

Just Right: Student Government's heated debate over activity fees ends with a vote that could affect every student's wallet. Read more for how.

Sender name

Your sender name tells the reader who the email is coming from. The sender name should be the name of your student media organization. This helps it stay consistent and recognizable. 

You should avoid using a person’s name or a brand name that isn’t readily familiar. 

Security protocols 

Yahoo, Gmail, and Outlook have all passed rules in the last 2-3 years requiring certain levels of security for email senders. If you don’t meet those standards? Your emails don’t get through.

Use mxtoobox.com to check if your website domain has all of the correct security protocols in place. If you find you are missing a security protocol, work with your webmaster or IT department to ensure everything is in place.

What’s next

Small details make a big difference in how many subscribers do or don’t engage with your email newsletter. Just make sure you focus on what actually impacts your newsletter, and optimize for one thing at a time. 

If you need any help along the way, contact your flytedesk account manager for more resources and support.