The little-known reason why “high open rates” don’t mean your emails are actually being read…

So, here’s how a typical first conversation goes with my clients:

“Hey, so how are your emails performing?”

“They’re doing great, my opens are over 50% every time and my clicks are always around 5%.”

“Cool, but I asked how they are performing”

And this is usually where I get the “deer caught in headlights” stare.

Which is where I ask a series of questions that leads to where they actually are right now, where they want to be… and where I lead them to the light.

The truth is:

High opens don’t mean dollars in, or even that people are actually reading your emails.

Most people flaunt that they have high opens, but guess what?

Since Apple’s famous IOS update years ago, EVERYONE has high opens!

That’s because if someone uses an Apple product to view their inbox, if they see (not even open) your emails, it shows as an open.

The same thing remains true about Android devices, too. But in the opposite way…

Because Android devices by default usually have HTML turned off which means even if they open your emails, you wouldn’t even know it.

Good thing you listened to that email marketing guru and resend to your “unopens”, right?

That’s ok, they probably researched that tactic on ChatGPT to tell you that, anyway.

The truth is, opens don’t mean anything when it comes to the real response of your email list.

They should only be used as a barometer for your email list at best.

By saying that…

I mean if there’s a drastic change, look into it.

The problem with most email marketing advice you get online (especially on LinkedIn), is that it’s all based on tricks, tactics and hacks… not what actually works in the long term.

But you want to know what works in the long term?

And over arching strategy that’s built around your subscribers world (not yours and what you want from them), making them feel welcome, comfortable and that they want to listen to you (and only you), and eventually even become repulsed by your competition.

Which happens when you start approaching email marketing with market first… not the marketing first.

I know everyone kind of says that…

But then you opt-in to their email list and guess what?

You can pull the from name off their emails and they sound like they could have come from anyone (or even an AI chatbot). In which they go on to (pretend) to be an authority.

Either way...

For now, before you hit that send button:

Ask yourself if you approached writing that email with the thought of building a bridge from your product to customer, or from your customer to your product?

… Let that sink in for a minute.

It makes a world of difference when you do it right.

Enjoy!