Opens ain’t sales (no matter how much you try’n convince yourself otherwise)

Story time:

A few months back, I reached out to a new-ish business that I personally like to offer them a few pointers on email marketing. I also used this time as a way to qualify the company to see if they were a good fit for my services and help.  

Alas, they were not. And I told them as much during our call. 

A few days later, I realized they subscribed to my daily emails. Call it sixth sense, but I knew from the moment they signed up that they wouldn’t stay subscribed for long based solely on our conversation. I had already unqualified them as good fits. 

One of the “hidden” things a daily-ish email does is qualify leads. 

Well, I noticed they unsubscribed the other day. Love being vindicated like this. But I was also curious about which email made them unsubscribe and whether they were opening and reading my emails or not. 

So, I zip over to their contact record in my BirdSend account, and I stumbled upon the most curious little piece of data: 

If BirdSend is accurately reporting opens (which is a big IF because, well, such is the nature of inaccurate metrics like open rates), they opened every single email I sent them! 

Which brings me to the point: 

Everyone obsesses over open rates. 

Not only are they inaccurate at best, but they also don’t signal intent the way you might assume.

As my story demonstrates, just because someone opens an email—or even opens every single email—does not mean they’re gonna buy. 

If you take nothing else from this email, loosen your grip on the importance of open rates. It’ll do your emails and your bank account good. 

Need help not worrying about open rates (because you won’t even have to check your email marketing platform and instead just watch the racks come in)?

Hit reply, and let’s chat. 

John