Sometimes it seems that lowering your delivery rate is the route to greater success…

We’ve all heard the rules a million times before: don’t use spam words such as ‘FREE’ or ‘BULK’, don’t write entire words in capitals, be careful of including symbols such as ‘!’ or ‘£’. Those pesky spam filters are on the war path and we have quickly learnt the ways and means needed to get our precious emails out of the spam file and into the inbox.
But, is there ever a time when these rules don’t apply?

Let’s face it, if your email has so much as a whiff of ‘spam’ about it, it’s likely to be whisked off and left to rot at the bottom of someone’s spam folder. So, why risk it?

The problem is, both the delivery rate and the open rate of your campaign are important. This can cause a conflict of interest – after all, what if the very headline that is likely to increase your open rate is also the one that will set off the spam filters? And which one should take precedence?

Research has shown that specific subject lines produce, on average, a higher click through rate than those that are more generic. People tend to respond to clarity, so ‘£20 off ticket prices’ is likely to achieve better results than a subject line which simply promises ‘money off’. But the real question is – will the first subject line increase the open rate enough to warrant any decrease that may be had in the delivery rate due to the use of symbols?

The only way to find the answer is through testing, as various factors will affect the results such as the target market, subject line, and product. However, it’s worth finding out. Delivery rate is the first figure that most people look at in their campaign report, yet in isolation it means nothing. The number of people that receive your email is only important in relation to the improved open rate that usually comes as a result. Therefore, if there’s a chance of increasing your open rate, it definitely warrants some investigation.