Introduction

The majority of industries rely on email marketing to promote their content and products and engage with their users. In multifamily, email marketing can help convert prospects to residents and retain existing residents. However, effective email marketing is reliant on multiple variables; namely:

• Open Rate
• Click-Through Rate
• Send Frequency

Optimizing these three variables will enhance multifamily email performance and increase outreach.

What is Open Rate?

To begin, what is Open Rate (OR)? OR is one of several metrics that reflect the level of engagement prospects have with the content you send them. The higher the OR, the higher the engagement. Before proceeding, it’s important to define when an email is considered ‘open’. An email is considered ‘open’ only when images are enabled. Most emails enable images automatically. Sometimes though, users will need to enable images manually.

Number of Opens

Now that you know how an open email is defined, how are those opens counted? First, there are the number of opens. The number of opens is the number of times an individual user opens an email. For example, if a user receives an email and opens it 5 times, then the number of opens is 5.

Unique Opens

Alternatively, ‘unique opens’ is the number of unique people who have opened an email. Again, say a user receives and opens an email and then opens it four more times. The unique open is counted as one, the total number of opens is 5.

How is Open Rate Calculated?

Seeing as the OR is crucial for enhancing email performance, you will need to know how to calculate it. Simply take the number of people who opened the email divided by the number of people who received the email times 100 to calculate the OR percentage. For example, if you sent 150 emails and 50 were uniquely opened your OR would be 33% (50/150) * 100.

What is a Good Open Rate?

OR depends on several factors; everything from the number of recipients to the subject line can impact the OR, but an OR between 20-40% is considered good.

Best Practices to Improve Open Rate

Having the right tools and data is crucial, but you need to know how to use them. In order to improve OR, let's review OR best practices.

Create Engaging Subject Lines

Subject lines are the difference between a prospect opening your email or not. You should customize your subject line each time you create an email.

Specific vs. Generic Subject Lines

It's crucial to find a balance when writing subject lines. For example, you wouldn't want to send a subject line so vague or generic that prospects ignore it: ie. 'Offer'. Yet, you do not want to overdo the enthusiasm or specificity: 'Amazing, Outstanding, Special Offer Just For You!' Balance is key: 'Don't Miss this Special Offer!'

Ask Questions

Subject lines as a question can entice users especially if they are relevant. For example, send prospects an Offer with a subject line of: 'How Much are You Willing to Pay?'

Keep it Personal

People like emails that feel personalized. Simply adding a user's first name or the date or event where you met the user can go a long way: ie. 'Hi John, Great Meeting You at the Open House Last Sunday.'

Have a Sense of Urgency

Sometimes you need a subject line with a sense of urgency. The more important and attention-grabbing your email is, the more likely it is to be opened: 'Act Now!,' 'Don't Miss this Special Offer!'

Be Concise

When you are competing for people's attention, it's crucial to keep subject lines concise: 'Take 50% Off of Your Rent Today!'

Send Emails at the Right Time

Another way to improve OR is by knowing the time of day to send emails. Below you see a graph by Campaign Monitor. They found that the largest percentage of emails are opened around 10am. Therefore, sending emails around 10am should result in a higher OR. This is a simple change and an example of how better data you can enhance email performance.

Send Emails on the Right Day

In addition to sending emails at the right time of day, you need to send them on the correct day as well. For example, if you send emails for an event 2 days before the event is scheduled users will likely be unable to attend. You need to allow a longer window for engagement. Alternatively, you do not want to send an email too far in advance. For example, if you send an event email a month in advance, you will give users time to engage with it; however, too long a window can cause users to disengage and lose interest. In multifamily, usually, a one-week engagement window is best.

Send the Message via SMS

Finally, consider improving OR by sending your emails as both an email and SMS. SMS have a 98% OR while email has an OR of around 20%.

Event Email in Email Formatting

Event Email in SMS Formatting

Now that you know how to get users to open your emails, let’s ensure they click through them. The next post will cover Click-Through Rate and best practices to optimize it.