The Benefits of Unopened Email

Yes, we all want our email marketing campaigns to be successful.

But there is value in even the unopened emails according to this piece from Marketing Profs:

How to Make the 'Nudge Effect' Work for You

"You may be frustrated with unopened emails and low clickthroughs, but be reassured that even if your subscribers don't open your email, its presence in their inbox leads to a tangible impact on brand awareness and sales via online and other channels," writes Dela Quist in a classic issue of the Alchemy Worx newsletter.

The subtle impact of the unopened email's presence is called the "Nudge Effect." Quist explains how it works:

• The recipient scans her inbox much like a triage nurse—deciding what needs attention now, what can wait and what she'll delete without reading.
  
• Even if she doesn't open your email, seeing your brand name in the from line and your pitch in the subject line can influence her buying decisions.

Alchemy Worx began to investigate the phenomenon when they saw an uptick in purchases—and a surge in natural, PPC and affiliate searches—from subscribers who had left marketing messages unopened. "Your message, in other words, may have been just the prompt a subscriber needed to pick up the phone or make a purchase via another channel," he explains.

According to Quist, you can optimize for the Nudge Effect by:

• Writing subject lines that encourage recipients to take action in other channels (eg, Call our sales team for a 20% discount).
  
• Timing delivery of messages with subject lines that tell subscribers about an in-store deal the next day.

"This way people do not even need to open the email," he says. "[T]hey remember the message that relates to other channels and can follow up your offer."

The Po!nt: One-liners can work. Take advantage of the Nudge Effect by using subject lines to deliver brand messages and generate cross-channel action.

Source: Alchemy Worx.

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