You can't check the open rate of a plain text email. Plus, open rate, clickthrough rate and clicks-to-sales rate are three completely different things.

My concern is not so much the open rate -- and some email readers are very touchy about HTML (Eudora, The Bat, etc). I personally believe in HTML, especially for an ezine and for formatting text (no fancy graphics, no scripts, no bloated code). But I'm starting to believe in plain text or non-fancy HTML for a sales pitch -- in a short, teaser email. It's better to "tease" them and lead them online to a sales pitch. That's when clicks-to-sales are the strongest.

As an aside, my theory is this:

Regular emails educate the reader, "here's another message I don't have time to read," and they probably put it aside. But a random email may signal, "what is he saying now?" It probably incites more interest.

My 2 cents.

Good points Michel, re "what is he saying now?" for random vs regular emails... I know I get a better sales response when I have a paced email campaign, eg a burst of 2-3 emails sent out over a week, give them a couple weeks off, then send out another 1-2 at a random time, instead of sending emails out on the same day of week every week. (I need to do further testing though, on open rates and conversion effects).

re When to send emails for best response... Day of week effects, I've heard elsewhere that "Tue-Thur mornings" are best days to send, however weekends have worked fine for me, though I avoid mondays...


ken

Tuesday morning 10-12 has been the best for me and for many of the big marketers out there. But your market is a little different Ken ... Day traders are morning people and probably have their noses glued to screens and papers and such. So, I'd be quick to understand why weekends work better. But then, I would also test early afternoons or times when trading is slow -- when the reader has "time" to read, in other words.

Funny thing ... its all to do with targets. You mention NOT ON MONDAYS Ken. I deliver mine on Mondays for two reasons: One, Hair Salon Owners generally are on a monday and if I miss I get email asking why.

Monday outpulls any other day. Tell you this though. I have two formats with this one at http://hairee.com.

One is the weekly list whcih has a superb open rate. Next is Hairee Xpress which is news based and launches new products. Last week I launched a new system on this site. I sent out the Xpress annoucing it. I had 23 unsubscribe.

Not that 23 is a big number but its higher than usual. This tells me one thing that happens consistenly online. When I make any attempt at selling to that list ... unsubscribes increase.

If I simply send out my list and other material unsubs are low! Just a thought to share with you.

Excellent idea, Michel re sending during slower times for traders, when they're more likely to read/open emails (eg lunch EST when the market's slow, vs first thing in the day when we're all following news & charts) .. will try that.. thanks!

Good points Alan, re different day of weeks relevant to specific markets ...drives home the point you've all made re know thy market and target it correctly ...

Also thx re all the earlier tips Michel for emails, I've made the changes you've suggested and got both a sharp drop in the remove request rate as well as better sales response and inquiries/follow ups to the sales messages, using a much briefer, targeted format. You're a walking encyclopedia of how to create copy that sells online, using current test results. Thanks!

It's all a science, the challenge is the testing and use of variables.

From my background as a statistician, one thing to consider is that knowing the interaction or "system effects" of multiple variables, eg

w: time of week email sent
and
x: html vs text format
and
y: type of content: audio/graphic/link to page
and ...
z: time of year effects, how to capitalize
and...
z1: type of font (serif/sans serif)
and all the other factors...
gives the strongest results (factor analysis, designed experiments), vs one-factor-at-a-time testing...

so understanding which combination of all variables when done in the correct configuration, produces highest sales conversions, is the goal.

Hey I've been reading too much Deming and Caples and 'scientific marketing' again.

but, it works. challenge is, correctly setting up tests, controlling noise/extraneous sources of variation, then leveraging results for consistent sales increases.. and my challenge, eg getting even closer inside the head of my average joe/jane customer, vs assuming they're like me. hard to get the blinders off sometimes.


Ken

Ken,

Thought youde be interested in the start of this off-beat series I am running. There will be 8 and are a copy off the s mouse letters. Designed purely to test response from my list. So far very, very good with an open rate from this one of 43%.


http://www.orangebeetle.com/Copywrit...es/veebug1.htm