Why People Read (Or Don't Read) Your Email

October 5, 2009

Interview with Ron Cates Spokesperson for Constant Contact

www.roncates.com

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Mike Carruthers:
If you want to get a hold of someone, email is a good bet.

Ron Cates:
America Online did a survey last year and more than half the respondents check their email more than five times a day.

Ron Cates Spokesperson for Constant Contact says a lot of research has been done on email.

If you want to get opened it’s got to go at a good time of day and a good day of the week - if you have that option. So, for example, we know that open rates on Sunday are pretty good because people like to scan their email before they go to work on Monday. But people don’t take action on Sundays, just a scan. So the best action rates typically happen on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

And the best time to send email is 10:30 in the morning or 1:30 in the afternoon.

It’s also really important that the “from” name and the “from” email address is very clearly identifiable. 60% of your recipients decide whether to open it or not based on who it’s from.

In business, people tend to use Microsoft Outlook to send and receive emails.

If I send you an email and you open it in Outlook it’s got my name Ron Cates, it’s got my email address in brackets right next to it so you know who its from. For America Online - which is where more people read their email than anywhere else in the world - they strip the “from” name and they only display the “from” email address. So if it’s from Ron Cates and my email address is Ron_58@yahoo.com and they only see that email address there’s no way their going to open it because they’re not going to recognize it.

To hear the complete unedited interview click here.