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Case study · Email marketing

The newsletter that opened at 22% now opens at 42

A leading Spanish digital food publication hands us its newsletter: tens of thousands of subscribers who get the same thing, whether they open it or not. The job is to make sure each person gets the email they'll actually want to open.

42%
open rate, up from 21.9% a year earlier; the industry average is 19.8%
57,440
subscribers in the database, 8,661 more than a year earlier and above the annual target
89%
open rate on the topical sends to the subscribers with the most demonstrated interest
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01 · The starting point

An email for everyone is an email for no one

We'd been measuring the publication's site for years when the email project reached us. The opening picture: a single newsletter for all of Spain, with the same content selection for the subscriber in Bilbao and the one in Seville, and a 21.9% open rate, stuck to the industry average.

The database grows slowly and, to top it off, the channel can't even take credit for what it earns: the sends go out untagged, and much of the traffic email brings in gets logged in Analytics as direct traffic.

Where things stood
  • A single generic newsletter for the whole country
  • 21.9% open rate, at the restaurant industry average (19.8%)
  • Database growing below target
  • Untagged sends: the credit for email went to direct traffic
02 · The strategy

Make every subscriber get the email they want to open

01 Dynamic sends Each email's content is reordered based on what each subscriber opens and clicks. This piece alone raises opens by 37% and clicks by 35%, and adds more than 22,000 site visits in a year.
02 One newsletter, ten editions From a single national send to ten regional editions with their own content: the restaurants, plans, and recipes of each area, plus loyalty contests with local hospitality. The best editions open at 58%.
03 Lead scoring: interest is measured and rewarded Every open and every click add points by topic. Anyone who shows interest in restaurants or recipes gets their own topical sends, which open at 89% and click at 30%.
03 · The numbers

The year of the jump, and the subject lines that explain it

21.9 → 42.2%
open rate, one year against the last. The annual target was 34% and it was beaten by 7 points
2.7 → 5.3%
click rate over the same period; the sector's "good" bar sits at 3%
+8,661
net subscribers in a year, up to 57,440, beating the database target
EditionEmail subject lineOpen rateClicks
Balearic Islandsquick meals to make this summer58.46%5.98%
Balearic Islandsmeet the art of cooking over the coals58.44%6.71%
Madridirresistible brunches! Find out where to enjoy them57.87%5.87%
Madridthe juiciest, most delicious burgers are waiting for you53.48%4.26%
Cataloniathe restaurants with the best Spanish omelets48.66%4.98%

Real subject lines from the best-performing regional editions · the project's email platform · the industry standard considers a 22% open rate good

04 · What the reports don't show

First measure it right, then brag

When we arrived, email was performing better than the dashboards said: sends were going out untagged and Analytics was attributing those visits to direct traffic. Before optimizing anything, we tagged everything. The channel's results showed up where they belonged, and since then every improvement can be proven with its own number.

The other uncomfortable truth is in the tables themselves: sends with standard content, the kind not tailored to each region, consistently open worse, below 35%. Original content costs more to produce. It's also what people open.

How many people actually open your emails?

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