Open Rates RE: Digital Magazines Don’t Ask the Right Question

Mike from Napier Technology Marketing was curious to know about digital magazine open rates. When asked, I responded with the following:

One thing to keep in mind w/ open rates is that the most successful digital magazines aren’t content to let e-mail drive readership. Instead, they’re using social media, websites, etc. Our most successful titles will get 50% or more readership from sources other than e-mail, and that’s where the medium can really be leveraged. To use a print analogy, the "pass-along" rate is infinite.

Mike did publish a few results on his blog and if I were a publisher, I’d want to see them, but they’re not very conclusive as they fail to compare the digital magazine open rates to newsletters from the same publisher. For all we know 16% could be awesome or awful. But most important, e-mail’s just one leg in the digital edition promotion stool. Those who attend our webinars know there are three key components to digital magazine readership growth. Check with your account manager for details!

Mike also lists some of the aspects he sees as benefits of digital magazines:

Opening and browsing a digital magazine is a much bigger commitment on the part of the reader than visiting a web page. Digital magazines also deliver news in a push format, highlighting new products and technologies to readers who would be unlikely to learn about them through search engines.

Well said!