San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/24/2012 -- For the month of January, Windward’s e-newsletter had an open rate of 25%. According to marketing solutions company Constant Contact, a good open rate is from 20% to 29%. A good click-through rate is from 5% to 10%. Windward’s click-through rate for January was 14%.

The company achieved this by avoiding common pitfalls like:

- Including the word Sale or Free
- Using all capital letters
- Excessive punctuation
- Red text
- Excessive use of the phrase “click here,” symbols, graphic to text ratio or $$$$

Other things that companies can do to improve their open and click-through rates, says Windward are

- Ask subscribers to “white list” them
- Always send the newsletter from the same address
- Keep the subject line to 7 words or fewer
- Add a table of contents in the top 2 to 4 inches of the newsletter so it will appear in a preview panel
- Survey readers about their reading preferences
- Include forward links, a “like” button, links to past issues and a signup opt in to the newsletter

“I am really excited about our open and click-through rates,” said Windward Technology CEO Clint Pichon. “It means we are giving our readers what they want: interesting content. Following Constant Contact’s advice has helped a lot. I am excited to see the numbers for February.”

A successful email newsletter campaign relies on a lot of factors, but following the basics has certainly done a lot to help Windward Technology’s newsletter succeed.