Remember back in the day when social media was coming onto the scene and some marketers thought email was on its way out? Well, surprise surprise … email marketing is not dead! In fact, email is still one of the best ways to reach your audience as each subscriber can access email through a variety of devices (thank you smartphones). In our WiFi world, users can easily check their email in one swift swipe of a screen.
So if email is still relevant for marketing, have the rules changed?
Actually, yes. Many email standards remain unchanged, but there are some so-called rules out there about email that don’t really apply anymore. Here are a few important ones to recognize.
Email Marketing Myths:
1. Frequent emails will bother my subscribers. Not so. In fact, people sign up for countless email communications and receive messages in their inboxes daily. It’s very easy for them to forget about your business if they don’t hear from you on a regular basis. The exact frequency for sending email is different for each industry and type of business though, so just be careful. For instance, retail companies can get away with sending emails daily. They often market different sales and offers, and readers don’t seem to mind getting those messages each day (who wants to miss out on a big sale?!). Service-oriented professional businesses such as law firms and medical practices couldn’t get away with sending emails as often as retail businesses, but they still need to get in front of their readers consistently.
2. You can’t use the same subject line. This is debatable depending on the goal behind your email, but it’s not necessarily true. In fact, if a reader is signed up to receive a regular communication from you, they actually look forward to seeing that email subject line in their inbox. An example of this would be a weekly digest of your blog posts. Let’s say your subject line is “Your Weekly Blog Digest from XYZ Firm.” Each week your subscribers will see that same subject line knowing they can access all of your blog posts for the week from that one email, making it easier for them to sift through their inbox to find the information they are interested in. Typically, this works better for emails that are not sales-oriented but information-based. Using the same subject line can also work for promoting events, serving as a reminder for subscribers.
3. If subscribers aren’t opening your email the day you send it, then your email failed. If you check your email campaign report right after you send your message, you’re going to be very disappointed. And extremely misinformed! Give your email 24-36 hours before you even look at the reporting, and don’t assume that is the best result you’ll get. According to Alchemy Worx as reported in Business 2 Community, 85% of emails are opened two days after they go out. Even more interesting is that 32% of purchases (or actions) take place two weeks after the email was sent. It’s normal to feel like your subscribers must have sent your email to the trash, but don’t count them out too soon. Get back into your reporting a week or so down the road to check on open-rates and click-throughs.
These are just a few email marketing myths that are floating around, so be sure to check back with the IMS Blog for more updates on email best practices!
Reference: Business 2 Community (September 14, 2014) – “Demystified: Top 7 Email Marketing Myths [Infographics]”