You may have seen the statistics regarding email marketing like
- Email has the highest return-on-investment (ROI) of all marketing channels.
- Email generates 40 times more customers than social media.
- It yields a 17% higher purchase value per order than social platforms.
- Email is used by over 90% of all US consumers on a daily basis.
But still, you’re wondering what causes failure in email marketing despite such a good stats. The reason is a lot of tips you’re being told are no doubt useful but the equal number of them are myths also.
To make yourself clear, here are 10 email marketing myths that could be killing your ROI.
Email Marketing Myths
You need a big list to make an impact
When it comes to your subscribers, it assumes that bigger is always better. It leads many businesses into the race of collecting maximum sign-ups. Over-focusing to increase list prevents you from serving your existing customers.
These people are those who represent your brand and will generate long-term profit if served properly. A small active list is far valuable than a giant list of inactive or non-engaged subscribers.
Open rate is most valuable metric
Open rate is regarded as the maker or breaker of an email campaign. But focusing too much on open rates will divert your attention from the purpose of email marketing i.e. to make your subscriber perform the desired action.
Your content should be as attractive as your subject line. Your content should be good enough to take the next step whether it be downloading your ebook, subscribing your emails or offering feedback. Working on click-through rate and conversion rate are far better for email marketing success that merely open rate.
There is one ‘The’ time to send emails
You must have read that Tuesday mornings are the best time to send an email and the next two best time is Thursday or Wednesday.
Some of the studies also support this research like Coschedule and GetResponse and came to that three-day conclusion: However, the right time and day to end emails change according to your industry and your audience.
It’s better to test your own campaign and optimize the result than just applying what works across.
Don’t send the same email more than once
It’s absolutely not necessary that your every subscriber read each email you send to them. They could have skipped your first email due to any reason. If they have even deleted your message without reading resend them.
Resend the exact same email directly to the people who didn’t open it the first time. (here segmentation and analytics help you out). According to a research you can get between 5% to 40% more opens per email by resending it.
Short emails are better than long ones
People lack the patience and don’t have enough time to read your long emails however if you email is engaging enough then length doesn’t matter. The secret of a successful email is not its length but it’s pace, phrase, and pattern.
It’s how you connect with a reader that matters, and not some norm or word limit but also it doesn’t at all mean that you write a thesis. So say it in as many words as you need – not one more, and definitely not one less.
Subject line must always be short
Right after the short emails- comes short subject lines. As most of the emails are checked on mobiles you would think that shorter subject lines are better. But research depicts something else.
As per Return Path report, 25% of messages have subject lines between 41-50 words but messages with 61-70 words have the highest average read rate. This tells longer subject lines works too and might more effectively. According to your subscribes behavior pattern you can design your email subject line.
Automated emails are impersonal
Let me clear you automated emails is not at all mean that robot is doing your work (sending your email). Marketing automation is about sending trigger personalized emails.
Personalized emails mean adding a personal touch like name, personalized tips, sending offers that generate their interest in your brand.
Final Words
Every business is different from one another so how can one strategy goes with all and how there can be only one way of doing email marketing? There can’t be. Your email marketing strategy should be based on your audience, their past behavior, and your past success.
But it doesn’t mean you should not follow the best practice, follow the right practices, test them and if it works then continue with that otherwise change it.
Now it’s your turn. What are some email marketing myths that you think should finally be put to rest?
