6 Email Marketing Myths You Can Ignore written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Email marketing has been around for a long time, and consequently, people have developed a lot of opinions about what works and what doesn’t. However, as the digital marketing landscape has changed, s. Though email marketing strategies have been working around for quite a while, it hasn’t lost shine. However, the long history has inevitably given birth to some rumors and myths about email marketing. As a savvy marketer, you should know about such myths about the email marketing campaign, which can also hurt the conversions in your business.
6 Email Marketing Myths You Can Ignore written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
Email marketing has been around for a long time, and consequently, people have developed a lot of opinions about what works and what doesn’t. However, as the digital marketing landscape has changed, some things about email marketing that used to be true are no longer so. And there are some things that have always been myths, but still persist today.
Here, let’s debunk the six biggest email marketing myths out there.
1. Email Marketing is Dead
As more digital channels have emerged through which you can reach clients, there have been whispers going around that email marketing is dead.
In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Marketers still see a great deal of value in email marketing, and are still investing heavily in this tactic. According to surveys from HubSpot, 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content. On the B2C side of things, 59% of consumers report that information in an email has influenced their purchasing decisions. And everyone is on email. Ninety-nine percent of consumers check their email every single day (and most report doing so multiple times a day).
2. Frequent Emails Feel Spammy
Some marketers are hesitant to send regular emails at the risk of annoying their mailing list. And it’s true, for most consumers, their inboxes are crowded places. A survey from Marketing Charts found that the average person receives 416 marketing emails each month.
But just because others are sending emails doesn’t mean you shouldn’t send any (or only send one once in a blue moon). The key to avoiding that spammy feel is ensuring that your content is always valuable. If you send emails that add value, provide information, and are actually helpful to your audience, you’re a lot more likely to see strong open rates and a reduction unsubscribes.
If you’re looking for tips on creating engaging content, check out this post.
3. Unsubscribes Are a Bad Thing
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore Something
No one enjoys rejection, and an unsubscribe can certainly sting. But the reality is that unsubscribes are not necessarily a bad thing. A clean email list is key to staying on ISPs’ good sides, and that’s what will keep your emails from being barred from inboxes.
You can do things on your end to clean your list—like scanning for typos and giving people an option to re-opt-in if they’ve been unresponsive to your recent email marketing efforts—but unsubscribes are a way for you to get your customers to do some of the heavy lifting for you. An unsubscribe is someone saying they’re no longer interested in your content, and that could be for any number of reasons.
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore People
If you see a large number of unsubscribes all at the same time, that might be indicative of a problem with your content, but if you see people leave your list from time to time, that’s simply making space for a higher open rate overall and a better relationship with ISPs.
4. There is a Magic Day and Time to Send Emails
Some marketers swear by sending emails at a very specific time. If it’s not Tuesday at 10am, they won’t send an email!
There has been a lot of research over the years, with marketers trying to find that magic time where open rates will be high and conversions will abound. But these studies have been less than definitive, and so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to timing emails.
It’s certainly true that some audiences will engage with emails at a higher rate at certain times of day, but that will vary from business to business, so trying to stick with some antiquated idea about the one day and time you can send an email won’t serve you.
Instead, do some experimenting, send emails at several days and times throughout the week and see which ones get the highest engagement. Then aim for that time again, and see if you can repeat your results. Be willing to mix things up, and don’t be afraid to send emails out more than once a week (see point 2 above).
5. Long Subject Lines Spell Trouble
For a long time, marketers were told to shy away from subject lines that were too long to be fully displayed in someone’s inbox. That sounds on the surface like a sensible piece of advice, but it turns out that a recent study from Marketing Sherpa busted this long-held belief.
While email subject lines that fall into that “sweet spot” of 41-50 characters performed well, it’s actually longer subject lines with 61-70 characters that did the best. So don’t stress about fitting all of your email subject lines into those narrow parameters. Instead, work to create a subject that is attention-grabbing and really tells readers what they can expect to find inside the email.
6. Avoid Repeat Messages
Super Office reports that the average open rate for emails in 2018 was just shy of 25%. That means that three out of four people on your list are not seeing any given email. Some people won’t read a given email because the subject line doesn’t interest them, but others will miss it for completely innocuous reasons. They may have been busy that day or accidentally deleted the message.
Whatever the case may be, for your most important content, it’s okay to send the same email copy twice in order to get the highest engagement. This isn’t a tactic you should take with every email message, but it can actually be valuable when used sparingly.
There are a few caveats here. First, don’t send the same email on the same day. Instead, wait several days before you resend it. You should also switch up the subject line, so that those who wrote the email off the first time because of its subject line might open it this time, and so that those who opened it the first time around aren’t put off by getting the exact same email twice.
Marketing myths are just excuses to not market your business
As long as I have been in marketing, I’ve heard my share of excuses for why small businesses don’t invest in marketing. These marketing myths when constantly repeated, become reality.
Marketing Myths = Excuses
Small businesses have many opportunities to attract their ideal client if they put these marketing myths aside and create a practical marketing plan that will work for their business.
Myth 1: My target market is older, therefore social media won’t work
Fact: According to a late 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 52% of online boomers and 32% of online seniors are using social networking sites, the most popular being Facebook at 57% and 35% respectively. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect and build relationships with those who just may be waiting to find your business through social media.
Myth 2: A mobile website isn’t necessary for small businesses
Fact: If your website doesn’t support a mobile visitor, you will lose many opportunities to be seen by your ideal client. With the adoption of smartphones and tablets continuing to increase, a mobile responsive website and in general, mobile marketing is very important to small businesses, especially for businesses with a physical location. Responsive websites enable small businesses to deploy one website that responds to all devices, whether your visitor is on a browser, smartphone or tablet. This lowers your cost because you don’t need two websites and creates a better user experience for all users.
Myth 3: Email marketing is no longer effective
Fact: Building your own in-house email list and providing a focused and well executed email marketing campaign is still very effective, especially when integrated into your content marketing activities. Learn how to create and deliver quality subject lines, effective calls to action and niche specific content right to your prospects’ inbox. Email marketing can enhance your relationship with your subscribers and drive your revenue.
Myth 4: I have a logo therefore I have a brand
Fact: Logos are one component of a company brand identity, but your brand image is far more complex. Brand is the perception the world has of you. It communicates your personality and influences your prospects’ opinion of who you are and whether they want to do business with you. A brand is everything you are, the value you deliver and the total client experience. Every image you project needs to consistently reflect the personality of your business. Make sure your brand is consistently used across all of your social media sites and marketing activities.
Myth 5: My nephew can build my website
Fact: Your website is the foundation for all of your inbound marketing activities and it needs to be created as a marketing tool and not the technology project. You certainly can create a professional WordPress website by using a premium theme, adding your logo, determining your color palette and writing quality content. But understanding best practices around content organization and user experience is critical to making sure your visitors find what they are looking for. By all means, if you can technically create your own website, do so. But invest in a marketing person to critique the site layout, content organization, on-page optimization, your call to action and landing pages.
Myth 6: Great marketing works instantly
Fact: Although marketing creates visibility and some tactics can produce instant results, marketing is about sustained contact with your target audience to ensure they know who you are when they are about to buy. Content marketing is not instantaneous. In fact: “Days, weeks, or even months won’t produce results that you will be happy with. Be prepared to put in at least 1 solid year before you start seeing results from content marketing.” It takes time to create enough quality content your target needs to begin producing results. Marketing is an investment and like all good investments, they take time to achieve the greatest gains.
Myth 7: Messages need to be changed often, otherwise your marketing gets old
Fact: Consistency and repetition is marketing’s best friend. Just when you are bored to tears with your marketing message or marketing campaign is when your messages may resonate with your target audience. Changing your message, brand or marketing campaign for the sake of change is a waste.
Myth 8: Marketing is Advertising
Fact: Marketing is about educating your target market about your products and services and why they should buy from you. The medium you use to communicate these messages to your target market could include advertising, but for most small businesses, the cost of traditional advertising outweighs the value. Online advertising is more cost effective, but whether you use advertising in your marketing mix to reach your ideal client will be specific to your business.
Myth 9: Lower prices encourage more people to buy
Fact: If that were always true, no one would buy a BMW verses a Kia. Buyers have their own idea of what is valuable to them and many believe that “you get what you pay for”. That is why it is so important to target your product or service correctly so that you can provide the maximum value at the right price.
Myth 10: Inbound and social media marketing is free
Fact: Although it is true that you can create your web presence for little to no money, inbound and social media marketing do require extensive resources – people and time – to be successful. Inbound marketing requires the creation of quality, relevant content and being present on the social networking sites to build relationships. Blogging, monitoring your reputation, curating and sharing content, creating and optimizing your profiles, responding to posts and comments all take time. And although inbound marketing is time consuming, it is worth every minute you put into it.
Summary
Marketing is about creating visibility for your business by educating your prospects and customers about you, your products and services, and how you can help them solve a problem. Everything you do to accomplish this for your company is a marketing activity. Marketing is truly an investment in time, creativity, resources and energy. The more you can invest the greater business success you will have.
What marketing myths have you heard that should be added to this list?