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Live video, social media, and content marketing. The go-to answers for marketers when asked, “how will you increase reach/revenue/profit?”.
And sure, they’re all contributing factors, but they’re not what really drives sales.
No, the powerhouse of modern business is still email marketing.
Success depends on fostering long-term customer relationships, and email’s still the most effective channel for nurturing those relationships.
Email has nearly 1 billion more users than Facebook (Source)
Email is nearly 40X more effective at gathering new customers than social media (Source)
Email provides an average $38 return for every dollar spent (Source)
To top it off, your email list is yours. No one can take it from you and there’ll never be an algorithm change ruining your reach.
Yet despite email’s incredible potential, it’s anything but foolproof. You’ve got to know what you’re doing and, unfortunately, there’s a lot of bad advice out there.
To set things straight I’m addressing 5 pieces of email marketing advice that are either incomplete, half-truths, or just plain wrong.
This is true, but most only give half the details you need. There are numerous studies like which detail personalization as the inclusion of a name.
Problem is, people view these studies and think that’s where personalization begins and ends. Which is wrong.
Real personalization considers user action. It uses behavioral triggers to send targeted content at the right time.
For instance, for a subscriber who clicks a pricing link three times but doesn’t buy price is likely the problem. A triggered email offering a reduced fee incentive is a solution personalized for that exact situation.
On average a regular office worker receives 120 emails every day.
So we’ve been told less email is better. Send fewer emails of higher quality to receive better open rates, more click throughs, and higher ROI.
Or will you?
Aviva, one of the UK’s leading insurance firms, increased their email send and quadrupled their clicks.
So which is right? Fewer emails or more? Well, neither. Experimenting with send frequency is the lesson here.
Test frequency and track results with your audience to find what works for you.
A bigger list equals more sales opportunities, right? Wrong.
Email list size isn’t as important as your engagement levels. A huge list with poor engagement negatively affects overall deliverability.
Email service providers (ESPs) use various metrics to figure out if you’re a spammer. One of those metrics is open rate. If the majority of subscribers never open or delete emails before reading, your sender reputation takes a hit which eventually leads to being marked as spam.
Then, the handful of interested people never see your emails because they go straight to the spam folder.
Remove non-engagers to keep your list healthy. Or even better, implement a re-engagement campaign to ensure you don’t cull potentially interested users.
Doubling open rates is great, but if it doesn’t translate into sales, what’s the point?
Most marketers get excited over increases in vanity metrics which have zero impact on their bottom line.
Yes, open rate is important. But answer me this. Would you rather have a higher open rate and fewer sales, or a lower open rate and an increase in revenue?
No brainer, right?
Micro conversions like open rate, CTR, etc. they tell you how good aspects of your emails are. But you need to monitor the macro and your revenue.
You need to know if the increased open rate leads to more sales or if there’s a disconnect between your awesome subject line and overall strategy.
Just because email is an ROI powerhouse doesn’t mean a single email to accomplish numerous goals.
Email is effective, but only when implemented with laser-like focus.
Before planning strategy or sitting to write, ask yourself “what am I trying to achieve?”
Each campaign and email has one goal. It could be to inform, promote content, push for the sale or anything in between.
But there’s only one goal, one idea, one CTA. It’s a golden rule you cannot break.
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Pete Boyle is a conversion focused digital marketer who helps companies increase their revenue through streamlining sales funnels and improving their online copy. You can connect with him here at pjboyle.com or on Twitter @P_J_Boyle
