Email was invented 45 years ago and it’s more important than ever for the Digital Marketer but is very important to know what is true and what is just a myth in the online world.
What are some popular myths of email marketing?
Myth #1. GDPR ruined email marketing
What is GDPR?
GDPR is the EU’s most recent set of regulations regarding data collection. This means that companies must comply with a set of regulations demanding data transparency.
With the help of the GDPR, users have now more control of their personal details, on what is collected and by who. Most of the email marketers believed that GDPR would be the end of the email marketing as we know it because segmented and personalized email campaigns rely on data collection.
But, the good news is that users are still willing to share data with a brand they trust (75% of consumers are willing to share their personal data). In fact, as long as your email campaign is based on a trust relationship, most of them will continue to share their data with you.
Myth #2. You can only send an email once
You spend hours (or days) writing and designing a relevant and high-quality marketing email. You like it and think that your audience will love it too. :)
After you sent it, you notice that only a small percent of your audience - let’s say 25% - opens your message, you might think: “Hey, that’s not very bad”. While is great that 25% of the audience saw the email, there is a missing 75% percent that never saw it.
Our advice: Don’t give up. You don’t need to spend time writing a new email to communicate the same message, you can just resend the original. However, there are things to keep in mind before doing it:
- Change the subject line before resending.
- Email it out a week later.
- Resend the email only to subscribers who didn’t open it the first time.
- Most importantly, this approach should be used only for your highest potential email campaigns.
Myth #3. There is only 1 perfect day and time to send your email
If you go on Google and type: “what is the best time and date to send an email”, you will get a lot of results and you will notice that every website has his own “perfect answer”. There is no such thing as “the best time to send an email”. Each business is different and with a specific audience.
According to Optinmonster, 85% of people open their emails 2 days after they receive it. More important is that only 21% of purchases happen within 2 days of opening the email whereas 32% of purchases occur after 2 weeks.
The best advice is to do your own test and find out what time gives you the best results.
Myth #4. Unsubscribes are bad
A good email hygiene is the key to the success of your email campaign. When some of your users unsubscribe from your email list, they are actually doing you a favor.
Most of the unengaged users just ignore your emails and never make the final decision of pushing the “unsubscribe” button. Having a medium-large number of unengaged subscribers hurts your sender reputation and influence your campaign performance.
As long as your unsubscribe rate is under 1 percent, there’s nothing to worry about. If the rate is bigger than that, an “email validation service” will improve your email campaign deliverability and your sender reputation.
Our tip: You could give your subscribers more choices after pressing the unsubscribe button. Try to give them the option to receive less emails or to chose what type of emails they want to receive.
We hope that this post debunked some of the popular email marketing myths and that it will help you make better decisions in the future.
Keep in mind that what works best for your unique audience is all that matters. :)