Key takeaways
- Larger mailing lists don’t guarantee better response. Smaller, highly engaged lists perform better.
- Maintain good-list hygiene by regularly removing dead addresses and uninterested recipients to avoid skewed metrics.
- Deliverability alone isn’t the goal, getting recipients to open and engage with the email is essential.
- Good deliverability comes from sending the right message to the right person, at the right time and at the right frequency.
- Limit image use: too many images can increase the chance of spam classification, balance each image with at least two lines of text.
- Subject lines strongly affect open rates, so continuously test content, tone and length to find what works.
Introduction
Not everyone is an email marketing expert, even though many people think that they are. Email strategies are constantly changing, which makes it difficult for a company to be on top of the newest tactics all of the time. Although there is nothing wrong with practice and experience, people can get stuck in repetitive cycles that are ineffective for creating an engaged audience.
“Because of this constant evolution in email, marketers may be using old bad habits when they create a new email marketing campaign,” writes Paul Ford from Entrepreneur.
Despite the fact that there are some email marketing methods that have stood the test of time, there are 4 common misconceptions that are way too prevalent in modern email strategies.
Longer Mailing Lists Mean Better Response Rates
One of the most common misconceptions in email marketing is that long mailing lists are essential for success. However, this belief is faulty and likely to actually lead to a lower response rate.
“You’re far better off sending emails to a smaller, but highly engaged, list of recipients, as opposed to a million subscribers who want nothing to do with your message,” says Ford. “”Good-list hygiene” is a key best practice for any email program.”It is better to be constantly evaluating mailing lists, so that a company can eliminate dead addresses and any disinterest in the customer base. Metrics can be negatively impacted by inactive recipients, which can skew the perceived effectiveness of crafted emails.
The Goal Line is the Reader’s Inbox
This is another misconception that is all too familiar in email strategies. Of course an email that doesn’t end up in a recipient’s inbox is ineffective, but one that is not read by anyone is just as useless. Avoiding spam filters is an inherent quality to good email marketing, but getting potential customers to open and engage with an email is essential to the success of a campaign.
“Good email deliverability comes from knowing how to send the right message to the right person, at the right time, with the right frequency,” says Ford. “Dig deep into your engagement metrics to determine if you are sending to the right person.”
Images make More Compelling Emails
There is no doubt that images are important and effective methods of engaging with an audience. However, emails that are packed with multiple images and flashy graphics usually overlook the importance of sending out a message that is clear and direct.
“Marketers are often tempted to go big on visuals, but forget that; they increase the risk of emails being classified as spam,” writes Ford. “If images are unavoidable, emails should be sensibly balanced, with at least two lines of text per picture.”
Subject Lines Don’t Matter
Although this may seem obvious to many marketers, it is surprising how many people still believe that a subject line does not impact deliverability.
“Subject lines can make or break the open rates for your email,” recommends Ford. “Therefore, it’s imperative to continuously test the content, tone and length of your subject lines to see which ones work better.”
FAQ
Longer lists often contain inactive or uninterested recipients, which lowers response rates and skews metrics. Send to a smaller, highly engaged list rather than a large list of people who don’t want the message.
Good-list hygiene means constantly evaluating your mailing list and removing dead addresses and uninterested recipients so engagement metrics aren’t negatively impacted.
No. While inbox placement matters, the main goal is getting recipients to open and engage with the email. Deliverability should be paired with engagement-focused targeting and timing.
Good deliverability comes from sending the right message to the right person, at the right time, with the right frequency. Use engagement metrics to confirm you’re targeting the right recipients.
Use images sparingly and balance visuals with text. Multiple images and flashy graphics raise the risk of being classified as spam. If images are used, include at least two lines of text per picture.
Yes. Subject lines can make or break open rates. You should try to continuously test subject-line content, tone and length to determine which variations perform better.
You should dig deep into engagement metrics to verify they’re sending the right message to the right people at the right times and frequencies and to identify inactive recipients to remove from lists.
