“Ah, you have to be very careful with email marketing campaigns. One false move and you’ve blown it forever. It’s all about timing, frequency, and doing everything you can to avoid the dreaded Spam bin. Unless you have my kind of experience and insight, you’re likely to mess it all up, I’m afraid. Do you want to hear some of my expert advice?”
Hmm.
I was having an entrepreneurial chat with Wonky Alan down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar.
He has a reputation for spouting rubbish at the best of times, but I have to admit that I would normally have agreed with much of what he had to say today.
However, my own outlook on Email Marketing had very recently been turned inside out by an intriguing new report from Alchemy Worx which dares to suggest that nearly everything we think we know might just be completely wrong…
This epic study from the digital marketing agency scrutinised data from their own work with customers and industry figures – including the analysis of literally billions of emails – to reach their surprising conclusions.
The good news is that email marketing may actually be a little simpler and safer than we had previously assumed.
But is it true that the wrong choice of keywords could send your emails straight to the Spam Bin?
Is it really so crucial to despatch your emails at the exact optimum time on the exact optimum day?
And do shorter subject lines really improve your chances of getting noticed?
As Wonky Alan began to share some of his long-winded old-school advice with me, I responded with some of the new thinking now proposed by Alchemy Worx.
Between us, I hoped that we might just be able to debunk some of the common myths of email marketing techniques, and untangle the updated truth of the matter…
“Your email subject lines need to be very short! Anything over 60 characters simply won’t be opened at all.”
Not strictly true, according to the new report.
Whilst I’ve always been of the opinion that short and snappy email subject lines are much more likely to grab attention, Alchemy Worx report that recipients are more likely to click on the links inside your email if the subject line is longer than 70 characters.
However, before we get too carried away, it’s worth remembering that shorter subject lines still increase the chances of your recipients actually opening the email at all in the first place.
Confused? We were for a little while.
But we concluded that a concise and direct subject line is still a winning strategy for widespread email marketing campaigns.
Longer subject lines may not be a total disaster or waste of time though, especially if you’re delivering a more targeted campaign to an audience who are more likely to appreciate your content.
“One false move and you’re destined for the Spam bin! Most recipients tend to get more than a little trigger-happy with that Spam button.”
Of course, it always pays to consider your subject lines and content very carefully if you want your message to be read rather than rejected.
But on a promising note, the report reveals that your audience are not quite as trigger-happy with the spam button as you might have suspected.
In fact, only one subscriber in 2,000 is likely to bother marking your message as spam if they find the content to be disagreeable.
“There is a perfect time and day to send your emails to generate the very best results.”
Interestingly, the report claims that this is a complete myth.
It’s possible that we may be getting confused with Social Media postings here, in which timing plays a critical part. After all, if you post an update on Facebook in the middle of the night, it’s likely to have been pushed way down the news feeds by the time your audience wakes up and logs in.
But it’s a completely different story with a marketing email which is far less disposable than a fleeting blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Social Media update.
The reality is that an email won’t always inspire immediate action from the recipient anyway, so the timing of the delivery could be considered largely irrelevant in many cases.
Whilst 76% of emails are opened within the first two days, here are a couple more stats which could prove to be eye-openers.
4 out of 5 ‘purchases’ take place after this two-day period, whilst a third of purchases actually take place more than 2 weeks after the customer received the email!
Bearing this in mind, does it really matter if your email was despatched at precisely 15:03 on a Thursday afternoon?
“Don’t waste your valuable time sending emails to users who have been inactive for more than six months. Forget about them, they’re long gone.”
Wrong!
The report suggests that 1 in 5 marketing emails are opened by users who have been completely inactive for the first six months of the year.
If you insist on trimming down your mailing list to cut out the quiet customers, you could actually be losing out on a fifth of your annual email opens.
“Be careful not to bombard your recipients with too many emails! Less is more. Your clients will switch off from your business if you send out far too many emails.”
Well, this is a controversial point.
Alchemy Worx claims that the above statement is not quite true. They reckon that if you increase the amount of emails you despatch every month – say, from one to four – you’ll be more than doubling your total amount of ‘email opens’ and increasing your revenue by as much as 11%.
But it’s a risky gamble in my book – and the data still proves that increasing your frequency tends to reduce the overall open and click rates of each individual message.
So yes, if you send more emails, you will naturally and logically be generating more ‘email opens’ on the whole, but you also run the risk of driving away long-term clients through sheer irritation.
In this case, I would suggest that Wonky Alan has the right idea. Play it safe, and limit your email communications to no more than one or two a month.
“Keywords in subject lines are dangerous! The wrong choice of keywords will alert the Spam Filters and re-direct your email straight into the bins of your recipients.”
There’s long been a theory that certain keywords in email subject lines are to be avoided at all costs, as they will arouse the attention of the dreaded Spam Filters and ensure that your marketing messages are instantly despatched to the recipient’s spam or junk folders, without ever even being seen.
We’re talking about such dangerous words and phrases as ‘FREE!’, ‘EXTRA INCOME!’, ‘NO COST!’, ‘BEST RATES!’ and ‘AFFORDABLE!’
However, after analysing the data of more than 540 billion emails, the report suggests that these keywords actually have little or no effect on the ultimate folder destination.
If an email does end up getting directed straight into a junk folder, the real reason is far more likely to be a problem with the sender’s ‘reputation’.
This is typically based on any information which the receiving ISP or mail filter can gather about the sending habits of your IP address.
It has very, very little to do with choosing supposedly dangerous keywords to use in your email subject lines!
“There’s very little chance of running a successful email marketing campaign anyway. Think about it – your intended recipients are already swamped with far too many emails from rival companies!”
The report suggests that rumours of your client base drowning in a sea of never-ending marketing emails are largely exaggerated.
In fact, the figures show that 40% of users receiving ‘brand’ emails are getting no more than 3 per day, whilst almost two-thirds of users receive no more than six per day.
It’s not quite the often-painted scene of potential customers having to wade through hundreds and hundreds of emails every hour!
So, there’s still a strong chance of getting noticed, getting read, and getting action from a well-considered email marketing campaign.
But it’s also worth remembering that there’s so much more to marketing than a bunch of emails.
For example, one striking side-effect of the advent of instant digital communication is that more traditional methods of communication are now more powerful than ever before!
Thanks to the shrinking volumes of physical mail in the letterboxes of Australia, there’s now more space and prominence for your own direct mail marketing campaigns.
The average ‘open rate’ for emails is a mere 22%, compared to a whopping 98% of physical mail which is happily opened by the recipient.
So, whilst an email marketing campaign still delivers a clear and convenient opportunity to reach out and connect with your target audience, there could well be a lot more genuine pulling power in a professionally produced Post Card, Brochure, Leaflet or Flyer…
As a digital marketing agency, Alchemy Worx are naturally very keen to push us further into Cyberspace and change the way we approach our email marketing campaigns, with less negativity and much more confidence!
In sharp contrast, I think Wonky Alan will still be more inclined to stick with his tried and trusted email marketing strategies for now, even if one or two elements may seem a little outdated.
As ever, the ultimate winning strategy may lie somewhere between those two extreme viewpoints.
But it’s worth bearing in mind that the ever-evolving digital landscape will inevitably bring regular change to consumer habits, and we should never stick too stubbornly to techniques and strategies which may have lost their relevance a year or two ago.
We should always be ready to adopt and embrace new ways of thinking or face the risk of getting left way behind…
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