Do Email Campaigns Really Work? Myths and Truths

Email Campaigns

Email drip campaigns provide businesses a way to source leads, communicate regularly with customers, increase sales and re-engage customers.

The idea is a simple one: create a series of emails that follow a particular theme, target a specific audience, and accomplish a definitive goal and send them out on an automated schedule. It’s easy to see why email marketing has become an integral part of any strategic marketing campaign.

The practice of using email campaigns effectively is less cut and dry, however. In the act of trying to come up with the perfect formula for a successful email campaign, quite a few myths have developed about email marketing, and many of them are not only wrong, but may actually be harming your business.

Learn the truth about email campaign myths and how they are damaging businesses:

Myth #1 Email marketing is dead.

The most prolific and most harmful email marketing myth of them all is that, in today’s world, email marketing is dead. Anyone with an inbox realizes that email marketing is not dead, but the implication here is not that marketers are no longer using this tactic, but that email marketing is no longer an effective tool for businesses.

Not only is this a terrible myth to spread, as it’s driving many businesses away from dedicating any resources toward this super effective marketing strategy, but on top of that it’s also completely factually inaccurate.

According to Experian, “high revenue per email results and strong transaction rates demonstrate the significant monetary value that transactional messages can add to any email program. Compared with standard bulk mailings, the average revenue per email is two to five times greater and can be up to six times greater than the all-industry average of $0.13.”

The truth? Email campaigns are still one of the most effective marketing tools available to businesses today, with tremendous potential for ROI and an integral part of any strategic marketing plan.

Myth #2 Email is out. Is all about social now.

If email marketing is actually dead, what is the current king of online marketing strategies? Social. There’s no question that any comprehensive online marketing strategy is going to need to include a plan for social media. It is true that an active social media presence offers businesses opportunities for lead generation and conversions that are too great for any business to ignore.

BUT, a truly comprehensive strategy is not going to ignore email, and here’s why. Social media is a great way to build brand identity, connect and engage with current customers, and get invaluable recommendations, but email outperforms social media on new customer acquisition.

The truth? As this McKinsey study finds, email is 40 times more effective at new customer acquisition than social.

Myth #3 Sending emails at the right time and on the right day will make or break the campaign.

Marketers are all about the statistics. We live by them, study them, and are always adapting our strategies based on the newest statistics. In the world of marketing, you have to be current and data driven to be successful…up to a point.

Here’s a little secret, while there are better times of the day and better days of the week for sending marketing emails, there is no perfect solution. There are many factors that may influence your best time and day to send to your target audience, so while making an informed decision on when a good time is to send emails to your base is smart, obsessing over the perfect time is not going to be worth the effort.

The truth? The content of your emails, visual appeal, and quality of the contact list you’re sending to matters significantly more than the time or day that you send them out.

Myth #4 When it comes to email campaigns, more is always better!

Sending your email out to more subscribers, more frequently, will mean you get more clicks and, ultimately, more sales, right? Actually, probably not. In fact, too many contacts and too many emails are likely to harm your efforts.

Think of it this way: casting a wide net might catch more fish, but probably not more of the specific type of fish you are looking for. To do that, you have to do a little more work on the front end. You need to know information about your target, like where they like to hang out and the specific kind of bait they are attracted to. It’s the same when sending an email campaign. You need to do the work on cleansing your data and optimizing your email content for a highly refined target audience in order to see better ROI from your efforts.

The truth? Sending fewer emails with highly optimized content to a very specific target audience is more effective than blasting a broad message to an unspecified list of contacts.

Myth #5 It’s all about the subject!

The myth that successful email campaigns must have an attention grabbing subject line that is 41 characters is again the fault of marketers putting too much weight on the stats.

Yes, a subject line that is greater than 41-50 characters may get truncated.

Yes, an interesting subject line is more likely to get opened.

But a successful email campaign is about so much more than getting opens. More important than a catchy subject line that is exactly the right length is a subject that matches message. The subject should be succinct and honest, matching both the content of the email and the landing page that email takes them to. And definitely always avoid these email gimmicks!

The truth? An clear and honest subject line, the content of your emails, maintaining message match, and offering something useful to the reader will make for a more successful email campaign than just following character limit guidelines and being gimmicky.

Myth #6 Email campaigns are too expensive and take too much time

A successful email campaign is involved, yes, but too expensive and time consuming? It doesn’t have to be.

This year alone, people will send and receive more than 260 billion emails every day. Email isn’t going anywhere, and with more than 3.7 billion users worldwide, you don’t want to risk missing out on the opportunities email campaigns offer your business to connect with you customer base.

For marketing support to help your business realize the full potential of successful email campaigns, contact the marketing professionals at EmoryDay. We surround your business with comprehensive marketing strategy tailored to fit any budget, based on time tested and proven methodologies, not myth!

Get started today and learn how our team can make a difference for your business.

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    Create a Free Account
  • 2.
    FREE Custom Marketing Plan
    (no obligation)
  • 3.
    Select only the services you want.