10 Email Marketing Myths That Must Be Dispelled 

This is a guest post by Sergey Aliokhin.

Building any business requires communication. It doesn’t matter what type of communication you choose; the only thing matters is the results you get with the help of the communication.

Practice shows - email marketing keeps its standards high in terms of building business relationships between people. No wonder it does!

Despite the fact of using various email marketing tools and services, marketers have revealed their own ways to make email marketing more profitable.

You have, probably, heard the disputes about the best ways to optimize every email you send.

What day is the best to send emails?

Long or short subject line of the message - which is better?

Should you use the same email twice?

Etc.

Yes, some of the ideas about optimizing your emails are really great. They work for sure. However, there is a bunch of myths that still confuse marketers all around the world.

The problem is these myths about email marketing tactics waste your own time and that’s not cool.

That’s why it is important to put the things right in terms of these myths.

I’ve collected TOP 10 of the most famous email marketing myths and I’m going to dispel them in this post.

SIDE NOTE: if you miss more of SEO tips, thus you should check out these 200+.

Let’s begin!

1. You Shouldn’t Be Persistent in Sending Your Emails

How many emails and how frequently you should send? It is a well-known fact that due to intensive email blast is one of the reasons of why people start to unsubscribe.

Yes, it is true on the one hand!

Nevertheless, have you ever imagined what a huge amount of emails respectable marketers receive?

They receive hundreds if not thousands of messages every single day! They can’t handle all messages at once! They are busy people!

Thus, if your message hasn’t been noticed it doesn’t mean it won’t be read next time!

Don’t be afraid of being persistent and don’t forget to stick to one rule - do the next follow up in a week and change the subject line (if you want to send the same email).

However, if you haven’t got a positive result after your second email blast, thus you should leave the recipient for a month or even more.

Here is the evidence by the example of my own email outreach.

As you can see the first email I sent 30 of September. The next message I sent in 10 days and the recipient replied me later in the day.

The myth is already dispelled! You can see with your own eyes that “smart persistence” brings the results you need. Just remember that I told you above about the time frame.

2. Avoid Using the Same Email for a Couple of Times

Here I must correct this myth a bit first...avoid using the same EMAIL TEMPLATE for a couple of times. Yes, it is all about email templates you use in your email outreach campaigns.

First of all, you shouldn’t believe in this myth for 100%!

Secondly, creating email templates for every recipient is a tedious and time-consuming work!

Instead, the best way is to use those templates that have the highest percentage of opens (and replies).

BuzzSumo is a great helper in this case for you. Let’s see what it shows:

For one email campaign, I used 2 different templates and both of them have a different open rate. As you already mentioned, the second template was sent 87 times (no, I didn’t change the body of the message at all) and nevertheless, I got replies.

This myth is dispelled as well.

3. Spam Keywords in Your Subject Line

Do you remember back days when spam filters directed messages with some suspicious keywords to the spam folder? I believe you do. You, even, remember these words included in the message’s subject line.

FREE, DISCOUNT, SAVE, etc.

The situation has changed. Spam filters became more clever in identifying spam. Your reputation creates magic.

Remember - if you are a respectable person in the world of the Internet (or you work for some well-known company), your messages (even with those “dreadful spammy” keywords) will be delivered directly to recipient’s inbox.

The myth is dispelled!

4. Only on Tuesday at 3 PM

If you refer to statistics, you will see that the best day to send emails is Tuesday at 3 PM. Have you ever thought why this particular day is the best one for an email blast?

Let’s consider a week by days from the standpoint of a respectable businessman:

My experience tells that this “schedule” is a tricky thing. My messages hit the target in different days. I prefer to send messages on Thursday and Friday.

This myth is dispelled!

5. Unsubscribers Are Reason to Worry About

You know that ‘unsubscribe button’ is a perfect way to get rid of the person you don’t want to receive messages from. It is really a great option...but it is not good for you when your recipient ‘ban’ you, right?

It is at first glance; however, this process has one cool aspect: when recipients hit the ‘unsubscribe button’, they help you clean up your contact base.

You won’t have to delete those people who don’t want hear a word from you. They will do it by themselves.

Remember, if you offer a really great service and your email template looks awesome, you won’t be neglected. Especially, if your reputation speaks volumes. Thus, you shouldn’t worry about the unsubscribers.

This myth is dispelled!

6. Short Subject Line Brings Better Results

Implix made a survey that claims - if the subject line contains more than 25 characters, it will be more likely read in contrast to less 25 characters subject line message. And that’s true!

Furthermore, the first thing the recipients draw their attention on is who sent the message (your name). Afterwards, they read the subject line.

I can assure you - the most important thing in any subject line is its personalization. Let me give you an example:

As you can see the subject line I used isn’t short. The reason why it got me a positive result is its personalization. I discovered some information about the recipient and created the subject line.

The subject line contains as his interests and preferences (history and fine cigars) as the main reason why I wrote him - SEO.

Now I can state that short subject lines don’t play a crucial role in your email success.

The myth is dispelled!

7. It Is All About Open Rate

Talking about open rate factor you should always remember that it is not as important as it seems.

It goes without saying that email templates with a high open rate bring more value than those with a low one; however, you should take notice of how many times the particular email template was sent.

Let me give you an example:

I have created two templates for the same email outreach campaign. The first template was sent only 2 times and it has 100% open rate; the second template was sent 87 times and its open rate is 65.5%.

What does it mean?

It doesn’t mean that second template is worse or the first one is the best. I can’t say so because the number of messages sent is too different. If you want to find out which template has the highest open rate, you should send the same number of messages for each template.

The rest will be done by BuzzStream.

I can say only one thing towards email template’s open rate - if you try to personalize every email you send, you will definitely get a high open rate. Thus, it is all not about open a high open rate - it is all about personalization.

The myth is dispelled!

8. Don't Send Emails to 'Inactive' Users After 6 Months of Silence

Every marketer has already had the situations when some recipients didn’t want to open/reply his or her messages. You know how it happens: you are sending the messages one by one but nothing get in return. Maybe you use wrong email template; maybe the recipient you’re sending the messages is too busy; maybe nobody knows you at all. You can just guess…

But don’t forget about the person you are interested in even after 6 months of silence!Your experience gains traction and you will see that people on the web will notice that.

That’s why it is strictly important for your own professional growth to accomplish the goal. Don’t be afraid of sending the message to your desirable recipient after 6 months of “fruitless” email blast.

Let me give you an example:

I sent the first message to this person on the 30th of June (2016) and he just opened it without any reply.

After 3 months of silence, I sent him another one message (I used another template and subject line). The result was the same - nothing back in return.

I didn’t want to give up!

The last but not least message was sent again after 2 months.

Finally, I got what I needed! He replied me with no delay.

I insist on following my example and never give up with hitting the target via email blast 🙂

The myth is dispelled!

9. The Shorter Your Email - the Better for You

What length your emails should be? This question is a bit controversial in terms of the real purpose of your message.

If you try to find some research results about the ideal length, you will get something like 25 - 125 words count. Moreover, these numbers bring 50% open rate.

Furthermore, the next research showed that emails with a third-grade reading level perform better in terms of open rate. Plus if you use informal way of emailing, you will have more chances to get a reply.

Don’t forget to add questions in your message (but do not overdo), people like when you are asking their opinion.

I personally can say that you should steer a middle course and decide what length is far better to use during the particular email campaign.

The myth is dispelled.

10. Email Marketing Is Dying

I am sure you have heard this statement lots of time. If you ask Google “email marketing is dead”, it will show you the following results:

Almost 9 million results! That’s impressive!

Of course it doesn’t mean all these results are dedicated to the death of email marketing; nevertheless, this topic is still evident.

Despite the fact, let’s see what numbers tell according to Worldwide Email Accounts and Users Forecast (2015-2019):

As you can see the results grow and it means only one thing - email marketing is still alive and it doesn’t want to die 🙂

The myth is dispelled!

Conclusion

Taking into the consideration everything has been mentioned above, I can say - all these myths are just cornerstones on the way toward a successful email marketing.

You should remember that email marketing is still a great way to grow your business.

Don’t take a dim view of the myths; instead, you should focus on improving your tactics and strategy in perfection email marketing.

Don’t forget to comment and share 🙂

Guest Author: Aliokhin is an Outreach manager at Ahrefs. He spends most of the time discovering and learning SEO and Internet Marketing tendencies. His primal goal is to study and practise new aspects of outreach strategy. In his spare time he likes to spend his time with family, visit specialized sports club, study martial arts. If he has nothing to do at all, he prefers reading books on science-fiction and playing the bass guitar.