Beware these myths about email marketing.
5 Frightening Myths about Email Marketing
With more smartphone users having access to their email 24/7, it’s important to understand how new consumer behaviors affect your digital marketing strategies. We’re cutting through the hocus-pocus to give you five email marketing myths and the truths you need to know.
Myth #1: Email marketing is dead.
Perhaps one of the biggest myths about email marketing is that it’s no longer a valid path to your customers. This couldn’t be further from the truth. According to Adobe's 2016 Email Survey, people are spending 17 percent more time on emails year over year – with 45 percent using their smartphone to check work email and 63 percent to check personal email.
Myth #2: The window of opportunity is small.
Some organizations avoid email as a marketing channel because they assume people won’t take the time to read it. This is a common email marketing myth. The truth is people are spending 7.4 hours a day checking their email messages, a 17 percent increase year over year. This means more opportunity for your readers to see your messages as they are on the go.
Myth #3: Millennials only communicate via social media.
Thanks to the rise of Snapchat and Instagram, some companies only view their millennial audience through the lens of social media. But according to a study by Mapp Digital, millennial U.S. customers prefer email over other marketing channels. They are also more discriminating: only 38 percent of millennials subscribe to seven or more brands’ emails. So when you’re in, you’re in.
Myth #4: One email speaks to everyone.
Another one of those email marketing myths: you just need one type of email for all of your customers. Unless we’re talking about your welcome autoresponder (you have one of those, right?), almost every email you send needs to be segmented and personalized. Gone are the days of “Send All,” and in are the days of speaking one-on-one to your readers.
Myth #5: Mobile-friendliness doesn’t apply to email marketing.
With all of the hoopla surrounding mobile-friendly websites over the past couple of years, it’s understandable that organizations overlooked this new format for email marketing. The truth is, if your emails are not optimized for mobile devices, then they may not display correctly on your readers’ screens. Information may be missing, it may be hard for users to navigate through your email, and it may take forever to load. All of these obstacles can ruin the experience for your readers, so be sure your emails are set up for the way customers are using email nowadays.
Now that you know the myths about email marketing – and the truths – you can look at your email program as an opportunity to acquire, engage and convert customers, rather than a frightening part of your overall strategy.
