Three things people get wrong about Email Marketing

Pound for pound, there are few marketing methods that can be as powerful and cost-effective as email marketing. What other method allows you to reach thousands, and even millions of people at a touch of a button, make sure that they actually saw your message, and get results with pinpoint accuracy, all for pennies on the dollar?

Email marketing is great for new marketers trying to build their brand and is a great way to build loyalty. However, too many people come into email marketing with all sorts of misconceptions and end up failing miserably. That’s why you have to understand what email marketing is really about before you start. Here are some of the most common things people get wrong about email marketing.

All Your Subscribers Actually Like You

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that just because someone is subscribed to their list, they want to hear from them. But there are tons of scenarios when this isn’t the case. For instance, they may have opted-in simply for the freebie. Or saw your content and found out that it wasn’t exactly what they expected. Or they just changed positions or lost interest. In all these cases, these are dead leads. What you should do is start looking at things like engagement instead. This will give you a clearer picture of the percentage of your audience that may end up buying from you.

People Unsubscribing is the End of the World

People often see people unsubscribing as a sign of failure, but it shouldn’t be. Even the best lists can’t keep them all. If your unsubscribe rate is under 1%, then you’re okay. Like we just mentioned, not all subscribers are valuable, so view this as your list purging itself and leaving you with a more responsive crowd.

“Trigger” Words will Get You Flagged

Some novice marketers, and even people who have been using email marketing, think that certain words like “cash”, “quote”, “free” or “save” will get message flagged as spam. While email services used to use these kinds of filters in the past, things have changed greatly since then. They use tools that are much more sophisticated these days to flag spam.

If you really want to know what really affects deliverability, you should look at things like SMTP relay. If you don’t know what that is, this SMTP explanation from Sendinblue runs it down clearly. Basically, SMTP is the protocol through which emails are distributed, and the SMTP relay is the server from which emails are sent.

Email services check the reputation of the IP to know if message should go through. This is why it would be wise to work with a reputable service like Sendinblue that keeps a tight control over IPs to make sure that your messages are always sent from a trusted source. They also provide dedicated IP addresses for high volume senders. Going for a cheap option just because it’s convenient could ruin your campaigns. Only go with a service that monitors their IPs closely and has a great reputation.

Email marketing is one of the best marketing methods you can use, and is pretty simple and straightforward. However, it’s still important that you understand the fundamentals before you start so you can reap its benefits.