“Email marketing? Nah – not worth it, mate.”

How many times have you heard that from people who really should know better?

You may certainly have heard it recently, what with the GDPR instigating a motherload of ‘we’ve updated our privacy policy’ emails and desperate requests for mailing list re-subscribes.

In truth, email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to promote your business and keep existing customers as engaged as possible. It’s why consumers receive at least 2.5 promotional emails every week.

With that in mind, let’s debunk some of the prevailing myths about email marketing, once and for all.

1. People will bin the email if they see a spam keyword in the subject line

Some will, yes. If you fill your subject lines with ‘save, save, save’ or ‘click here to get <product> for FREE!!!’, you’re probably not going to win many friends.

However, you probably will end up in the recipient’s inbox, because spam filters are now far more sophisticated. They no longer base their rules solely on spam words – they’ll take into consideration things like your sending reputation, and the overall quality of the content in the email itself.

That means, if you want to use the word ‘free’, you can – just do so wisely.

2. The more I send, the more cheesed-off people get

High levels of promotional email from one sender has long been one of the top reasons people unsubscribe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t send more than one email per week if you’re an ethical marketer.

Providing your emails are relevant and sent to segmented lists to ensure they’re personalised for the audience in question, there’s no harm in sending two or three each week – even if it’s the same offer or piece of news you’re distributing.

The key lies in adjusting the content each time to keep it fresh, and acknowledging those who have already responded.

3. Unsubscribes prove your campaign was rubbish

No they don’t. Well, granted – it might have been rubbish, but don’t assume unsubscribes are cast-iron examples of why you’re not very good at email marketing.

Very few subscriber lists are perfect – they’ll contain people who accidentally subscribed and those who simply aren’t interested any more. When people of that ilk unsubscribe, it’s a great thing, because it means your list is gently cleaning itself, and therefore future sends will benefit from more meaningful statistics.

4. There’s a ‘best day of the week’ on which to send your email

There isn’t. Sorry. If you’ve been sending emails every Tuesday since your marketing campaign began, you’re probably missing out on lots of engagement.

There’s no universal best day on which to send your email, even if your statistics suggest Tuesday really is that day.

In reality, your subscribers will change their habits like the wind. Few will have set times during which they check emails – particularly now it can be done whenever they wish via their smartphone.

Keep an eye on the metrics, by all means, but apply some common sense, too. If it feels like the wrong time to send an email, despite what your last campaigns suggests, go with your gut. It’s probably right.

5. Email marketing will be the next thing to go

Email has been around an awfully long time, which means it has gained a significant amount of trust among users.

Most of us trust emails to both be sent and received, and providing we unsubscribe to the unsolicited stuff, it’s usually a dead cert that whatever does end up in your inbox from known brands might be worth reading.

This is why 80% of marketers believe email is their strongest form of media, above display advertising and even search engine marketing.

Wrapping up

It’s here to stay, so make sure email marketing is in your plan going forward. Do you really want to miss out on all those highly-engaged eyes?