We all know (or we should by now) that email marketing provides the best ROI amongst all channels. As a result, while everyone wants to read up on how to improve their email marketing strategy, there are a few tips out there that are simply not true. Here are a few to watch out for. 

1. Short subject lines = more effective campaign

While studies have shown that shorter subject lines can help with open rate, long subject lines result in higher conversions. It really depends on what metric is more important to you and what works for your data so make sure you test this with your subscriber list. 

2. The best day to send your email is Monday or Tuesday

Again, there’s no clear way of knowing which day is the best to send out your email. The best day result comes from analysing open rates from all emails sent from a variety of industries. The ‘best day’ might not be relevant to your industry or your list. Test it out with your list and see what works for them. 

The other thing to note is that with the growth of technology, people have access to their email all day though their smart phones, smart watches, tablets, etc. So, there’s no real best day or best time. 

3. Open rate is the most important metric

An open rate doesn’t necessarily tell you how the email has performed. A retailer may send an email to their subscribers and get a high open rate but no conversions or sales. At the same time, a retailer might find that an email with a low open rate generated an increase in online sales by their existing customers. This is probably due to the powerful offering in their subject line – for example: 20% off this week! So, subscribers can just go straight to the website instead of opening the email and clicking through. 

4. Don’t send the same email twice

Why shouldn’t you? If you’re sending the same email to those who didn’t open the email or click, then surely there’s nothing wrong with contacting them again. It also saves time so that you don’t have to design and build another email. What you could do, is change the subject line and see if that improves your open rate. 

5. Focus on social media as it’s more important than email

Yes, social media has changed the way we reach audiences and it’s good for attracting new customers however, not for communicating with existing. The important thing to remember is that not everyone who follows you on social is seeing every post, but when you email, you are reaching everyone’s inbox who is on your subscriber list. 

Reading recent studies, you’ll find that a lot of email myths are indeed just myths. Make sure you do your research before reaching a conclusion and don’t stop emailing!

Source: Alchemy Worx, Sailthru, & Campaign Monitor

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