3 common email marketing myths, debunked

I have a confession to make.

When it comes to email marketing, I haven’t been walking the talk.

At Wonderthink we write oodles of emails on behalf of our clients. From financial services to healthcare, retail and more, we spend a bucketload of time writing emails so that our clients can better connect with their customers – and secure sales.

But until this year, I haven’t been terribly disciplined with my own email content strategy.

I hate the ‘I don’t have time’ excuse. We all have an equal amount of time, but truthfully, I wasn’t prioritising it.

I wasn’t sure it was worth it

There were three main reasons I wasn’t dedicating the time to our email newsletter.

1. There’s a part of me that feels slightly uncomfortable landing unannounced into someone’s email box. I err on the side of introversion, so popping in and saying ‘READ ME’ just feels a little ick.

2. I secretly questioned (big confession here!) whether it was worth my time. I know it’s a service to my clients – that I can share tips and advice and they’ll gain from it – but isn’t my time better spent serving them one-on-one?

3. I wasn’t sure that for my business, it would actually lead to more sales.

But the data didn’t back that up

You know that with email:

• Your message actually gets seen (around 20% average open rates VS. 3-5% organic visibility on social).
• Email generates an average of $38 for every $1 spent (that’s a 3800% ROI – that’s crazy good!).

Plus, I’ve seen the results first-hand.

I’ve seen my clients achieve incredible results with email thanks to the work we do.

And when I was working in senior marketing management with multi-million dollar budgets, I would sit in weekly review meetings and see the instant sales and engagement lift that we would get from every single email we sent out. So much so that when we needed sales, the first thing our CEO would ask is ‘Can we send an email?’

Despite all that, I still questioned whether it was right for my business.

Sounds crazy right? And over time, that personal mindset felt more and more incongruous with the work that we were doing for our clients.

So this year I decided to take a leap and start emailing more often, it was time to ensure email was part of my content marketing strategy. Every Thursday without fail, I sit down and I write an email.

And I can tell you that all three of those myths – because that’s what they were, myths – have been dispelled. Let’s take a closer look at those myths.

Debunking the three most common email marketing myths

Myth 1: Email feels uncomfortable

Fact: The people on my list have signed up to hear from me. They have filled out a form in order to receive what I have promised. So there is no reason to feel uncomfortable because I’m giving them what I promised. And if I don’t email, well, I’m not doing what I said I would. Plus, if they don’t want to hear from me that day, they simply don’t open it or they hit unsubscribe. No problem.

Myth 2: I would be better spending my time serving my clients one-on-one

Fact: By spending one hour of my time a week, I’m helping hundreds of people. I devote hours and hours of my time each week serving my clients one-on-one. To take an hour out of that time and serve many? Well, now that my mindset has flipped, email looks like a pretty good use of my time.

Myth 3: I’m not sure if it will actually lead to more sales for my business

Fact: For every email I send out, I get about two enquiries for quotes. That might not seem like a huge amount in comparison to the whole email list, but for a copywriting services based business? Two quotes a week? If I sent an email every week for a year, that could be as much as one hundred new jobs that I possibly wouldn’t have had otherwise. Some of the responses I’ve received to my emails:

• ‘I’m so glad you popped into my inbox. I was just thinking that I needed help with making an email content plan.’
• ‘Yes! Can you help me build my new website?’
• ‘Your email is possibly my favourite one this year.’ (I’m still zinging off that one).

So yep, email works. From someone who’s been there, questioned that. And if this is the kind of stuff you’d like to be hearing more of, sign up for our newsletter.