Three common misunderstandings about email performance

Email is a powerful tool to nurture your audience frequently. It's where you can tell your brand story, showcase thought leadership and get the word out about your products/services on a regular basis. 

When adding to your marketing program, it’s important to set realistic expectations, so you can leverage the power of email in the best way possible and present success metrics to senior leadership. Let's address some common myths and lay them out.

1 . If I send it to everyone on my list they will open it. 

Average Open Rates in email can range from 20-30% of your contacts. That's less than a third of people will actually open your email. Subject lines and preheaders are critical to grabbing your audiences attention, so make sure to spend time considering what will stop them in their scroll tracks. 

When in doubt utilize A/B testing of subject lines to split your audience. This will allow your emails to deliver through the best performing subject line (which will optimize open rates and give you great insight). 

2 . If I pack in as much information as possible in an email, they will read it. 

People receive tons of emails EVERY DAY. Do you read each one thoroughly? If not, you got your answer. Keep your emails short, compact and to the point. Think smaller digestible information that your audience can easily consume. 

If you want to add in more complex information consider a landing page so you can track behaviours of your more engaged audience, which can be used for future email targeting and drip campaigns. 

3 . If I add a link in my email, they will want to click on it. 

On average, one can expect a 2-3% CTR (click through rate) when it comes to email. And while these numbers may seem underwhelming, including buttons and hyperlinks are one of the most important functional aspects on your email. To optimize click through rates, experiment with both hyperlinks and buttons to provide plenty of opportunities to click. 

Consider CTAs that provoke action such as "Get your spot today", "Don't miss out", "Sign up today", "Get your FREE X" to create a sense of urgency or "Learn more" to spike curiosity when you want to drive site traffic.

Want to know more about email marketing? I love chatting about all things marketing! Add me to LinkedIn or send me a message and let's chat.