Urban Myths. We’ve all heard them. When you were a kid you probably heard the tall tale of an alligator being flushed down the toilet, only to survive and live in the sewer. Urban Myths also exist in marketing automation, but sadly they do not feature any alligators only emails. Here are a few of the urban myths about email marketing, but it’s up to you to decide if you believe them or not.
Myth #1: If Your Email Contains Words that are Considered “Spam” It Will Never Make it to the Desired Inbox
In the early days of email marketing using words and phrases such as “Click Here,” “Act Now,” and “Learn More” meant your email would have a one-way ticket to the spam folder. The more of your emails that get sent to spam, the more your deliverability rate suffers. But have no fear, the threat of the spam folder is now a distant one. The spam filters of today’s email marketing rely more on sender reputation and engagement than content and headlines. If you are worried that your emails may be sent to spam, there are tools available like Inbox Preview, that will flag any issues.
Myth #2: As long as your content is relevant and people have opted in, they will receive the email
Obtaining permission to email your subscribers is the cornerstone of any successful email marketing campaign. It indicates that on some level, your subscribers thought your content was relevant in their life and they decided to subscribe. But these two components alone do not guarantee the success of your strategy. How your audience interacts with the content that you deliver to their inbox plays a factor when mailbox subscribers make filtering decisions. Analyzing how many messages are read, replied to, deleted and forwarded may cause your email to be diverted to the spam folder. Unfortunately, negative audience interactions, such as an individual marking the email as spam are also recorded. There are a few ways this fate can be avoided. Implementing a subscriber-preference center can help inform your audience so they know what to expect. If you feel that subscriber interest is decreasing, using marketing automation to design drip campaigns is always an option.
Myth #3: Your Email Service Provider Is Responsible for Delivery Problems
This myth is just that- a myth. Your responsibility as a sender includes email deliverability, reputation, and factors like your list, spam complaints and subscriber engagement that affect deliverability. There may be isolated incidents when your email service provider (ESP) is responsible for delivery problems, but these occurrences are few and far between. Your ESP’s primary function is to provide a tool that helps send and build emails and analyze the results. The instances where your ESP may be responsible for a delivery issue are if your email addresses are assigned to the same IP or if the infrastructure was set up incorrectly.
These are just a few of the many marketing centric urban myths that exist in the industry. If one of these myths is your reality or if you have any questions about marketing automation click on the banner below to schedule your free 30-minute consultation.
