Myths about email marketing run rampant.
From the “best” time of day to send them, to the words to use to avoid ending up in the recipient’s junk folder, to how often you can email before people send you nasty, expletive-laced responses.
Problem is, marketing isn’t an exact science.
The answer to 99% of “will this work for me?” marketing questions is “it depends.”
Your audience, size of your list, product or offer, price point, and a host of other factors come into play.
It’s not like baking, where you need a certain amount of ingredients in a specific order if you want an edible cake.
There’s no debate. It’s either a birthday cake or it’s an inedible pile of gooey grossness.
So in researching info for this post, I was not surprised to find conflicting advice.
But there is definite data and research to support some… and caveats for others.
I spoke in an earlier post HERE about three popular myths.
The only way to see which works best for you is to test them IRL with your readers and subscribers.
But these three are worthy of attention…
Fact or Fake #1: Tuesday is the best day to send emails
When your subscribers open their emails depends on their lifestyles. But in general, any mid-week day (Tues, Wed, Thurs) works best. MailerLite.com compiled the results of millions of their campaigns to find the best days and found there was not a whole lot of variance.
However, time of day does matter. MailerLite found that emails sent at 11 a.m. Tuesdays were the highest overall when compared to other times of day.
Fact or Fake #2: Using the word “free” in the subject line bans you to eternal junk folder hell
Yup, you guessed it: it depends. In general, used in moderation, the word FREE does not send your email to spam any more than “clean” emails without the word, according to research.
Take a look at your own spam folder. Chances are, very few have “FREE” in the subject line. They end up there for a million other reasons, but not this one.
Fact or Fake #3: Adding video to an email is a magical engagement booster
Video can increase open rates when done the right way. There’s always a caveat, right?
Estimates vary but in general, adding video to an email increases open rates by 6 to 19%, according to campaignmonitor.com.
If you embed a video into your email and it impacts formatting, it will also affect deliverability, according to a HubSpot expert.
But you can avoid this glitch by sending a static image of the video with a play button that links to a new tab with the actual video.
Overall, there’s no hard and fast rule for emails that get opened. It depends on your audience, your message, and most importantly, the quality of the subject line in getting that message across.
Other posts you may enjoy:
Are You Making These Costly Copy Mistakes?
3 Email Writing Mistakes that Turn Off Readers
3 Easy Email Tactics You Should Be Using
P.S. Whether you’re writing emails or a webpage, copywriting formulas WORK. No myths there. Be sure to grab your copy of my eBook, 10 Tips to Write Irresistible Emails. All the cool kids use it —>
