Ripped denim, Doc Martens, email marketing - yes, some things will never go outta style.
And here are 9 shocking facts to prove that email marketing is a timeless trend.
What’s up guys!
It’s Alex.
Now I’ve heard from a lot of you that you’ve been loving my listicle videos, thank you.
And I heard you, so I am back with another one!
This week, I’m sharing some shocking facts about email marketing that all marketers and
copywriters should absolutely be paying attention to right now.
Amidst all the talk of all the new and exciting ways to reach and influence your customers,
please excuse me for just a second while I focus on the OG of our generation – yes,
inboxes still continue to rule the internet…
And I’m not just talking about your parents and grandparents family email threads about
Thanksgiving or Christmas.
In fact, email still pulls a lot of weight on the playground when it comes to helping
millennials and even those 18 and younger make a purchasing decision.
Hey kid, give me your lunch money.
But for real.
It is estimated that there are 3 billion active email users right now (and that number is
projected to go up btw).
And yes, that number is a little bit hard to measure because of all us internet weirdos
who have like 16 email accounts…
Which reminds me my very first email account was candygirl_149@hotmail.com. I don’t know
what it was with our generation needing to come up with some fancy, cute email name.
Comment below and let me know, and I hope it’s just as embarrassing as mine.
But no matter the metrics, one thing is certain and that is: Email is ON THE RISE, and here’s
a graph that basically proves it, it’s science people!
So it’s no wonder that most marketers still use email campaigns as a MAJOR way to nurture
their audiences.
It’s one of the easiest ways to deploy, target, and track a marketing campaign…
When done right, that is!
Of course, a lot of other factors come into play – like knowing your target audience,
writing great subject lines, and providing real valuable, relevant content.
These are all crucial steps you need to consider in your email marketing efforts and that,
my friends, is why I created this channel…
Hit subscribe below so you don’t miss out on any more copywriting tutorials from moi.
Alright, so let’s get back to our list of 9 shocking email marketing facts, shall we...
Numero uno...
That’s right guys, it looks like a subject lines alone might not do the trick to get
your subscribers to click open.
Preview or preheader text is the 100 or so characters of an email’s content that you
can see directly see in your inbox, right after the subject line, without having to
open the email.
Often called the meta description, this is your chance to give your audience a sneak
peek at what your email is about…
Pre-click.
In a Litmus-Fluent survey, over 1300 American adults were asked what they looked at first
when deciding whether to open an email…
42% said sender name, 34% said subject line, makes sense…
BUT an unexpected 24% said preview text!
While the exact number of characters revealed depends on the device and the email provider
that your subscriber uses, trust me it is 10000000% worthwhile to write a well crafted
meta description for your emails.
If you opt not to include preview text, the default is usually the first sentence of an
email, which can be okay, but if you’re not careful, sometimes this can be header
text like an unsubscribe link.
No bueno.
So when writing emails for my clients, I always include a 100 character or less meta description
along with the email and subject line.
Alright...
Fact #2.
Now you’ve heard me talk about this in my current marketing trends video, but what does
this mean for email marketing?
Lemme tell ya...
Basically robots are taking over the entire world thanks to the rise of digital assistants
like, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s — Google…
People no longer like to read their emails.
Because that’s like…
Hard.
These days, many people prefer to have their emails read to them out loud.
“Hey Siri, could you please read me my latest email?”
You don’t have to say please.
That’s the Canadian in me.
She’ll then recite the sender name, subject line, and, yes, often the preview text...
I don’t know why I said she, my Siri is actually a British man.
Like Jarvis from Iron Man, obviously.
Did you know you could change it?
What’s yours?
Comment below and let me know!
Now, according to U.K.-based Juniper Research, there will be an estimated 8 billion digital
voice assistants in use by 2023.
8 billion guys!
That’s more voice assistants than people in the world.
See I told you they are taking over.
Moving right along...
That’s right there’s no need to wait till the landing page to have all the fun!
You can pre-game a little right inside your subscriber’s inbox to get them hyped up
for the main event.
Science says that interactive emails increase CTR, that’s click-thru-rate by a massive
73%.
So start thinking creatively about how you can get your subscribers attention to have
them take some sort of action or make a micro-commitment right there in the email – more than just
an obvious click on a button or sales page link.
So including slides, videos, accordions, collapsible menus, or animated GIFs can greatly encourage
engagement in your emails.
One of my favorite ways to do this is to ask a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question – with
each answer being a button that then directs to a different piece of content…
Kinda like a “choose your own adventure” story!
Not only does this create engagement early on, but it provides a more relevant and personalized
experience for your reader.
But again guys — don’t over do it.
Always use good judgment and test well.
Cramming a bunch of media into your email is not going to solve your email woes.
So always keep your content valuable, relevant and crystal clear.
Okay...
Ouch!
Just plain mean, or is it well deserved?
In another survey by OptinMonster, 54% of respondents reported that they have felt cheated,
tricked, or deceived into opening a promotional email based on the subject line.
The truth is guys, the line between dodgy clickbait and genuine email marketing is becoming
more and more blurry, as spammers get smarter with their messaging and marketers use more
hypey and completely irrelevant subject lines in an attempt to stand out and get a click.
This makes it super difficult for subscribers to distinguish one from the other at first
glance.
Especially if they’ve had a bad experience in the past.
So, keep your subject lines simple and to the point, be personal and transparent and
most of all BE RELEVANT…
You can also experiment with emojis.
A study by Experian, a consumer reporting agency, found that email subject lines with
an emoji actually increased open rates by 56%.
Likely due to the personal feel that they add to the message.
But again guys, don’t overdo it.
To learn more about how you can write killer subject lines, you can watch my copywriting
tutorial on that next.
Yeah, According to a 2015 Study by ReturnPath, only about 79% of emails sent by legitimate
email marketers reach the inbox.
And I’m guessing that number is a lot lower today.
So, on top of writing personal, transparent and relevant subject lines, you need to make
sure your emails are squeaky clean when it comes to spam trigger words.
The criteria for spam is getting stricter and stricter and is based on a whole variety
of rules – like formatting, image-to-text ratio, missing footer information, subject
line, and the list goes on – the evaluation of all of these things together in one email
gives you something called an overall spam score.
Now there are lots of tools out there that you can use to check spam score before sending
an email, and I’ll link to a few of those in the description below.
Now the only issue for us copywriters though is that a lot of these tools require you to
send an actual TEST email from a client’s email sender, which we don’t always have
access to or maybe there isn’t a real-time feedback loop in place so that we can see
how our emails fair against the spam police.
So as a fail-safe, I like to keep a list of spam trigger words handy that I can reference
everytime I write an email.
There’s a great one that Hubspot released and I’ll share a link to that in the description
below.
Now guys the great news is, that this is a simple but often-overlooked step so when you
add this into your email writing process, you’ll drastically increase your chances
of landing in the inbox and skyrocket the results of your email campaigns.
Which will make you look like a genius in the eyes of your clients.
It’s time consuming but trust me, it’s worth it.
In a study done by Hubspot, 64% of respondents said they prefer HTML image-based emails over
plain text emails…
But, ironically, every single A/B test that followed showed that the emails with fewer
HTML elements actually won.
Hubspot found that HTML emails received lower open rates than their plain-text counterparts.
Now this is probably due to one of the following reasons...
HTML emails may seem prettier but they can come across as quite commercial and land you
in the promotional tab of inboxes like Gmail.
Whereas plain text emails just feel a little bit more personal.
Or if your HTML email has any broken tags or broken image links your email will be triggered
as spam by the email provider
I guess at the end of the day, nothing beats old-school, plain-text emails.
Because let’s face it, it’s the closest thing we get to a hand-written, romantic letter
these days.
I’m not suggesting that you throw HTML emails out the window...
But maybe test and see what performs with your audience best, and make sure to also
provide an optimized, plain-text version of your email as an option.
According to Adestra, mobile devices now account for almost 60% of read emails worldwide (and
I’ve seen reports with that number much, much higher too).
So if an email is not optimized for mobile viewing no matter how good the content is...
In almost 70% of the cases it’s deleted within three seconds!
Ouch…
That is painful.
Imagine spending all this time writing an email and it’s just meh, deleted, three
seconds, it’s gone.
Never ever sees the light of day.
But can you really blame people?
I’d likely do the same if an email has too much text, no breaks, or oversized images
that spill over the edge of my screen, if reaches me while I’m in a rush to clear
my inbox, there is absolutely no way I’m not deleting it.
Bottomline?
ASSUME your audience is reading your emails on mobile.
Get a responsive email template and test it.
Make sure that any graphics and media you use look good on a tiny screen.
Campaign Monitor also recommends including a call to action button buttons instead of
just relying on hyperlinks.
And I have tested and proven this myself.
I like to use a mix of both buttons and links to account for both types of devices.
Because let’s be honest those little hyperlinks can be impossible to click, especially if
you have big thumbs on your mobile phone.
So give me a thumbs up below if you agree.
I talk a lot about the importance of personalization in my copywriting trends video, and this only
further drives home the point.
Maintaining a personal approach in your subject line, like addressing people by their first
names, remembering people's birthdays, or mentioning previous orders and campaign activity
can go a long, long way!
It shows your subscribers that you’re taking the measure to customize their experience
with you...
Instead of taking a cookie cutter approach to your marketing.
It makes them feel special and IMPORTANT.
And that is always a really, really good thing to try to achieve with your marketing.
So if you want to see how your subject lines measure up to the rest of the market, you
really should check out this really cool and free tool called Send Check It.
This subject line tester will compare your subject line to other emails sent by marketers
just like you.
I’ll include the link in the description box below for you to go check it out.
Alright now speaking of personalization…
This takes us to our last email marketing factoid...
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: gone are the days of relying on “batch-and-blast”
email campaigns.
The future of email marketing will rely on behaviour-based emails.
So a friend and mastermind member of mine emailed me the other day to ask about the
“Ideal” length of an auto-responder email sequence.
To which I said, there really is no perfect length for an automated campaign.
80% of your sales will come in the first few weeks after a subscriber opts in though, so
while I don't think it hurts to have a long AR, what's more important is surveying, tagging
and segmenting your subscribers to make sure you're customizing user journeys and providing
hyper-relevant behavior based content.
So think: multiple parallel ARs, rather than just one long one that everybody gets.
Segmented email marketing campaigns get almost 15% more email opens and 60% more clicks compared
to non-segmented campaigns.
In fact, 78% of consumers say that personally-relevant content is a determining factor in their buying
decision.
And a lack of relevance in marketing messaging leads to a massive 83% decrease in engagement.
Phew! Guys, that was a lot of numbers...
But there you have it!
My 9 shocking email marketing facts that will have you think twice before blasting your
list.
Please give me a thumbs up below if you found this video helpful!
And if you have an idea on a list video that I should do in the future, comment below and
let me know!
Thank you so much for watching guys, here are some videos that you can check out next.
I will see you next week with a brand new tutorial.
Untill then, Ciao for now!