Email marketing targets the bottom of your marketing funnel but should be on the top of your mind.
Dollar-for-dollar, it is one of the highest ROI marketing tools at your disposal.
Time and effort built your email list; money and clients are what’s now in it for you.
The art and science of drawing out that money and business is Email Marketing.
To fully capitalize on your hard-won email list, these are five popular marketing myths you can unsubscribe from immediately, according to email specialist Kori Curry at Studio 3 Marketing:
Myth No. 1: Longer Emails are Better
Fact: The best emails are hyper-focused, and are 1-2 folds in length.
Over 9 months, this client saw a 1,707% ROI on Email Marketing with Studio 3.
Myth number one is that long emails are better than short emails.
It reduces your email ROI because people are busy. Attention spans are short. Distraction is high.
Send a post-it note, not a book.
And make it simple, stunning, and memorable.
But above all, make it actionable.
What’s the one thing you want your recipient to do or remember?
While you can smartly get away with a bit more than that one thing, add too many or say too much and you risk dispersing your message and audience.
Segment your lists so the “post-its” you send are better tailored, specifically to their needs or next steps within your practice.
The ideal email is one or two folds, maybe (rarely) three, says Kori Curry, Studio 3’s Email Marketing Director.
Pro Tip: The best emails are short. They’re also case-specific, and contain a careful balance of elements that meet your reader’s needs first, and your email service provider’s needs second. Open-rates and click-through rates matter a lot in the long-term. Never send an email without a clear call to action and obvious click-through opportunities.
Myth No. 2: Email is Dead or Dying
Fact: Email is one of the most consistent and cost-effective ways to market, and has been for almost 20 years.
We've known that email is alive and well—very well!—for a long time because we see the results it generates for our clients.
But for digging up the broader market data on just how consistently effective email marketing has remained for almost 20 years, we thank digital marketing guru Rand Fishkin.
Fishkin argues that unlike social and paid ad engagement rates, not only is email the one channel that "never dies," but that it's actually the single "most consistent and reliable marketing channel on the web."
"By and large, every marketing channel that’s risen in the last quarter century has fallen in efficacy the last decade. Except email," he says.
And we have to agree.
Myth No. 3: If You Aren’t Offering a Discount, Don’t Email
Fact: Discounts and coupon codes should be the exception, never the rule in email marketing.
Industry-Standard Email Open Rates are 21.33-21.89%. This client saw a 3.52X higher open rate of 45% with Studio 3.
Many practices and providers feel they need a discount or coupon to please their readers and maximize open and click-through rates.
Curry says the opposite is actually true: Your past customers want to hear from you, discount or no discount, and that only emailing when you have a special to offer will limit your campaign’s short- and long-term effectiveness.
The “discount or no deal” seems to be a misinterpretation of something else that actually is a hard and fast rule in email marketing:
You have to provide (value) before you can pull (revenue, clients) from an email list. That’s a fact.
The error is in thinking this rule translates into coupon codes or specials in every email. In reality, it simply means that you have to provide value over time or, yes, people will eventually tire of hearing from you.
Clients and potential clients find value in your work and services. It’s why they signed up for your emails to begin with.
Share your wares.
You brought them through the top and middle of your marketing funnel already, over so many long months or years.
They’re ready to buy, and email is the perfect way to encourage them to do so.
(And if you are running a special or limited time offer, email is the perfect way to share it with those most likely to buy.)
Myth No. 4: My Email List Is Too Small to Start Marketing To
Fact: No list is too small. A large, clean list is best and emailing regularly is one of the best ways to build it.
This client saw a 3.8X higher email open rate with Studio 3.
“Really no list is too small,” says Curry.
That’s for both technical and practical reasons.
The technical reasons include long-term reliability and deliverability signals that you build with your email service provider over time—and only over time.
Postpone emailing while you “build up your list,” and the odds are higher that you’ll have higher bounce rates and lower open and click-through rates than you want to start off with.
The practical reasons include what the names on your email list represent:
They are the most interested of the many, many people who heard about your practice or saw your results.
They want to hear from you.
Reach them directly before your competitor does.
Myth No. 5: Email Marketing is Expensive and/or Unprofitable
Fact: Email marketing is one of the best and most profitable tools you have, and it’s incredibly inexpensive.
A 12-month email campaign by Studio 3 produced a 2,200% ROI for this client.
Email lists are the end result of a long list of costly marketing activities that you’ve already undertaken—from running ads and hosting open houses, to speaking at events and running referral programs—conducted over the course of many years.
Email lists are a collection of your most interested potential clients and customers.
As for the time and effort that goes into managing email marketing, Curry says the onboarding time is minimal.
And that once the program is up and running, it’s a matter of brief bullet point lists and monthly messages to ensure her team and your practice are on the same page.
Don’t have a content calendar? Not sure of what to promote when? She’ll take care of that, too.
“Out of all the different marketing investments you can make, email by far gives you the best return on investment,” she says.
Too busy to capitalize on this clear revenue and repeat client booster? Let Studio 3 Marketing do it for you.
Schedule a conversation with our email marketing specialist.
