Don't fall for email marketing myths

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on June 19, 2008

I'm in an obstreperous mood today.

Email marketing has a high ROI

A myth? (That got your attention.) Yes, of course, email marketing does have a fabulously high return on investment. But is this the best way to judge the success of your email marketing?

First, if you focus exclusively on ROI, you neglect the other benefits of email that aren't easily measured in dollar sales. Examples: improved brand awareness, improved brand loyalty, more offline sales, more website visits...

Second, email's high ROI is partly explained by its low costs. If I invest $10 and get $100 back, the ROI is higher than if I invest $100 and get $900 back.

But the second alternative bags me $800 in profits, the first just $90.

So look at the other financial metrics like profit, too, when deciding how successful your email program is.

Open rates are falling, but that's just image blocking

Many benchmark reports show a gentle drop in open rates as time goes by. And each one attributes this trend to the growth of webmail, desktop and mobile email clients that suppress images, thus preventing your delivery system from recording an open.

That is an explanation, but not necessarily the only one.

Most webmail services and desktop clients switched to default image blocking a while back. The growth in mobile email use might mean a slight uptick in image blocking, but I refuse to accept that image suppression is to blame for everything.

As time goes by, people ought to be unblocking images as they grow to value and trust your emails. (And here's an interesting technique to get them to download images.)

So if your open rates are slowly declining, maybe less people are interested in what you're sending? Or maybe you have problems getting your emails delivered to the inbox?

So, first, don't use image blocking as an excuse to avoid cold, hard analysis of what you might do better.

And, second, don't rely on open rates as your only indicator of success. What about clicks? Sales? Downloads? Profits? ROI?

Email marketing is recession-proof

Email marketing's low cost and high return suggest it's secure from the ravishes of budget cuts in the light of economic troubles. Or is it?

First, as Ken Magill reports, email marketing isn't proving quite so recession proof after all, with marketers cutting back on spending.

Second, and most importantly, don't play the "email is cheap" card too strongly.

It helps you keep your budget intact during the period of economic difficulty. But when things brighten up, you've made it harder for yourself to justify more resources for more advanced email marketing solutions. After all, you argued that email is cheap. (I've touched on this issue before.)

Email is the glue of Web 2.0 so don't worry about the latter

The fact that LinkedIn and Facebook send me email notifications of friend requests and similar says absolutely nothing about the future direction of email marketing.

Linking the success of email marketing to the continuing use of email is like linking the success of direct mail to the continuing use of paper. (Sort of.)

The point is not whether more or less email is sent. The critical issue is exactly how people use email. When? For what purpose? And which people?

The whole Web 2.0 versus email debate is simply a reflection of changing user habits. Customers and prospects are continually shifting their communication preferences around.

The challenge is to get the best match between the marketing channels you use / communication alternatives you offer and the preferences of each individual you're trying to reach.

Email will be the right choice for some of those individuals. And the wrong choice for others.

So worry about social networks, instant messaging etc. Not because they threaten email. But because they remind us that preferences change and your email marketing needs to adapt to these changes. More on this topic.

OK, time for a soothing cup of Earl Grey tea. Think I'm off the mark here? Then do comment and put me right...

Tags: email marketing, email roi, email open rates, email marketing metrics

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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