Pop quiz: what’s olde
r, the internet, or email spam?
If you guessed “internet”, you’re wrong, and as punishment, you’ve been signed up for an extra dosage of email spam.
Just kidding about the punishment (or am I?)
Believe it or not, the first spam email was sent before the internet was “a thing”. In 1978, a man named Gary Thuerk (spelled just like the sound of a potato being sliced) used email to send a business pitch to nearly 400 email accounts on the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Products Agency network), a precursor to the internet we’re all using right this second.
The results… were mixed at best. In fact, the email spawned more privacy concerns than it did business leads, which just goes to show how little can change in forty years if your marketing isn’t done properly.
So, if email marketing has been around so long, and even the inaugural send didn’t bring in the customers, should digital businesses still be using it? Or should email marketing be resigned to countless spam folders the internet over?
The answer is… it depends.
Should we keep trying the exact same email tactics over and over again expecting results? Nope, that’s literally one of the definitions of insanity. Should we rely on tricks, like buying email address lists or offering to cure awkward physical conditions in our subject lines?
Nope.
First, let’s look at the numbers. In the US alone, we send a whopping 269 billion emails per day. 85% of adults in the United States use email, and of them, 99% check their messages at least once a day. Email isn’t going anywhere—in fact, it remains one of the #1 ways in which we communicate.
Here’s where it gets tough for us marketers, though—of those emails, 49% are considered spam. That means out of that enormous potential customer base who are reading emails right now, nearly all of them have embraced the fact that they can just delete half of everything in their inbox without reading it.
In other words, email is a straight shot to your customer. But your customer is smart. And that email better be really, really good.
Start by really examining the emails in your own inbox. Which ones do you stop and read? Which ones do you delete immediately? Of each, what factors influenced your decision? For a moment, you need to think as a consumer and not as a marketer, and you’re in a great place to do so. I can guarantee that at any given moment, one or two emails are arriving in either your inbox or your spam folder RIGHT NOW. You know which ones will annoy you and which ones will compel you.
Use that. Target that. Apply that.
There are also a host of new tools out there for email marketing: code that allows you to personalize emails, apps like Google Amp that let you build interactive content into your emails, services like Aptivada that let you craft daily content newsletters, etc.
The number one thing you need to remember about email marketing is to never phone it in. Always be testing, always be improving, because the moment your message becomes stagnant, it forever becomes a member of the spam club.
Questions? Ready to Get Started?
If you have questions or would like to get started, please give us a call at (312) 834-7787 or visit our website to request a free quote and consultation.