5 Common Email Misconceptions…Demystified

Email lives in a fluid environment–what may have been completely taboo yesterday could be preached as a best practice today. Because of this, it’s easy to buy into some bad information. We grabbed one of our, Delivery Consultants, Jacob Hansen to clear up 5 common email misconceptions he encounters on the front lines when he’s working with our customers!

Plug in your headphones and press play for 6 wonderful minutes of email myth busting with Jacob, or scroll down to get straight to business with a quick misconception recap.

5 Common Email Misconceptions (with video timestamps)

#1. The bigger the list, the better. (00:15)

We prefer the adage: The more engaged the list, the better. You’re far better off sending mail to a smaller, but highly engaged list of recipients opposed to a million subscribers who want nothing to do with your mail.

#2. Subject lines affect deliverability. (01:33)

Though this is partly true, it’s not an exact science. At one point, using special characters or the word “free” would trigger spam filters and automatically land you in the spam folder. These days, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have adopted more complex algorithms (that weigh many attributes of your email) to determine whether mail is spam, so it’s not as simple as accidentally using one too many exclamation points.

#3. Getting to the inbox is the end game. (02:40)

Yes, you definitely want to make it to the inbox, but if your email just sits there and doesn’t get opened? Not great. You shouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket–between delivery, opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam reports, etc., many factors weigh in to determine the health and success of your email program.

#4. More images mean the email is more enticing. (03:32)

Get the message across first, look cool second. A few crisp, well placed images can do wonders to graduate an email from good to great, but you have to deliver on the purpose of your email first.

#5. Legal requirements are best practices. (04:42)

Legal requirements are the bare minimum. If you’re compliant, that’s awesome (!), but your work isn’t finished. There’s always more you can be doing to increase your recipients’ engagement and overall happiness with your brand. At the end of the day a happy, engaged subscriber is what we’re all working towards right?

If you’d like to hear more from Jacob Hansen, tune in to our latest webcast CASL Compliance 101 on demand!