This is Inbox Hacking, a Free Newsletter for email marketers eager to level up. Email marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent twice per week. Someone forwarded you our Newsletter? Sign up for your Free subscription. Todayâs feature story reveals myths that may be hindering your email campaigns, + the 3 best subject lines currently in my inbox.
Happy Fatherâs Day 4 days early. Remember, you donât have to change the world. Taking care of business for a family is plenty.
Onto todayâs feature. Iâll break to pieces 6 myths that could be keeping your audience from opening, engaging, or giving a rip about your emails.
Weâll jump right in, I gotta make a gift listâ hope my daughters have saved up.
Email Myth #1 – Simplicity
This UX myth list seeded our feature btw.
Minimal does not always equal simple.
Readers often need words versus minimalistic buttons.
Maybe not the younger segment of your list but Gen Xers like me might.
Took me 24 months to get used to hamburger menus back in the day. Apps get deleted asap when users donât know WTH to tap! Designers are great at design but they work inside a bubble.
The real world is full of email readers who get frustrated after clicking to a landing page and not quickly understanding what to do next.
Email Myth #2 – Sharing
Few people read entire articles or emails.
That doesnât stop them from sharing content though.
A headline or subject line is enough to get people to shareâ if what they scan is appealing, intriguing, or even infuriating.
Email Myth #3 – Design
World-class design wonât solve all your email marketing issues.
Unless you abduct the Huckberry crew and can source the best looking humans on Earth for each email, well, youâll have to focus on other things.
đźA pretty picture is not a call-to-action
đEven slightly cumbersome checkouts cost your brand money
đ§ Psychology can be used in design but mostly in the copy
Ease of use can trump average design. It helped Best Buy sell about $300,000,000 more. The company stopped forcing people to register to make a purchase. The words below came with no epic pics but resulted in an extra $15 million the first month.
âYou do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.â
Email Myth #4 – The Best
Relax. Your subscribers are not scouring your email for the all-time best solution to their problem-of-the-week.
They seek a good-enough solution, a quick fix. (This behavior is called âsatisficingâ)
Make sure they find it quick and easy. Leave a few fixes laying around in your email instead of always trying to lead readers directly to the one link or tool you believe they seek.
Email Myth #5 – Copying Big Dogs
Campaigns that stick to what works for the worldâs most successful brands wonât guarantee your success.
Proof. If an upstart called Amazon copied what Walmart did online then Jeff Bezos wouldnât be rocking super-yachts or be hot on Wallyworldâs heels.
Smaller brands donât have mountains of subscriber and user data.
Small businesses have to test best practices, theories, and trends before knowing which will work in their email strategies..
Email Myth #6 – Rational Readers
Your subscribers are fine citizens. But irrational as hell. Just like you and me.
- We sign up for 30-year house payments
- Buy cars that lose value as we sign the loan papers
- We made reality tv popular
Iâve got more:
- If modern people hate reading, then why do they need emotional stories instead of a pile of bullet-point facts before they buy?
- Placebo effect is hardcore real – our minds play tricks on us, depending on who we listen to and what we already want to believe.
- The subject line you think is your best often gets average opens. Same goes for clicks on that call-to-action that had you bragging to your dad. (please donât)
To sum it all upâŚ
Donât believe anything unless you see it with your own eyes. Until you observe actual subscriber behaviors. Keep your readers in mind with every email you write.
Make things easy, obvious, and impactful for them.
BTW, Top 3 Subject Lines In My Inbox (+why they worked)
- đA+ (3-character SL & bright yellow emoji)
- đ Stuck in traffic tax (riles me up so I opened it)
- the case against using stories in sales copy (contrarian POV especially in 2023)
Read below for 2 insightful webinar links, plus chatty neighbor learnings, & Todayâs Hack
Knowledge Base
âĄKnowledge is power, but first, a brave chicken.
Why add your podcast to YouTube? And how.
â Warning: deep technical dive into email authentication.
Marketing to those in the driverâs seat (WAZE webinar replay – signup req.).
âłReading email a time suck? (how to save time + learn how your readers feel).
âPlease follow Inbox Mailers on LinkedIn
Trashed
đŽ Landfills contain megatons of flyers, postcards, and sales letters. Most trashed before readers even read the business name on the paper.
Same with marketing emails. No digital weight but still a giant waste.
Protect your email campaigns from being trashed before readers even see your subject line.
You can get up to 7 out of 10 emails opened and read with Inbox Mailers.
Yep, up to 70% open rates. Not only that. Click volume increases too.
Learn how Inbox Mailers is helping other email marketers like LeadMark triple their open rates. Schedule a free demo today.
*sponsored
Self Help
My new neighbor is 73, wears overalls, and is 3% more âcountryâ than me.
He talks a lot and I miss lunch if I stop by his porch after a run.
But without listening I wouldnât have learned something cool.
The old-timer is a hardcore gamer. Heâs hooked on World of Warcraft and plays all night sometimes.
Talk to others like they know something you donât. Doesnât come natural to me but I do it because it benefits both parties.
*Shout-out to Inbox Hackers:
đ˘Aurelie at IncomarServices (creative services)
đŁAudrey at Natick Arts Center
Facts and Stats
- When shopping for luxury goods, 50.4% research a brand or product 3 to 5 times (Media Post).
- Travel industry had the highest global bounce rateâ 6.83% (GetResponse)
- 31% of marketers say they use basic segmentation (2-5 criteria)
Bonus: SuperOffice study showed which type of email can generate up to 20% of email marketing revenue? Answer is triggered emails.
Inbox Alertâ more crowded than ever in history.
Many brands have 8 out of 10 emails unopened, going to waste.
Demoralizing, yeah?
But it does not have to be this way.
You can quickly increase your open rates with Inbox Mailers.
Users of this new tech are seeing 50% – 70% open rates consistently.
âPlus, Inbox Mailers re-engages inactive subscribers using our mega-mailer Network Effect.
Yes, this platform integrates easily with your current ESP.
Increases click volume too.
Want to stand out in inboxes and stop letting so many campaigns go to waste?
Learn more by scheduling a free one-on-one demo of Inbox Mailers.
Get Hacking
Cold hard truth time. About 80% of readers are not reading your emails. Theyâre scanning the emails.
This isnât tragic. Just reality. So lean into making your emails more scannable.
It will make scanners come back for more. How to do it:
- Insert your main idea in one short sentence atop an image
- Remove all possibility of confusing the reader/scanner
- Inverted pyramid (donât bury the lead)
You canât change reality but you can write emails fit for reality.
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Please take survey below. Itâs harmless.
