We already know that email isn’t perfect and is constantly battling with spam filters.   Delivery is a big problem and for a while, I really thought this technical issue was the main reason that email open rates were so low, typically 10-30%. Yet email experts tell us that the subject line is critical too and fine tuning this did provide some modest improvements pushing up rates as high as 35-40%.  Then  I noticed a couple of my clients individual campaigns achieved over  65% open rates, which for email marketing is almost unheard of. Obviously my old mail was getting through, but people were simply deleting them, since the focus was, quite naturally, on a new product offering or service. So, which campaign ‘subjects’ got opened at these 65% rates?

Well, it wasn’t those messages about new products, services, business opportunity or even [surprisingly] how to save money. Clear winners were those where the subject line and content was more on helping others, charitable works or personal interest stories. (These were often added as an afterthought). Yes, it seems even your customers may want to know if one of your staff is getting married, having children, celebrating an achievement or more often, know more about your charitable efforts or a local children’s fundraiser that you (and they) could help out.

It’s not just about selling – It’s about how messages make us feel

My own theory is that this type of message creates a tiny bond between the recipient and your company, or rather, your people. The lesson here is that your email communications should focus more around topics people can actually relate to, are relevant and perhaps makes them feel better as a person. Invoke an emotional response, which is something top marketers and psychologists have told us for decades. Its been proven that buying decisions are nearly always made from the emotional, not logical side of the brain. Feelings, it is said, is the language of the soul. Invoking feelings means you become less of a big corporate, and more a human being. It obviously builds trust and a closer relationship, which if nurtured will help build your business in the long term.

It perhaps reminds us that we are in fact human, not just another sales opportunity for someone….

Maybe it’s also the fact that we’re being bombarded with clinical, impersonal sales messages every day, and these little personal interest stories suddenly stand out. A tiny light in the darkness called marketing. It reminds us that we are in fact human beings, not just another sales opportunity or prospect for someone.

Where is Emails Sweet Spot?

I think even using the term email marketing puts us on the wrong foot today. Maybe email should be less about ‘marketing’ or selling, and all about educating, communicating and relationship building at a more personal level. It’s certainly what our readers seem to want.

Copywriters who write for all media channels have long noted that email alone is not good at pure lead generation. In fact it’s a bad choice. Too many like to use it this way purely because it is perceived to be cheap and easy to do. But even if you’re able to find or build an email list (which isn’t a cheap process),  sending out a product-focused email blast, like you’d put an ad in a magazine, to those you have no prior relationship with produces very poor results and likely to antagonize people. In fact they’ll probably blacklist or filter out your companies email address so that future emails are never seen, even if they do have some real benefit.

However for existing clients we already know and have permission to communicate with, email appears much more efficient and cost-effective than other media – Ideal for nurturing that relationship and keeping your clients loyal. Considering that finding a new client is 5x more costly than retaining (or regaining) one, this puts email in a very powerful and critical position in any company’s business strategy. And keeping a more human face on our email messages ensures that they’ll be opened, read and treasured.

Read also: Sometimes simple works  and Seth on Web 2.0

How times have changed. Now there’s multiple delivery issues, poor open rates, filtering and strict anti-spam legislation to contend with. Even website advertising is struggling, with rapidly reducing returns and effectiveness.

eMail - The good and the bad news

But email marketing remains attractive. No business should be without it. It just takes a lot more planning and care than it did when Debbie started out. Of course you still need a good database of readers, which again takes time and money to build.

Then there’s the problem of poor delivery and open rates rates. That is, of the emails that are sent, how many are either trashed by filters, or just plain ignored because of bad subject, offer or content.

The average email open rates email providers data is a miserly 20-40% and a much lower 13% average by e-Marketer who indicate that this open rate is steadily falling every year! Regardless, it’s all a fraction of what’s delivered by the Postie to your letterbox. We also need to factor in the costs.

Certainly if you’re send out 10,000 emails at a cost of around 5c each (for a professional html, tracked variety) vs 50c for direct mail, then email on the surface makes financial sense if you’re focusing on costs alone, not response rates, sales or ROI. (The problem most companies have is not owning a good client email list, which is another topic)

Good Subject and Copy Helps

Hiring an expert copywriter who is also familiar with all the internet spam issues can help, plus sending out all emails in text-only mode, certainly improves things delivery-wise, although is less attractive and enticing to readers.

No media works well in isolation

Open rates can also be helped by changing your software, service provider or using authenticated domains. But any hard-fought technical fix today, could break tomorrow, requiring ongoing investment.

Experts say an open rate of 80-90% is technically possible, but these solutions don’t come cheap and take an immense amount of planning. But as the cost climbs and to save money Marketers may consider reverting to established alternatives like radio, print ads or direct mail…

There’s simply no ‘Quick Fixes’ to all this within the internet community, as confirmed by a Forrester Research report.

Making eMail work better – Integration with other media

Unfortunately those within the internet community are only considering solutions from within – Unable to see the forest, for the trees. Sometimes, the solution is right in front of us, if we look ‘outside the box’…

Today no media can work well in isolation. Not print, TV, Radio or the net. As case studies have shown, email can be dramatically enhanced by other media, especially direct mail to a targeted, local audience. What’s more, this simple cross-media strategy is self-funding, giving a real return on investment.

P.S. Looking at the average 10% open rates for eCommerce storefronts, it’s easy to see why old fashioned direct mail provided such a huge boost in sales for online shop Bare Necessities featured earlier.