Got An Email List? (Here’s How To Get Out Of Spam)
By: CoryMolloy | Published on: Feb 6, 2023| Advertising and Marketing , Copywriting , Cory Molloy , Digital Marketing , Direct Response Copywriting , Effective Advertising , Sales Copy | Copywriting , Cory Molloy , Digital Marketing , Email Deliverability , Email List Management , Email Marketing , Emails
Do Most Of Your Emails Go To Spam? When I played, MONOPOLY…
Drawing the “Get Out of Jail FREE” card, always made me feel…
Like I was winning the game…
And nothing could stop me!
Yet as a Business Owner today…
Having your own email list just might save your business…
Because it softens the blow that can come at any time…
“Of finding out that our ads were shut down!” Yet even MORE importantly…
Once your email list gets to a few thousand happy subscribers…
You’ll have your very own “legal” money-printing machine!
Because:
Email Marketing Offers the Highest Return in Marketing For Every Dollar You Spend
Get Leads
Nurture Leads
Support Sales
Build a Tribe of Raving Fans
Yet Building An Email List Has Become More Challenging And you don’t automatically get customers just because you have a list.
While there are a lot of fish in the sea –
Many of them are not a good fit for your offer…
Even if they opted into your list!
Some are just there for your content…
Others may become customers at some point…
Yet moving the conversation along takes time…
And unless you specifically got into business to be a top copywriter… You probably aren’t qualified to write truly connecting stories…
For the kind of results you want!
While Chat GPT3 actually does write better than most people can…
I don’t want to throw a bucket of cold water on your plans…
Because Chat GPT3 does not write at a top professional creative level – and it probably won’t for many years.
And there are algorithm updates that are changing the game as well…
So getting your emails opened isn’t as easy as it once was…
Because we get so many of them. Most of us get at least 200 emails every day.
While some of them do come from friends…
Most of them are probably junk mail.
To give you a better idea of what I’m saying here…
And nobody wants THAT many emails…
(Not even a marketing guy like me who loves to read)
So Email platforms (like Gmail) created an algorithm…
To spot ads BEFORE they get delivered.
So they end up in the SPAM folder – the place where Emails go to die.
A kind of email purgatory…
Or the PROMO TAB, the other email graveyard where emails are never seen again.
While these junk mail folders have improved the quality of the emails we get…
They also create a special challenge for us business owners who want to send holiday specials to our customers.
Because you could spend days writing the perfect email for your customers that may never be seen by anyone…
And nobody wants to throw away their time, money, and energy like that.
So how do you write emails that actually get to your audience?
Here Are 3 Ways To Get Out of Email Purgatory And Into the Inbox Let’s say you bought a list of leads/potential customers…
Or you have an opt-in page set up for those who see your Facebook ads…
So you send an Email to all of them, and then nothing happens, all you hear are the crickets in your own backyard…
While it could be that nobody likes your offer…
The most likely reason unless you have a lot of unsubscribes is –
They didn’t see your email. It probably landed in the Promo Tab…
But do you know if your Email went to their Promo Tab? Because the algorithm isn’t going to send you a personal message – “Hey I sent your emails to the Promo Tab…”
Your biggest clue is –
You have low open rates.
But to get out of promotions you’ll need open rates that are above 20%.
To do this you need to find out…
Which part of your Email is getting flagged by the algorithm.
First Let’s Test ALL 5 Sections Of Your Email 1. The Subject Line
2. Your Preview Line
3. The Main Content (Body)
4. Images & Links
5. Your CTA (Call To Action)
If you’re getting a low response rate you need to…
Isolate and test each of these 5 elements separately.
For example, when you test the subject line…
Send 2 emails to different email addresses dedicated to testing…
But, in one of the emails replace the subject line with the word “Test.”
To see what happens…
Did it go to the inbox?
If not remove or change something in your subject line…
To something less salesy, spammy, or scammy.
If you don’t end up in the inbox, try again.
Test the preview line…
Test the body of the email…
Remove the links and images one by one to see what happens…
Remove your Call to Action…
Are any of them landing in the inbox now when the others didn’t?
Look for any clues as to where the problem may be.
And checking your deliverability is the first step.
The Common Mistakes Are:
Too many links
Too many images
Spammy words in the Subject Line
Spammy words in the Preview Line
Spammy words in the Email Body
Or something else…
The algorithms change the rules on us all the time…
Continual testing should be your guide as to what works for your audience. This isn’t about outsmarting the algorithm.
It’s about learning what your audience responds to…
Because the algorithm will reward you…
When you connect, engage, and get your audience to respond to your emails.
Second, Engage with the Most Active Members of Your List So, the next step is easy…
Craft another email and send it to those on your list who opened your emails.
Because the ones who opened your first email…
Are more likely to open your next one.
And the algorithm is looking for engagement… To see if you are a spammer or a legitimate marketer. So, if you send a cold email to 2000 people and only 100 of them open –
Focus on the 100 who engaged with you…
Keep emailing them…
Keep them engaged…
Until your open rate climbs above 20%.
Then you can message the entire list again (even those who didn’t respond).
The trick is to engage more with those who open and reply to you.
Ask questions.
Invite them to “whitelist” your email.
So they get your best tips, discounts, news, and deals first.
When you’re over 20% re-engage with the less-active segment of your list.
Third, Clean Your List Every 90 Days Get rid of all the dead, fake, or duplicate email accounts.
This will reduce your bounce rate (the percentage of emails that don’t get delivered).
These incorrect email addresses – will give you a much higher risk of your emails being flagged and treated as spam… The good news is you can increase deliverability by removing these “bad” email addresses, giving your emails a much better chance of landing in the inbox.
Next, let’s win back your inactive subscribers with a re-engagement strategy…
If they haven’t opened ANY of your emails for 90 days –
Send them 3 to 7 “Last Chance” emails…
Before you retire them from your list.
Don’t keep sending emails to those who aren’t interested in your offer.
If you’ve sent a dozen emails and they haven’t opened one – it’s probably safe to say they aren’t interested…
Let them unsubscribe and make it easy for them to do that (if they want). If you do, you’ll see your open rates improve…
And if your open rates are high, you’ll stay out of the Promo Tab.
In Summary: Don’t Be Spammy and Scammy with Your Emails Because it doesn’t serve you or your audience…
It’s not professional and it doesn’t make the world a better place.
Which is why you are here in the first place.
If your audience is happy with you… The algorithm will be happy with you. Keep this in mind and you’ll show up in everyone’s inbox…
(With some directing)
Where your raving fans can read all your emails…
Instead of just ending up in the promo tab and spam folder.
Your favorite advertising professional,
P.S. Obviously there’s more to this…So ask the questions you have about email marketing.
And if you’d like a hand with your next email campaign…
And we love your product/service…
We could manage your list for you (if it’s over 10k).
Because, the way to get long-term growth with email marketing, is to earn the attention of your audience.
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