Avoid the Algorithm – Use Email
Social media’s great. I post a lot, and I know at least one woman regularly sees my posts. She’s a Karen and tells me the error of my ways. Thank you, dear. So far, I don’t think AI knows you’re a Karen and a comment is a comment.
Who else sees my posts? There are people who comment, but given the number of posts I make, I suspect they only see part of them. I don’t get to decide who sees my posts. The algorithm does.
Since you and I can’t control the algorithm, using email makes sense.
Email is more effective. You control the from space, the subject line, and who it’s sent to.
Let’s be clear. If you have a business in 2022, you’ve got to have a website. It’s how people find you. But if you want to reach out to your customers, email is the way to do it.
Here are 3 Simple Reasons to Use Email:
1. You control the list and who will see your message
2. There are no fees for ads or costs for stamps and envelopes (if you snail mail)
3. People move, but they keep their personal email addresses the same
Now that you know why should be using email. Let’s talk about “how” to email.
There are estimates that over 122 Billion emails are sent a day (per Spamlaws). Of those 122 Billion emails, 85% are spam. That’s right. 85% are not legitimate which makes using your email well even more important.
Don’t be a spammer. Spam doesn’t have so much to do with quantity, but rather quality. Let me explain.
1. The receiver needs to recognize the sender’s name.
Imagine your company’s name is LMNOP, Inc. Your claim to fame is the Tasty Salmon Cedar Plank. (Sorry guys. I must be hungry.) Anyway, you send out an email from LMNOP, Inc. It doesn’t have much of an open rate. In fact, many mark it as spam. The receiver doesn’t recognize LMNOP, Inc. and suspects phishing.
After working with a marketer, your company gets a domain and email for Tasty Salmon Cedar Plank. The same email that tanked a week ago has dramatically improved open rates with the new sender name.
The receiver needs to know, like, and trust the sender before opening emails. Don’t send out emails from your corporation’s name unless that’s how prospects recognize you. Like the example above, you may need another domain name that matches that of your bestselling product.
2. Have a subject line that will appeal to your prospects.
There are dozens of ways to do this. Look back at some of my previous blogs/posts.
However, there are some things to avoid in your Subject Lines:
Lies. “Shame on you, fool me once. Shame on you, unsubscribe twice.” Or even worse, it gets marked as spam.
Spammy words like FREE (in all caps), Buy or BOGO, etc. The algorithm is a moving target. Let your prospect know what’s important to them in the subject line. Give them a reason to open the email.
Provocative subject lines can be fun, but be careful. Dataprot.net reports, "Adult-related content is the second-biggest spam category, accounting for roughly 31.7% of all spam messages.” You don’t want your email marked as spam when a better subject line would do the trick.
3. Keep your nose clean, or rather your IP address.
You can go on Google and actually check your email score. You want a good score. If your score is low, less of your emails will make it to the target inbox. They will be put in spam or under the promotions tab which many people don’t check.
One of the ways to keep that better score is by sending prospects useful content. Not every email needs to be an ad or a promotion. That said, I have one company who sends me an ad every single day. I’m okay with it because I know if I open that email, there will be coupons. Good coupons. As long as that’s the case, they can send me daily emails. (FYI: at least half of these vendor emails are under the promotions tab.)
It's good when you can get your prospects to reply to an occasional email. It lets the AI know that there is communication going both ways between you and your prospect. If it’s always one way, it’s more likely the email is spam.
Allow prospects to unsubscribe. It’s not a personal attack on you. It’s better for your Google score than being marked as spam. Besides, if they don’t want your product/service, it’s better to spend time with people who are interested.
Along with allowing prospects to unsubscribe is list maintenance. Keeping your list clean is one way to avoid being labeled as spam. Depending on your email provider, you can find out who’s opening your emails and even better clicking through. You can identify who responded to which email so you know who’s interested in what.
Email marketing is an incredible tool in your marketing toolkit if you use it effectively. Remember, you have control of the list, the sender name, the subject lines, and the content every time you send an email.
If you need help harnessing the power of email marketing, I’d love to help. Send me a message or go to Dove Copywriting on the web. I check my email every day. 😉