What are some surprising truths about email marketing?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that emails often render differently across various email clients and devices. It’s crucial to test your email design on different platforms to ensure a consistent experience for subscribers.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that a smaller, highly engaged email list is often more valuable than a large, unengaged list.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that Gmail tab ‘mis-placement’ is worse than the spam folder.
Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailPro2020 suggests that sending emails too frequently can lead to unsubscribes and decreased engagement. Finding the right balance in email frequency is crucial for maintaining a healthy subscriber list.
Email marketer from Forbes explains that segmenting your email list based on demographics, behavior, and interests can significantly improve campaign performance.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that plain-text emails can sometimes outperform HTML emails in terms of deliverability and engagement.
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog shares that making it difficult for subscribers to unsubscribe can backfire. Subscribers may mark your email as spam instead, which can negatively impact your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Quora user Jane Doe says that generic emails are often ignored, and that personalizing emails with subscriber data can significantly improve open rates and click-through rates.
Email marketer from StackExchange user User12345 explains that A/B testing different email elements, such as subject lines and calls to action, can reveal valuable insights for optimizing email campaigns.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that a statement that sounds like a myth but is actually true is that “CAN-SPAM doesn’t require opt-in”.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks says that you can use FREE!!! in the subject line.
Expert from Spamresource shares that being on a smaller, lesser-known blocklist can sometimes have a greater impact than being on a major one, as smaller blocklists are often used as key indicators by specific organizations or spam filters.
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that deliverability is more nuanced than simply landing in the inbox or spam folder; factors such as placement in tabs (e.g., Gmail's Promotions tab) also impact visibility and engagement.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that sender reputation is not just about spam complaints; engagement metrics (opens, clicks, and even deletes) significantly influence it.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from IETF RFC 3501 details the complexities of SPF records. It's not simply a matter of adding a record; misconfiguration can lead to legitimate emails being flagged as spam. Proper syntax and understanding of SPF mechanisms are essential.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools highlights that sender reputation is a critical factor in email deliverability. Google uses various signals to assess sender reputation, and a poor reputation can lead to emails being filtered into the spam folder or blocked altogether.
Documentation from Microsoft Docs explains that high bounce rates can negatively impact sender reputation. Microsoft actively monitors bounce rates, and if they exceed a certain threshold, it can lead to emails being marked as spam or blocked.
Documentation from RFC 5322 details that there are specific limits to the length of header fields in email messages. Exceeding these limits can cause delivery issues. Each header field in an email message is limited to 998 characters, excluding the carriage return and line feed. Additionally, the total length of all header fields combined should not exceed a certain threshold.