People say it doesn’t work, that nobody reads emails anymore, or that inboxes are too crowded.
But very often, the problem isn’t email marketing itself. The problem is who the email is being sent to.
I recently received two emails that made this really clear.
One was about an offer on fire extinguisher servicing in and around Llanelli in South Wales. I live in North East Scotland and have no connection to fire extinguishers, so that email was never going to be relevant to me.
The second email was much more interesting. It invited me to the launch night of a yoga, sauna and ice bath community-led wellness space. That actually sounded like something I might have been interested in. The problem was that it was nowhere near me.
And that’s the point.
You can have a good offer, a well-written email and a lovely-looking campaign, but if you send it to the wrong people, it still won’t work.
Before you spend hours worrying about your subject line, your wording or your call to action, start with a better question:
Who am I sending this to, and is it genuinely relevant to them?
Email marketing does work when it is targeted, useful and timely.
A good email sent to the wrong list is still a bad email.
