“Knock Knock…” “Delete!” Is this happening to you?
Are you still collecting emails and trying to use them for promotion? Stop! You’re wasting your time.
Promotions are dying because email blasts are dead.
Part 2 of this 3 part blog explores:
• Three important studies on declining email rates
• Marketing statistics that help shed light on the current problem of emails as a promotional tool
The recent decline in in-person and Internet-based events is not because of a lack of interest in the subject
matter, but largely a lack of the reach required to fill the venues.
(Yes, there really are three parts to this blog. And Yes, I too have been the victim of the marketing trick of posting Part Two of a one part blog, as a means of self-promotion, so readers will search in vain for Part 1. I no longer follow their blogs, and I’ve blocked their email. )
So what is an entrepreneur to do concerning email marketing?
Shift with the changing times. Case in point: I was invited to be one of twenty five experts on a telesummit titled “Whole Food Love-End to Diets”. (Published on LinkedIn on June 2, 2015;
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/whole-food-love-yes-please-kathleen-o-keefe-kanavos/edit)
One of the stipulations for presenting on the telesummit was an email list consisting of 5,000 contacts or more for promotion. My list is around 8,000, but I chose to use it as a strategy, rather than a blast, because I knew email blasts don’t work. For the telesummit I used a different technique and had more opens (percentage of recipients that actually opened the email), click-through rate (percentage of people who opened the email and clicked at least one link in the email), secondary clicks (from media sources other than emails), and follow ups than those who with their larger emails lists. The studies below answer the question, “Why?”
3 important studies with statistics help shed light on the current problem:
1. According to Silverpop’s Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, average email open rates continued their downward path during 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.
2. Email Stats February 2015 shows email opens from an Apple iPhone lead at 27%, followed by Gmail at 17%. Traditional email opens, such as via Outlook, are at 5%, Yahoo 4%, Windows Live Mail 2% and AOL Mail 1%. Who is your audience? Do they belong to an age group that is skilled in phone mail?
3. Research proves that fewer people are sitting home waiting for the jingle “You have mail.”
That jingle was popular years ago at the birth of emails. Everyone wanted to get an email. It meant you were tech-savvy and connected. Emails replaced phones. It was so popular it was even used as the snappy title for books and movies.
UPDATE: Current statistics show “You Have Mail” is now the “Jingle from Hell” for most people.
The abuse of emails has resulted in an entrepreneurial backfire. Emails are being treated with such distain they have become the modern day telemarketer. When blocking and delegating is not enough, people are reporting entrepreneurial emails as spam, the kiss of death for many online businesses. Modern society has become educated to email abuse, and the statistics prove that they have responded in numbers that are having a worldwide effect.
In Part 3 of this blog, I show 4 ways you can overcome this email challenge by reaching clients looking for you in ways that:
1. Are tried-and-true
2. Are techno-forward
3. Build on what you have already developed online
4. Actually work
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathleen O’Keefe Kanavos is a TV Host/Producer of Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod, Author of International Bestseller & Multi-award winner Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing, & 3x Breast Cancer Survivor whose dreams diagnosed cancer. She’s published in medical journals. Kat believes dreams diagnose your life. “Did you have a déjà- vu or dream come true?” Kat’s interpretations are in American Express Open Forum. She’s a Coach & “Go-to authority” on Beauty, Health, Wealth & Relationships, Keynote Speaker/Panelist/Presenter at International Associations, Columnist, & blogs on many professional sites. Kat taught Special Education and Psychology at USF. http://SurvivingCancerLand.com/ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
