Email Marketing Fears – Email Marketing Doesn’t Make You a Spammer!

Do your email marketing fears keep you from getting started? Do worry about being accused of spamming your subscribers?

When I approach my clients about adding emails to their marketing strategy, a lot of the time I get pushback. There seems to be a lot of fear around sending out emails!

And that’s funny because I think we all have some emails that we look forward to every week or every month. We wouldn’t hesitate to send a quick email to a friend and offer help or offer recommendations.

But when it comes to our businesses, a lot of business owning moms shy away from email, even when they would post hourly on Twitter.

Why clients shouldn’t fear sending emails

Email is the most effective way to connect with others. The subscribers who signed up to be on your list absolutely expect to get emails. Plus, they know you run a business, so they expect that you’ll be selling things. And they sign up anyway! This should be a big clue that they’re okay with getting your marketing emails.

Here are a few statistics from 2019

Campaign Monitor has found that emails get an average click through rate of 2.69%. A click through rate is the percentage of people who view the email and actually clicks on one of your links. While that sounds pretty low, keep in mind it’s an average, and then look at the top two social media platforms.

Rival IQ shared stats on social media platform engagement. It’s not a direct comparison because engagement includes click-throughs, but also includes comments, shares, and likes, too.

Facebook average engagement rate on posts is .09%. Even the industry with the highest engagement averages, the Alcohol industry, only has a rate of .14%. 

Instagram does a bit better with an average engagement of 1.6%, but it’s still nowhere near email’s click-through rate.

And Twitter has the lowest of the big three, with an engagement rate of .048%.

The takeaway from these numbers is that if you want to engage with your audience, email is the most efficient and effective. 

So, let’s go over a few fears and what to do about them. While it’s true that some email is spammy and irritating, yours doesn’t have to be that way!

Common Email Marketing Fears

If I send too much email, I’ll annoy people

I can’t tell you how many clients tell me that they couldn’t possibly send out a weekly email. The most they could send would be monthly because they don’t want to get annoying to their subscribers.

But unless they’re super-famous, those subscribers will forget who they are if they let a month go by without any communication!

Think for a moment about emails you like. Are there ever emails that make you smile in anticipation? Before you even open them?

Probably yes (and if you say no, rest assured that many of us are happy to see certain emails in our inbox)! Now, think about why you’re happy to see that email. More than likely it’s because one of the following: it’s from a friend, it’s from someone who always entertains you, it’s from someone who always teaches you something, or it’s from someone who gives you things of value.

To avoid being annoying to your subscribers, fewer emails isn’t the right answer. The right answer is to avoid sending annoying emails! Send interesting or helpful emails instead.

I don’t want to sound sales-y

Your subscribers knew when they signed up that you ran a business. And businesses sell things. 

I think that sounding “sales-y” comes from two things. 

One, sending nothing but sporadic sales letters. That just tells your audience that you don’t care enough to communicate regularly. The only time you do think about them is when you want to make a buck. They’re just dollar signs to you.

And two, you do sound sales-y when you don’t really believe or care that what you’re selling will be helpful to your subscribers.

I know a guy who can (and has!) sell anything from stocks and securities to tractor parts. His secret is that he whole-heartedly believes that what he is selling is the one thing that will “save” his audience. 

You have to believe in what you’re selling or you might not sound genuine. And your subscribers will be able to pick up on that. This might actually take some work or some reconfiguring of products. My team and I can help you with that if you want to reach out!

What if people unsubscribe?

Here’s another funny, but all too common worry that I hear. “No, I don’t want to send more than one email for my new XYZ product – what if people unsubscribe???”

It’s true. People may unsubscribe. You might have people unsubscribe every time you send an email. But guess what? They weren’t ever going to be a customer anyway. 

In fact, it’s a good thing if a few people unsubscribe. If they’re not interested in hearing from you or hearing how you can help them, then they shouldn’t be taking up space in your email list. You want your list filled with engaged, excited folks who want to read what you have to say. Most autoresponders and CRMs charge by the email address, so you don’t want to be paying for unengaged subscribers!

My list is too small to bother

This is a bit of a fear, and a bit of just lack of confidence. It doesn’t matter how big the email list is. Those people that are there signed up because they want to hear from you. They don’t know your list is small, it’s not their fault it’s small, and they probably wouldn’t care if they knew. They still deserve to get helpful emails from you!

Overcoming fear & making sure you’re not a spammer

Don’t send spam

By far the easiest way to avoid being a spammer is to not send spam. Make sure everyone on your list has opted in. Don’t buy names or pull names from other sources.

Then once you have a willing list, don’t try to trick them into buying something that they don’t want.

Done – not a spammer.

Build trust

Another way to avoid being “spammy” is to build trust with your subscribers. You can build trust by doing what you say you will. Here’s where consistency comes in. If you commit to a weekly newsletter or a twice weekly video note, stick with it. Your subscribers will take comfort in your consistency.

Give something of value

In every email, give value to your subscribers. This can take so many forms. This could be an article for subscribers only, teaching a small step,  linking to helpful blog posts, writing a friendly note, or sharing helpful content published by someone else.

Even when you are selling something in an email, you can still write a valuable message. You can give instructions on the first step, or for pre-requisites for the item you’re selling. You can certainly sell and entertain at the same time.

Don’t stress over email marketing fears

Are you selling something because you really believe your product or service could help your subscribers? Or are you selling something just to make money?

If you believe you can be helpful, you owe it to your audience to sell to them. So many people are looking for solutions to problems. More people are looking than helping. We need more helpers out there, so don’t be afraid to use email marketing.

Photo by Iris Wang on Unsplash