Emails have a short life. But many don’t have a life at all, according to a recent Adobe survey – into attitudes toward email. Amongst the many Special leads insights and data we unearthed, two that stood out for me are opened and read, which means 75% of everything you send is ignored. And when they are read, 50% aren’t considered useful. It’s easy to conclude, as is so often the case, that this must mean marketing emails are dead. But it would also be wrong. Because Special leads we found that people check email habitually and almost always before they go to work. It’s an intrinsic part of people’s lives.
They’re not ignoring their email, they’re ignoring the emails they get Special leads sent. So what are we, as the originators of all that ignored content, missing? Relevance (or a lack thereof) It’s a big word in marketing and we’d all like to think we’re relevant, because if we’re not Special leads then we’re irrelevant. But if most of what we send by email isn’t read and half of what is read isn’t useful, then irrelevancy is what most of us are achieving. Being relevant Special leads isn’t just about appealing to someone’s interests.
It’s about doing this at the right time, while not overdoing it. An email with Special leads discount codes may contain relevant content – the recipient is interested in saving money on the goods – but if the same offer is sent out every day for months on end, it loses its urgency, so it’s ignored. It is now irrelevant, even though the content is useful. Responsibility (for getting it right) Too often, and especially in B2B marketing, we give the job of building the relationship that turns marketing leads into Special leads sales prospects to the sales development rep (SDR). But often they are not the right people for this task and it’s not fair to expect them to take it on, especially when it involves creating a perfectly pitched written copy.