5 Things That Might Surprise You About Email Marketing

An inside look from Michael Kinstlinger, Senior Email Marketing Manager

Michael Kinstlinger, Senior Email Marketing Manager, takes you inside his world with a list of things that the average person might not know about email marketing.

I’ve worked in the field of email marketing for over a decade. I’ve seen it rise and (supposedly) fall, mature, battle social media (at least in theory), get expansive. I freely toss about acronyms such as CTOR, PII, KPI, DMARC, SORBS, and IP. It’s all part of the job.

Since this is all second nature to me, I sometimes forget that not everyone knows the inner workings of the email marketing industry. There are some things that my friends and family don’t understand or don’t know, so I decided to list a few of the big things here:

1. Every email you receive is being tracked.
Yep, every single one. And (most likely) somewhere in someone’s office, cubicle, or desk, somebody is going to put together a report highlighting its performance metrics such as opens, clicks, and hopefully a few others. Email marketers can’t live without Excel and Pivot tables.

2. You’re constantly a test participant.
Not every email that you receive is part of a test, but I would wager that maybe 20–40% of them are. Your reaction (and the reaction of others) is being noticed, and your actions (or lack of actions) are being used to justify or disprove how and when to send emails to you and many others in the future.

3. Emails you receive are determined by someone or something else.
“Did you get my email?” is the digital version of “Can I ask you a question?” It’s a somewhat passive way of starting a conversation whose answer you’re curious about. But, maybe you didn’t get the email I sent out. External factors — including other people identifying an email as spam, complaining about it, the reputation of the company sending it, or it not fitting into your usual engagement pattern — can determine if it actually reaches your inbox.

4. You’re being segmented more than you think.
Of the thousands (or millions) of people who just received the same email as you, not everyone received the same version. There may be a lot of versions, actually. The email you received was crafted specifically to appeal to you — based upon information such as your gender, buying history, geography, education, language, time zone, and many others — to try to increase the chances that you’ll engage with it.

5. You’ll never see the other subject lines we considered.
That image you have in your mind of a bunch of cool and strung-out copywriters debating over which advertising pitch to go with is similar to how we decide on subject lines, just maybe a little less dramatic. Usually, we’ll pick a few that juxtapose themes such as FOMO (fear of missing out), bandwagon effect, personalization, and alliteration and drop the ones we think are the least appropriate. There might be one in there we all think is funny, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to send it. There’s a lot to take into account when choosing subject lines, and more thought goes into it than you probably think.

Want to learn more about how Havas Helia can up your email marketing game? Contact us at hello@havashelia.com.