A ghoulish time isn’t had on just Halloween. In fact, for many email marketers, their weekly email campaign is met with the same harrowing fear as October 31. Take for instance these top 5 email marketing fears that haunt the average business. Yet, each one of these fears can be squashed though exposure alone. The more exposure you have to email marketing, the less nightmarish it will seem too.

#1 Fear of Creative

Either you’re afraid you (1) have no creativity; (2) don’t want to deal with a creative team; or (3) didn’t even know email campaigns needed to be creative. The first two fears are easily squashed: you simply hire a team or contract this service out. Even the best in-house copywriter can knock this out for you.

The third fear here is about recognizing that email campaigns need to be creative, just like any other digital media message. In addition to your template, your messaging should also be expertly crafted. Take these 3 samples for instance…

1. South American home store chain Sodimac turned a problem into a creative solution.
2. Shopify features 7 of the most ingenious email campaigns for e-commerce.
3. Probably the best article with clear-cut examples of email marketing genius.

Often times, being creative just means being exposed to creative ideas. The more you’re willing to explore the creative side of new media communication, including email marketing, the more likely you are to be inspired to ideation.

#2 Fear of IT

If “no man’s land” was personified, it would probably be your IT guy. IT people are notorious for being unreachable and incommunicable. This is probably the reason that fear of IT keeps some businesses away from a perfect email campaign series. You’ll need our IT guy for (1) analytics (unless you have a great built-in dashboard for reporting), or (2) creating a custom template, (unless your email platform also has excellent email templates).

#3 Fear of Legal Issues

As ClickZ best phrased this point in their article titled “Top 10 Fears of Email Marketers,”

“Dealing with this area can send anyone screaming into the night. You’ve got to be cognizant and well versed in your company’s privacy policies, as well as in all of the legal requirements of your permission-based email marketing programs. It’s imperative that you honor the policies you stated to your customers.”

#4 Fear of Not Getting Seen

Initially, marketers were concerned that there was an overwhelming flood of emails received by people on a daily basis, rendering their campaign futile. Now they’re worried that because most email servers have filters, that they won’t get seen at all. However, filters are a good thing. Consider filters a gift from the gods because it’s given your customers a way to make sure you’re seen from the hordes of other emails that pile up in their inbox everyday.

Filters do though put on an onus on marketers to make sure subject lines are that much better and content is exquisitely crafted and branded. While filters are definitely a good thing, this also means that update/promotion folders are going to get scanned for a quick 5-10 seconds before a consumer moves on. You want to make sure they’re seeing you in that small window of time.

#5 Fear of Getting Started

Sorting out how to get started is the job of your marketing manager. If you don’t have one, now might be a good time to hire one. A great marketing manager will keep you from every asking, “How do I…”

If you don’t have the resources to hire a professional, you can always take advantage of our email marketing platform here at Benchmark. We’ve thought of everything for you and packaged it in such a clear and simple way so you never have to wonder, “How do I…”