Still Using Your Personal Email Account in Your Email Marketing Efforts

What Are You Missing Out on by Using a Personal Email Account to Communicate With Your List Contacts in Your Email Marketing?

With a very high open rate (up to 85%) in mobile devices, there has been a big push by digital marketers to use responsive or mobile-friendly design in their email communications with their contacts and subscribers. This is especially true for brands wanting to connect and engage with Latino community because Latinos over index in mobile usage, and time spent on mobile devices. However, if you’re like a lot of small businesses and organizations, you may be using a personal email account — like Gmail, Outlook, AOL, or Yahoo — to communicate with a group of your email marketing list contacts. By doing this, you will encounter some limitations in what you can and can’t do with a personal email account.

Responsive Email Marketing by Hispanic Market Advisors®

Like reported by Constant Contact, one of the biggest limitations of using a personal account for email marketing is in the design of your emails.

Other limitations Ryan Pinkham included on this post are:

Problems getting messages delivered: Has anyone ever told you they didn’t receive your email? Sending mass emails from a personal Gmail, Outlook, etc. account can result in more emails being sent to the spam folder of your subscribers. A good email marketing service maintains strong permission policies and has an active anti-blocking team working with ISPs on your behalf to ensure that your email is delivered.
Difficulty keeping track of your email contacts: Manually keeping track of each new email address on your list and people who have asked to be taken off your list can cause headaches and take up hours of your time.
No understanding of who opened an email or clicked a link: You hope your emails are getting opened and read, but personal accounts don’t provide that information.
You’re not prepared to send bulk emails: Many email accounts and most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) limit the number of emails that you can send at one time.
You’re putting relationships at risk: When someone joins your email list, they trust you to protect their information. They also trust that you’ll respect their privacy and give them the option to opt-out.
You can’t host and manage your list from one location: Bulk email marketing services such as Constant Contact host your email list and automatically performs critical list management functions.
You can’t create professional-looking emails that match your brand: Whether someone is reading your message on a desktop or a mobile device, it has to appear in the right format and also match your branding. When you are sending from your personal email, you are missing out on the opportunity to create and send great looking emails.
You don’t have the newest tools and features: An email marketing service provides regular updates and new features to enhance functionality, comply with the law, and optimize email delivery though ISPs.
Last but not least, you could be breaking the law: You don’t have the time or resources to stay up-to-date with the latest email laws and regulations. Unfortunately, if you’ve been using a personal email account to send your newsletters or marketing emails, there’s a good chance you’re already in violation of some important laws like Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).