Email marketing is a powerful and cost-effective way to connect with your audience, promote your brand, and generate sales. But it also comes with some pitfalls that can hurt your reputation, annoy your subscribers, and waste your resources. In this article, you'll learn about the most common email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them.
One of the worst email marketing mistakes is sending your message to the wrong list. This can happen if you don't segment your audience, update your contacts, or use a reliable email service provider. Sending to the wrong list can result in low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, and legal issues. To avoid this mistake, make sure you have a clear and relevant opt-in process, segment your list based on interests, behavior, and preferences, and use a reputable email service provider that can handle your campaigns and deliverability.
Your subject line is the first thing your subscribers see in their inbox, and it can make or break your email marketing success. If your subject line is boring, vague, or misleading, your subscribers are likely to ignore or delete your email. To avoid this mistake, write subject lines that are catchy, specific, and relevant to your audience. Use words that evoke curiosity, urgency, or emotion, and avoid spammy or deceptive phrases. Test different subject lines and see what works best for your audience.
Subject lines determine for the user whether there's value in opening your email. Here are a few basics + pro tips. Basics: - Avoid spam indicators like !!! or HURRY UP etc - Keep it less than 9 words or 60 characters - Use emojis only when appropriate and in limited quantities Pro tips: - Personalize! These have much higher open rates - A/b/n test: If you have large email lists, test multiple subject lines to see what works best with that audience. - Don't be vague, generic, or uninteresting. Best way here is to think what would a 6-9 word summary of your email would be or what is a simple benefit your customer would get from the email and turn that into your subject line.
Another common email marketing mistake is having too much or too little content in your email. If your email is too long, your subscribers may lose interest, skim over your message, or miss your call to action. If your email is too short, your subscribers may not understand your purpose, value proposition, or offer. To avoid this mistake, have a clear and concise goal for each email, and use the appropriate format and length to achieve it. Use headings, bullet points, images, and white space to break up your text and make it easy to read. Include a clear and compelling call to action that tells your subscribers what to do next.
More than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, so if your email is not optimized for mobile, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. If your email is not responsive, readable, or clickable on mobile, your subscribers may delete it, unsubscribe, or mark it as spam. To avoid this mistake, use a mobile-friendly template, font, and layout for your email. Make sure your images are optimized for loading speed and resolution. Use short and clear subject lines and preheader text. And test your email on different devices and platforms before sending it.
As with websites, emails are mostly consumed on phones. Additionally, optimize for dark mode in mobiles. Pro tips: - Avoid multiple column layouts: while these look good on the desktop, lots of email clients still struggle with rendering these. Mobile mode is even worse. - Have a CTA in the early part of your email and one at the near end. Early part ensures mobile users get to the CTA quickly - Fonts: Keep it simple - Make sure to add alt text for your images - Optimized images are a given
The last email marketing mistake is neglecting to measure and improve your performance. If you don't track and analyze your email marketing metrics, you won't know what's working and what's not, and you won't be able to optimize your strategy and results. To avoid this mistake, set clear and realistic goals and KPIs for your email marketing campaigns, and use tools and reports to monitor and evaluate them. Look at metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, and ROI. Identify what's working well and what needs improvement, and test different variables and tactics to improve your email marketing effectiveness.
Emails are a classic marketing/sales optimization activity. Without measuring and improving, there will be no improvements. There is almost always a room for improvement. When you've optimized enough, metrics help you make sure you're not slipping. It starts with choosing a good provider where you get the necessary metrics to help you optimize. Opens, Read %s, CTA clicks, Bounce rates, Domain health, unsubscribe rates, are a few metrics you should keep an eye on every single day. After each campaign, identify what subject lines worked, what CTAs worked based on the audience.
Name: Spelling, title, organization (correctly spelled) Relevancy: Read the online publications/speeches/whatever of the person receiving the email. If they do not write/speak about dog food - do NOT send them information about your dog food client Follow-up. If/when the recipient of the email expresses interest (via phone, text, email/whatever)- respond IMMEDIATELY!