Email Marketing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Jonathon Kendall ??
Co-Founder @VirtualWorkerNow | Placed 1,000+ VAs I Co-Founder @DealRaise I Raised $100+ Million for Startups I Avid Reader I Runner I Host of The Socratic CEO Podcast
Avoid these email marketing mistakes to increase your ROI and lower marketing costs.?
First things first… There are two types of email marketing:
In this article, I’m I'll be talking about "Nurturing Emails." The goal of these emails is to keep customers interested in your product so they'll continue to buy from you in the future. This can be done by building trust with customers and creating a community of people who look forward to your emails.
If you're bootstrapping your business, it's important to focus on email marketing to increase the lifetime value of your customers in the long term. Email marketing can help you outbid your competitors and gives you a little more breathing room during tough times.
But before you can set up this type of email marketing campaign, you need to be aware of the three biggest mistakes that can ruin your efforts...?
Mistake 1: Burning Your List By Overselling Too Soon
In today's digital world, customers are tired of being bombarded with aggressive sales pitches. That's why webinars don't really work anymore - consumers know that when they sign up for a webinar, they're in for a long sales pitch. You don't want this to happen with your emails. If you try to sell something right away, you're taking a hard swing at the bat and you're either going to hit a home run or strikeout. You're playing a very dangerous game because those who strike out are probably going to dislike you. So you’re doing the opposite of what you want—you’re creating non-buyers, people who think you're a scam and might say something bad about you on social media or add your company to some “Buyer-Beware” Facebook group.
It also shows a flaw in your business model. If you feel like, “I have to make a ton of money in the first week or else I'm screwed,” there's something fundamentally wrong with your funnel and your product stack. Instead of obsessing over day-to-day sales, why don't you have a subscription product or have clients on retainer so your business will actually grow? If you don’t know what this means, you’re not even ready for email marketing, and you need to reconsider your funnel first.?
The antidote to all this is to think long-term. Imagine this customer reading your email three years from now because they love your daily newsletter or your weekly update or whatever it may be…Maybe that customer is not in a position to buy right now, but they can recommend you to their friends. Maybe a year and a half from now they sell their house or they have some inheritance or a large Christmas bonus and they’re finally ready to buy your product. By nurturing your leads in the long term, you’re optimizing their lifetime value. Building unshakable customer loyalty which WILL transform your business
Another way to think of this is the rule of reciprocity, one of the six Principles of Influence by Robert Cialdini. The rule of reciprocity says that people tend to return favors. If, instead of asking for a sale, you offer your leads value-rich content in form of emails, mini lessons that answer some of their questions, you’ll earn their trust, and they’ll be more likely to buy your product when you finally make them an offer.?
Mistake 2: Going to Spam
When you send an email, it will likely be filtered into one of three categories: the inbox, the promotions tab, or the spam folder. What you want is for your email to land in the inbox - otherwise, you're wasting your time and money on a message no one will ever see.
However, there are a few things you can do to ensure your email doesn't get sent directly to spam. First, avoid spammy language. Google and Microsoft are constantly scanning emails for phrases like "FREE" and "guaranteed." So until your subscribers are used to receiving your messages, it's best not to be too sales-y in your content.
Second, verify your leads by setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records with your email service provider. This may sound complicated, but it's something you can easily do with a little research. And if you're having trouble figuring it out yourself, my team and I are happy to help.
Finally, ask your subscribers to mark your email address as safe so they don't miss any of your updates. You can do this by including a request in your very first email. And don't forget to give them a little taste of what they can expect from you - that will entice them to open your next message.
If you follow these simple steps, you'll be well on your way to avoiding spam filters and reaching more of your target audience.
Mistake 3: Not Dimensionalizing Your Audience?
When sending email marketing campaigns, it's important to tailor your content specifically to the individual recipient. This means that you should not send the same sequence of emails to all of your leads, but rather create different content for each audience.
For example, a new lead who has just opted in may be interested in learning more about your products, while a customer who has just made their first purchase may be more likely to be interested in upgrading to a VIP package.
It's also important to "dimensionalize" your leads according to their position in your funnel. This means creating different content for leads at different stages of the buying process.
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Conclusion
What’s worse than not doing email marketing at all is spending money on emails no one will read whether because they’re too aggressive, non-dimensionalized, or because they go directly to spam. There are a lot of moving parts here, but if you avoid the three mistakes I just taught you, I promise, you will improve your ROI and build a community of customers who vouch for you and your brand.?
#Jonathonkendall #leadgeneration #ROI #emailmarketing #businessgrowth #sales #customeracquisition #leadconversion #mailmarketing #coldemails #marketingtips?
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