Welcome to the world of email marketing! It’s a competitive arena, and the stakes are high. One mistake can cause your emails to be marked as spam or ignored by your subscribers. Worse still, your entire domain could be blacklisted, leading to low open and conversion rates FOREVER (or at least quite a while).
Put simply, if you get email marketing wrong, you could be losing one of the best marketing channels available to any business today.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the top 5 email marketing mistakes that are all too common, and give you some practical advice on how to avoid them.
We promise that whether you’re new to email marketing or an experienced pro, this is a critical list to bookmark and remind yourself of regularly. Doing so will ensure the fundamental success of your campaigns.
But first, a quick reminder of why we love email marketing so much.
Want to skip straight to the 5 common email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them?
Why we love email marketing:
It’s super cost-effective!
We don’t just say we love email marketing because it’s a service we offer. We would encourage you to start using it now for free, no matter the size of your business. There are plenty of great options for email marketing providers that can help you upload data, organise it and send your first campaign, all with no cost.
You’ll always be limited by these free plans, but even if you pay for the service or help, it’s still extremely cost-effective. Like it is one of the most cost-effective marketing channels that exist, with a relatively low cost per acquisition compared to other channels.
You know who you’re talking to
You can get really personal
As we’ve alluded to above, things can get really personal in email marketing, and when it’s done right people feel like you’re a friend, not just another business in their inbox.
Email marketing allows you to personalise your messages and tailor them to the specific interests and needs of your audience. This personalisation can lead to higher open and conversion rates.
Collect the right data and you can even include a preferred name, help them with products they’ve viewed or even suggest products they might like or need based on other purchases.
These tactics are conversion gold.
It can be measured and that’s important!
Knowing email marketing works in practice is good. Knowing how it can work and tailoring it to meet your business objectives is great! That is where measurement comes in.
Email marketing provides measurable results that allow you to track the success of your campaigns and adjust your strategy accordingly. Metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate can provide valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns.
It’s more flexible than a gold medal gymnast
Email marketing is completely flexible based on your business or even mood. Send messages to your audience on a regular basis, or as needed to promote specific products or services.
You can be planned out and regular, re-active to changes in the business or just use it to wish them happy holidays. Regardless, having the ability ready to go is the priority, especially in a crisis situation.
And now... The list you came for!
While the above factors make email marketing a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, they don’t help you get it right. By leveraging the potential of email marketing, you can build stronger relationships with your audience, drive sales, and grow your business.
So without further adieu, the common email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them!
1. Not segmenting your email list
If 5 customers called you right now it’s pretty safe to assume you’d have 5 totally different conversations. Different tones, different products/ services to talk about, even a different greeting.
Well, email marketing is no different. People forget that not all subscribers are the same. Sending out the same canvas emails to all of your audience, regardless of who they are or how they interact with your business will damage your email effort.
It’s important to segment your email list and send targeted messages to specific groups. Avoid sending generic messages that don’t resonate with them. This includes how they engage and how often, interests, how they found you and much, much more.
There is an infinite list of segments that you need to apply strategically to your business. Have you attended an event? Launched a new product? Got a new brochure out? SEGMENTS! SEGMENTS! SEGMENTS!
2. Failure to keep it professional
This is a real pet-peeve of ours and it turns out email providers don’t like it either. They’re more likely to send a promotional marketing email that comes from a random generic domain like @google.com or @yahoo.com straight to the junk.
Worse still is when you send from a group or team inbox on your own domain. We mean things like [email protected] or [email protected].
For this reason, you should always use a professional email address, such as [YourName]@[YourCompany].com. It will help establish your brand and build trust with your subscribers. Most importantly, it’s more likely to get delivered and any future contact with them is obvious because they see you in their inbox.
3. Mobile first
Think mobile first! Chances are, a large proportion of your audience will be reading this, if not at the very least opening the email first on a mobile device.
Not optimising for mobile devices on emails, or anything else for that matter, is basically a deadly marketing sin at this point.
The majority of emails are now read on mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your emails are optimised for small screens. This means using a responsive design, short and concise content, and clear call-to-actions.
4. Don’t be spammy!
This one might seem obvious, and we’ve already touched on a number of ways your emails can fall into the dreaded junk or spam folder if you’re not careful, but spam laws are constantly changing to help protect our inboxes!
It’s important to follow these spam laws to avoid getting your emails marked as junk. Make sure you obtain consent from your subscribers, include an unsubscribe link, and be transparent about your intentions as a start. From there it’s a case of keeping your finger on the pulse.
5. TEST EVERYTHING!
Before, during and after you send. Testing, measuring, analysing, thinking and repeating. If you’re not doing this your email marketing simply won’t grow.
Before you hit the “send” button, it’s important to test your emails to make sure they look and function as intended. This includes checking links, images, and the overall design on different email clients and devices. Send it to several people or different devices and make sure they are checking it properly. You could even give them the below list.
Once you’ve hit send the real work can start. What emails are getting the most clicks? What types of images work? Do people prefer plain text and reading or video links? Which subject lines perform best? What days work? What time? Who is unsubscribing?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Optimise through testing for email marketing success.
Go forth and email!
No more sending generic emails to the wrong people at the wrong time. No more low open rates and sad conversion numbers. You’re now equipped with the knowledge you need to take your email marketing game to the next level. Thank us later (or by subscribing to our email newsletter 😉).
By avoiding these common mistakes, you can improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and build better relationships with your subscribers. With targeted reach, personalisation, measurable results, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility, you’re ready to conquer the email marketing world.
So go forth and make those emails hit harder than ever before! Remember, every campaign is an opportunity to connect with your people and make a lasting impression.
And if all else fails, just throw in a few emojis and call it a day. 😉
