Digital Marketing

Common Email Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

An email marketing campaign is crucial, no matter what type of business you have. Here are 8 email mistakes you need to stop making

By Digital Marketing Jobs Board

An email marketing campaign is crucial, no matter what type of business you have. You might have heard people say that emails are a thing of the past and not worth the effort. It’s a common misconception, but it’s not the case.

If you’ve already implemented an email strategy but it’s struggling to bring a sufficient return on your investment, you’re probably doing something wrong. However, don’t let that put you off or make you consider abandoning your email marketing campaign. This article is going to highlight some of the most common email mistakes business owners make and offer some suggestions on how you can put things right.

8 Email Mistakes You Need to Stop Making

One of the main reasons why you shouldn’t give up on your email funnels is that emails deliver a huge return on your investment. For every $1 you spend you can expect a return of $42. If analytics are not showing this return for your campaign, consider the following mistakes that can easily be remedied.

Getting Off on the Wrong Foot

When a new subscriber is added to your email list, it’s cause to celebrate. A lot has happened to bring them to your door and they’re clearly interested in what you’ve got to offer. A common mistake is to leave any further contact until you plan to send out newsletters.

What you should be doing is sending out a welcome email as soon as they’ve signed up. Sign-ups have the highest open rates compared to other categories in email funnels. Welcome emails generate 320% more revenue than any other marketing message and are an important part of any omnichannel marketing strategy.

No Clear Call to Action

Emails you send to your customers should have a purpose. They should also include a clear call to action that drives your message home. Customers often need a little nudge in the right direction and be enticed into conversation. However, there is a fine line you should be careful not to cross.

It is possible to go overboard and have too many CTA’s in the same message. If there are too many conflicting calls to actions, your customers are going to be completely overwhelmed and not know which direction to take.

Failing to Meet Customer Expectations

Let’s be honest, if you fail to meet your customer expectations they’re going to unsubscribe. Once they’ve done that, it doesn’t matter how good your omnichannel marketing copy is your readers are not going to see it. There are many ways you can fail to meet their expectations, but one of the most common is the frequency of your emails.

If you promise to email weekly and end up doing it every day, you’re failing to meet their expectations. If your customers expect regular emails and newsletters from you and you only send them one every couple of months, the end result is the same.

You can also fail to meet their expectations by going off topic. Readers who have signed up to receive blogging tips aren’t going to be too impressed if you’re telling them about your latest trip to Paris. Go off topic too often or too far and your readers will soon start unsubscribing.

Lacking in Professionalism

It’s vital you don’t delay your email campaigns, but it’s important you don’t rush them either as you run the risk of appearing too unprofessional. An email isn’t something you should spend minutes writing and then send off without checking it thoroughly.

Look at your emails in the same way you would a new landing page or a blog for your website. Plan what you’re going to write, create an outline, and then write the copy. Then take advantage of an editing software app before proofreading it.

Your email readers are not going to be impressed if your email is full of spelling errors, poor grammar and improper formatting. If you want to check which of your email messages looks the most professional, do some A/B testing and check the analytics.

If you’re really stuck for ideas there are plenty of templates you can use, such as one of these newsletter examples.

Being Heavy on the Sales Language and Using Clichés

How many emails do you receive in your email inbox every day? Do some of them sound and look very similar? If you want your emails to stand out from the crowd, you have to be different. Make your emails special by:

  • Making them personal
  • Talking about them rather than you
  • Ditch the dime a dozen BuzzFeed-Sounding headlines

Choose subject matter that serves a purpose and your readers will appreciate it and your conversions increase.

Ignoring Mobile Users

Gone are the days when people sat at their desktop every time they wanted to go online. The modern internet user prefers to use their mobile device. You may have crafted your email on a computer, but the majority of your customers are going to read the email using a mobile device, more often than not, a smartphone.

Before you send your emails check they look just as good from mobile devices. Most email marketing software, for example Mailchimp, will have mobile-optimised features, but it doesn’t hurt to check. You can do this quickly and easily by sending a test email to yourself.

Two more things to bear in mind. If you want to ensure your email is mobile friendly, avoid long blocks of text and include visuals, but don’t rely too heavily on images.

Heavily Relying on Images

It’s very tempting to load your emails with eye catching images. It’s a good way to excite your readers, right? Technically, it’s not wrong to think this way but bear in mind the fact that many readers will be viewing emails with images turned off.

The trick is to be careful in how your use them. Use alt text and your readers will still get a good idea of the email subject matter, even without the images. The alt text replaces an image if it fails to load or is blocked.

Failing to Check Your Stats

An important part of any email campaign is tracking your open rates. However, it also helps to check your stats a little closer. It’s possible to track email subscribers using Google Analytics. It allows you to see which subscribers joined you from each email campaign. You also get to see which emails had the most significant impact, made purchases on your site and much more.

A good deal of marketing providers also include such features. Mailchimp offers its own built-in reporting. If you’re not tracking your email campaign, how do you know whether it was successful or not.

Final Words

This list is a small selection of the common email mistakes you can make. Now you know how to avoid 8 of them and you’re well on the way to making your next email marketing campaign a successful one.

Keep Reading

reading the best digital marketing blogs

The Best Digital Marketing Blogs You Should Be Following

Uncover the top blogs from the best digital marketing experts you need to sign up for to stay ahead of industry trends.

job candidate being asked Social Media interview questions

Top 20 Social Media Interview Questions & Answers

Prepare for your social media marketing interview with our insights into the 20 most common questions – and the perfect answers to give.

best digital marketing podcasts - Recording a new podcast interview with CEOs and Founders of successful online businesses, Scale or Die

The Best Digital Marketing Podcasts to Add to Your Playlist

Discover the top-rated digital marketing podcasts for insights, updates, and informative news to stay at the forefront of new trends.

content marketing consultant reviewing a content marketing plan and company strategies

The Straightforward Guide to Becoming a Content Marketing Consultant

Discover the best pathways to becoming a Content Marketing Consultant, and the skills you’ll need to apply for consultancy digital marketing vacancies.