Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
What are some of the pitfalls that can turn email marketing into a case for disaster? Here are the top 10 mistakes you should definitely avoid when carrying out email marketing for your business.
1.Hard to find subscription form and their lack thereof
It is a shame to lose potential customers only because they couldn’t find a subscription form. The first step is to create a successful email marketing strategy is to make sure you have a subscription form that is visible and is short and simple to fill.
2. Don’t keep email marketing on the back-burner
Email marketing can work wonders if you start allocating enough attention and budget from the word go. It’s always a good idea, to begin with, email marketing as soon as your website launches so that you don’t miss out on the initial few customers, who may double up as ambassadors for your business.
3. Randomness can kill
Many marketers make the mistake of shooting out emails randomly without a well-defined content calendar. This renders your email marketing initiative absolutely futile as your context and content is all over the place, and irrelevant to the target market. If you are an online fashion market in America, you would not want to send out a newsletter carrying articles around summer fashion during December. To avoid this mistake, chart out a content strategy, create a content-calendar, with well-defined timelines. Plan ahead but also remain agile enough to accommodate last minute changes.
4. No Scheduling
Sending emails during random timing is another big no. Just like you can’t send random content at any given point in time, similarly, it doesn’t make sense to blast out emails as and when you want. Do your primary research on understanding when is the best time and the most appropriate days to send your email, to garner an enhanced response. There have been numerous studies on similar lines, which have highlighted the days and time when users are most likely to engage with you.
5. A Boring Subject line
Goes without saying, email subject lines are one of the most important propellers of a successful email marketing campaign. Boring just simply doesn’t make the cut. Think around how you can play with words to create an impactful subject line that gives away the message, but only just enough to compel your audience to click. Curiosity is the key. Do an A/B testing to gauge the kind of sentences that receive the most positive response.
6. Unprofessional and inconsistencies in language
Your grammar and use of language say a lot about your business and brand. When you are competing against top-notch industry leaders, you have to ensure you present yourself as flawlessly as possible. The audience is quick to judge and will definitely form an opinion if time and again they receive emails that contain grammatical errors, typos, and low-resolution images.
Use language that is accurate, friendly and approachable; insert high-quality pictures that represent your brand. Make sure your emails have a professional touch.
7. No Segmentation
Segmenting enables you to create smaller, more focused groups of customers, allowing you to reach out to them with content that is relevant only for that particular group. Not segmenting your consumers would equate to sending bulk emails. Here’s where Big Data comes into the picture. By leveraging Big Data, you can make sure to reach out to focused groups, with tailor-made content, thus increasing the likelihood of a positive response.
8. Sending from “No reply” address
The whole point of email marketing is humanizing your business. By sending emails from a ‘Noreply’ alias, you are sending across a sense of being unapproachable and impersonal thus forgoing the opportunity to interact with customers. Many users set up their mailbox in a way that filters out all no replay emails, marking them as spam, thus negatively impacting deliverability
9. No mobile optimization
The percentage of audience opening emails on their phone is increasing as we speak. It’s a huge mistake not to have emails that cannot be opened on mobiles/tablets. It’s imperative for any business to ensure that their audience can easily read and engage with your email content via their hand-held gadgets. Responsive emails should definitely be a priority for businesses looking to succeed in their email marketing strategy.
10. Ignoring those numbers
A great campaign isn’t enough. You need to keep abreast of the metrics so you know you are on the right path. There are a number of analytic tools available that get you information on click rate, readers who visited the website, readers who purchased and much more. At the end of the day, tracking is all about confirming whether your email campaign is successful or not.
