Many businesses today are adopting email marketing as part of their improved marketing strategies. This should come as no surprise given that email marketing is able to pull in a much larger number of customers than social media marketing can.
The goal of all email marketers is to target the right customers with the right content via email. They often utilize a variety of content delivery strategies and styles in order to maximize customer engagement and boost the likelihood of customers making a purchase.
There are many ways to do email marketing right, and there are equally as many ways to do it wrong. Here are 6 common email marketing mistakes to avoid.
Poorly written content
Most big companies have access to a team of writers and marketers who are able to create and deliver quality content for their email marketing campaigns. They put effort into making sure the content they deliver is well-written in order to maximize customer engagement.
Customers who are sent poorly-written emails are less likely to engage with its contents, and may even ask to unsubscribe from your company’s mailing list.
This problem is especially prevalent with new subscribers who often unsubscribe if the first email they receive from a company is low-quality.
Some mailbox services automatically classify badly written or structured content as SPAM. As a result, your subscribers may not receive your emails in their inbox if they’re poorly written.
It is important to maintain a certain level of quality for your email content, as poorly written emails could be doing more damage to your reputation than good.
Not targeting customers correctly
Email marketing is most effective when marketers are able to target the right customers with the right content. This usually means marketers will create different content for different customers after segmenting them on the basis of their tastes and background.
In some cases it may be acceptable to send the same content to everyone in a subscriber list. However, subscribers are most likely to engage with your content when they feel it has been specifically catered to them. Content that resonates with subscribers increases engagement, and the likelihood that they will make a purchase.
Companies should segment their customers after learning about their backgrounds and preferences using marketing analytics tools. Demographic data can be useful for testing out content that customers are likely to respond to.
Making your content too promotional
Many customers are turned off by content with sales-heavy language that feels excessively promotional. You should focus on creating engaging content by using storytelling, rather than simply promoting your product or services.
Customers are likely to visit your website or look up your products if they’re moved by the email content accompanying it. Content that utilizes good storytelling is often more memorable and emotionally engaging than content that feels overtly promotional.
A good tip is to focus your content on the customer, rather than on your product or services. You’re more likely to win over customers when you display an understanding of who they are and what they’re seeking, before tying it back to your product or service.
Poor mobile optimization
More than 70 percent of people view their emails on mobile devices. If the content you’re emailing to subscribers has not been optimized for mobile devices, it can look cluttered or difficult to read when they attempt to access it.
Poorly formatted content is likely to be deleted in under three seconds in 70% of cases, regardless of the quality of the content itself. Mobile users who have had poor experiences with unreadable content from companies are less likely to purchase from those companies.
Businesses need to put effort into ensuring the content they deliver to subscribers looks great on all devices, or risk losing subscribers and sales.
Infrequent or poorly scheduled emails
If you’ve informed your subscribers that you’ll be sending them content weekly or monthly, it’s important to stick to that schedule. Subscribers who receive or don’t receive content at a particular time could become fed up with your company and unsubscribe.
Sending content too infrequently could cause subscribers to forget about your company. You should determine the best frequency for sending emails in order to maximize subscriber interest and engagement with your content.
In addition to this, sending emails too infrequently could “cool down” your IP address. IPs that see frequent usage are allowed to send more emails without them being flagged as SPAM by the recipient’s mailbox service. When you stop using your IP for a while, it may no longer be permitted to send large volumes of emails to your subscribers’ inboxes.
Not including a call to action
One mistake that companies make far too often is forgetting to include a clear call-to-action in their emails. A well-indicated call-to-action should encourage the subscriber to engage, and continue engaging with the company’s content.
The goal of a call-to-action is to promote interaction, with the hope that the interaction will eventually lead to a purchase.
You can make your call-to-action easier to see by using bright colors and bold text. It should include simple directions such as “buy now” or “learn more” so that subscribers have a clear understanding of what their next step should be.
It is also important to avoid having multiple calls-to-action in an email, as it could confuse readers or discourage them from reading the rest of your content. A single call to action is likely to yield the best results for engagement.
The aforementioned email marketing mistakes are just a few of the many mistakes marketers often make. Creating a successful email marketing campaign can be a trial and error process, so you should expect to make some mistakes. However, your ability to learn from your mistakes and improve will determine the success of your email marketing campaign.
