Email marketing is a complex, ever-changing industry. Because the game is constantly evolving, with new practices emerging and old strategies falling behind, it’s important to explore common reasons why campaigns fail.
Looking into the surprising mishaps or uninformed blunders in the industry can give you a great deal of insight into how you can do better. To avoid a bad campaign, check out these common email marketing mistakes, which even the most experienced marketer can fall into:
Not Obtaining Permission
One of the biggest mistakes is sending emails to people who have not given you permission to contact them. Novice email marketers will often get frustrated with the growth rate of their email list, and they may think that buying an email list will help. However, not only is buying subscribers illegal in many countries – it can result in a high number of spam complaints. This can negatively impact your sender reputation and email deliverability, as well as damage your brand’s image.
If you’re having trouble growing your email list, don’t resort to deceptive tactics. Take a good, hard look at your email acquisition strategy, and revise it so that it works better for your needs. This may be slower, but it will prevent backlash, bad impressions, and wasted time.
Poorly Thought Out Subject Lines
The subject line is the first thing that people see when they receive an email. If the subject line is not interesting or relevant to the recipient, they may delete the email without reading it or even glancing in.
Make sure your subject lines are attention-grabbing, but more importantly, ensure they accurately reflect the content of the email. Clickbait is frowned upon and generally associated with spam content. Even if you get a click-through, a reader is likely to back out and mark your email as spam if the subject line doesn’t follow through with the rest of the content.
Don’t sacrifice clarity for a voice-y subject line filled with personality. Make sure it clearly states what the email is for, and then angle it to be persuasive and engaging.
Too Many Emails
While more emails can seem like a great way to stay in contact with your subscribers and offer them consistent, ever-present value, sending too many emails usually has the opposite effect. Bombarding your subscribers with too many emails can be annoying and may result in unsubscribes.
Be strategic with your email frequency and make sure your content is valuable and relevant. Likewise, remember to take a look at your subscriber’s data to understand which emails they respond to the best. Experiment with the email frequency, and test which groups like more emails in their inbox and which groups prefer to receive fewer emails. This customization can let you enjoy the best of both worlds.
Neglecting Mobile Optimization
A significant percentage of email opens happen on mobile devices. Neglecting to optimize your emails for mobile can result in poor user experiences and lower engagement rates. If you’re having trouble optimizing your emails for mobile, consider hiring a design expert who can do it seamlessly.
Lack Of Personalization
Personalization can increase engagement and conversions, as readers will feel appreciated and understood, and it helps your emails stand out from blanket spam. Use data about your subscribers to tailor emails, not just to that segment of your email list, but to each recipient individually. This can mean including their name or sending them content based on their past behavior, such as purchases, browsing certain areas of your site, or clicking through to specific types of emails you sent in the past.
Ignoring Email Analytics
Email analytics can provide valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns. Ignoring these metrics can prevent you from making data-driven decisions and optimizing your email marketing strategy.
Not Segmenting Your List
Sending the same email to everyone on your list can result in poor engagement rates. Segmenting your list based on demographics, behavior, and preferences will help you send targeted and relevant content to each subscriber.
Not Listening To Subscriber Feedback
Send out a poll or questionnaire every now and again, and ask your subscribers how happy they are about the email subscription. Don’t ignore their feedback, as every bit of information you can gather from your subscribers can be analyzed and used to create better campaigns. This fosters better relationships with your consumers, helps share your brand identity, and encourages broader engagement as well.
Sending Emails At The Wrong Time
No subscriber wants to lay in bed after a long day at work and get a notification for a sales email. Sending the emails at an “inconvenient” time can create a bad user experience and make your subscribers associate your brand with negative feelings.
People are generally more receptive to receiving emails from mid-morning to mid-afternoon when they are already at work. Try to schedule your emails around that time. You can also leverage analytics to schedule emails based on time zone differences or the particular time slot certain members of your email list respond best to.
Improper Email Tone
Many times, email marketers will adopt a tone that’s too energetic, sales-like, or out of touch for the target demographic. Think about who your subscribers are and what kind of tone they are most receptive to.
For example, if you’re sending a newsletter to a group of elderly people, you’ll want to avoid using slang. If your target audience is Gen Z, you should avoid corporate or sales-y language, as Gen Z dislikes blatant attempts to sell them something.
With these best practices in mind, you can avoid common mistakes and better tailor your email marketing to stand out from the rest.
