Ten Things To Avoid When Email Marketing
Email marketing can do wonders for your small business. It lets you focus direct messages on certain people who have left their email with you, attract them with deals, and make repeat customers out of those who have done business with you before. But with anything in marketing, if it works really well, it can work really poorly, too.
Don’t waste money on a bad campaign! When setting up email marketing for your business, make it the best it can be by avoiding these common mistakes.
- Getting the subject line wrong
You can make a mistake in the first thing customers will see: the subject line. Writing a subject line that motivates people to open the email can be a subtle art, and many will either overthink the subject line or not think about it at all. If you overhype the subject line, you risk putting off people in the future; if you undersell it, you won’t get them clicking at all! Try putting a direct, succinct call-to-action in the subject heading.
- Your em
ail looks… suspect
Does the From line say “[email protected]” or “[email protected]”? These email addresses make it look like your message comes from an automated system, and this makes it sound incredibly impersonal. Send it from a more personal-sounding email. Make them think you are sending it to them and initiating the conversation!
- There’s no value in your content
What’s the point of the email? Is it part of a campaign, do you have an upcoming sale, is there some groundbreaking news on the horizon? Or are you just trying to induce them to buy more? Whatever it is, the content of your email has to have value and mean something to the recipient. If you can’t pinpoint a reason for sending it out, don’t!
- There’s no focus in your content
You might have a lot of value in your email, but if there’s no focus, the message can get lost. Too many calls-to-action and messages will just overwhelm the reader, making them ignore the value in the first place.
- You’re not getting personal
We’ve brought up the “From” line, but what about the content? This isn’t about addressing them with their real first name. It’s about sales jargon and ad copy full of cliches, all of which can leave your potential customers hovering over their email filter options. When email marketing, try and make the customer your focus, not the product or service you’re trying to sell.
- The email is all text or images
Who wants to open their email to a wall of text the length of a Tolstoy novel? Their eyes will glaze over and they’ll hit the Unsubscribe button.
Too many images, on the other hand, can be too much stimulation! Where does the eye go? Or, if the email user has images turned off, they won’t be downloaded, and the email will look broken and useless. Think “ebony and ivory” and use images and text together in harmony.
- Common style errors
Avoiding errors seems like common sense, but some things aren’t so obvious when they aren’t in our wheelhouse. Grammar, spelling, and quality pictures are all things that can require a keen eye, but you have to be consistent in the business side of things, too. Is that price correct? Does that deal cover what you want it to cover? Don’t go through the hassle of promising something you can’t deliver.
- There’s no consistency in your marketing campaign
Your email marketing plan should contain a consistent schedule. If it’s a blizzard of emails all at once, you’ll turn customers away. If it’s just haphazard emails, you risk letting them forget you exist. Even if you aren’t having a major promotion, keep to the schedule.
- It’s way too long
Did you know that people spend only up to twenty seconds reading an email? As much as you’d like for the email to contain every point you think will attract customers, a very long email will do nothing but bore them. They need to see the value, and they need to see it right away.
- You aren’t learning from your customer’s behaviour
Is one tactic showing no response? Are you not making conversions out of customers? Don’t think that your campaign is bulletproof. If it’s not helping your sales, it’s not working. Keep statistics on your campaign – clicks, conversions, etc. – and use those to inform how you use email marketing in the future. Data can make the difference! Contact us today and we’ll help you get started setting up your own email marketing list today.
