You design the best email in the world and curate impressive content. But, while delivering the message and framing an email marketing strategy you make some obvious email marketing mistakes. All your efforts will go for a toss if you don’t focus on how to deliver the message that you created for your customers?
These are the most common email marketing mistakes.
Mistake #1
Sending repetitive emails:
When someone signs into your website or a webinar it’s wise to send two reminder emails to trigger further response. But, when you send too many emails as a follow up, you are literally begging and irritating the customer. Hard selling hurts your brand. Two gentle reminders are decent enough. But, repetitive emails would push away the customer.
Seeing the same email repetitively popping up in the inbox is quite bothering.
Mistake #2
Not customer centric:
The mailer that you send to the customer should add value to his life/ business. If it doesn’t, why would he care about it? For example, you have a website that shares videos on management and business topics. You mention in the email, ‘Watch some awesome videos on management topics’. But, why would the customer bother to hit on the link connected to your website? Instead when you say, ‘Get solutions to your leadership and decision making challenges through these awesome videos’, he would surely visit your website. It would assist him in decision making. Your email would answer many of his unresolved questions thus, would interest him.
Brainstorm over what issues matter to your customer and understand how your product/service can fix them. Prepare an editorial calendar to schedule focussed and valuable emails. You cannot afford to make such mistakes as it kills the whole purpose of sending an email.
For example sending the below email to a male shopper would not serve any purpose.
Mistake #3
The message isn’t personalized:
You are searching for a couple of fiction books and you receive an email suggesting a list of the most popular fictions along with the latest discounts. It would surely delight you. Personalization is all about offering customers what they are looking out for. Stay focussed on the requirements of your customers. When you suggest products that customers are searching for through an email they feel acknowledged, cared and connected.
The below mailer is neatly designed and targeted at kids as it says that if they are buying new pens and pencil cases they might as well also look at two great reads at a discounted prices.
Mistake # 4
Uninteresting subject lines:
Add a punch to the subject lines; let them be exciting enough for the audience to open the email. Let them create curiosity. When your subject line is, ‘Answer to your weight issues’, it would interest your customer. But, instead if you say, ‘Weight issues’, how will the audience know what the email is about? Often I get mailers that have misleading subject lines. For example a subject line said, ‘40% Discount Coupon’. But, after reading it carefully I realized that it leads to the website from which you first had to buy stuff and then for the next buy you would get a discount. This was a bit disappointing.
Have a compelling subject line that motivates the audience to open the email. You have 35 characters to make an impression.
Mistake #5
Email isn’t mobile friendly:
Emails that you send should be mobile friendly. Remember, most emails are opened on mobiles. You cannot afford to ignore this fact.
Keep the fonts big enough to read. Links should be easily clickable. They should not be too closely placed. Often when a reader tries to hit one link it touches the other.
Let the content be in single columns. For PC based emails you can opt for multi-column layout. For mobiles it’s risky to have multi-column layouts as the mobile device should support that width. Certainly you should avoid 3-column layouts as the reader has to zoom in. Keep it simple and readable.
I am sure you have made some email marketing mistakes and realized them later. Discuss and share them with our audience by leaving your comments. Juvlon specializes in creating impressive and effective email marketing campaigns. We are here to assist and guide you.