Unfortunately, many businesses make email marketing mistakes that cost
them time and potential customers. Here are seven common email marketing
mistakes most businesses make and
how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Not Segmenting Your List
Do you send the same email to every subscriber on your list? If you do,
you’re missing a major opportunity to target each customer in a way that
might influence a response.
For example, you can segment your list by customer type. You likely have
people on your list who signed up for your newsletter, but have never
purchased anything from your business. You probably also have people who
made a one-time purchase, but haven’t purchased your monthly service.
Then, there is the batch of regular customers.
Each of these segments will need something different from your email
messaging. Prospects want to know why they should buy. Old customers
need a reminder of the products and services you offer. Your most active
customers don’t need to be educated about your products, so maybe you
should thank them or offer them a referral discount instead.
By segmenting your email lists, you can deliver the perfect message to that group of customers.
Mistake #2: Not Personalizing Your Emails
How do you address your emails? One of the most common mistakes we see
is simply starting an email with “hey” or “hello.” This practice often
leads to emails
ending up in the trash.
Customers want to buy from people that they know, like and trust. The
fastest and easiest way to show that you know them is to address them by
their first name (assuming you have that information available in your
database for the contacts you’re emailing).
Including personal information about the sender of the email is another
great way to personalize your campaign. For example, in our email
newsletter I always include a note about something happening with me or
my family. This helps to humanize your emails and build a personal
connection.
Mistake #3: Not Tracking Your Emails
How many emails in your last campaign were opened? How many emails converted to actual sales?
To know how successful your email marketing campaign is, you need to
track the performance of your emails. Most email marketing tools have
basic tracking for opens and clicks.
However, to track sales you’ll likely need to take this a step further.
For e-commerce businesses, you can use Google Analytics to track the
online sales. For businesses selling via the phone or in-person, you can
use special coupons or tracking phone numbers.
It’s important to analyze this data fairly regularly to notice any large
fluctuations. For example, if you suddenly lose a bunch of email
subscribers, you want to look at the most recent campaign to see what
could have caused that. Or, if your click-through-rate increases a lot
you’d want to figure out why and repeat that messaging.
Mistake #4: Not Using Conversational Language
Email marketing is not the time to show people how professionally you
can write. Inboxes are flooded with dozens of emails per day and the
reality is people don’t have the time or interest to read all of them.
Your audience wants to read something that’s easy and gets to the point.
Keep your emails conversational and make sure to tell them right away
why they should keep reading. Keep your paragraphs brief so
they can be quickly scanned. Save the most technical language for white
papers and how-to manuals.
Mistake #5: Not Being Consistent with Frequency of Emails
Nurturing your list is an important part of email marketing and you
can’t do that unless you’re consistent with sending out your
newsletters.
Stick to a schedule, whether that’s once per week, twice per week,
daily, or once per month. Keeping the frequency consistent helps
subscribers to remember who you are and why they signed up to be on your
list.
Plus, if you’re providing content that is interesting and highly
engaging to your audience, they’ll come to expect and rely on your
emails. Again, they have the opportunity to read dozens of other emails,
don’t risk letting yours get replaced by not sending them out as
frequently as you should.
Mistake #6: Not Providing Value in Your Emails
Because people are constantly bombarded with emails, they’re likely
doing anything they can to free up space in their inbox. To reduce email
clutter, they’re going to resent any company that wastes their time and
they’ll unsubscribe.
Ask yourself what your email subscribers are really looking for from
your email list. Do they want discounts? Reminders of sales days? Expert
information? Recommendations and referrals?
Go even further than this and ask what topics they really want to read
about. For instance, if you’re a dentist, what do customers constantly
ask about? Try to provide this type of value to them so subscribers
don’t just ignore your emails.
Mistake #7: Not Asking for the Sale
Perhaps the most common mistake it not asking for the sale. It takes a
lot of time to craft wonderful and compelling message or provide
customers with great information. You want to make sure that time pays
off and in order to do that you need to convert subscribers into
customers.
If you don’t tell them what to do next, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to drives sales for your business.
Many people fear looking too pushy and think they’re going to push
subscribers away. However, if you never ask for the sale, customers
aren’t going to buy. Remember to include a call-to-action for a
specific offer that will entice people to do business with you.
