Email marketing is an effective way for businesses to communicate with their customers and foster long-term relationships. It has been a practice that marketers have been using for a long time and continue to use. According to Statista, in 2019 the number of global email users reached 3.9 billion and is expected to grow to 4.8 billion by 2024. Marketers have tons of opportunities through email marketing.
Once customers agree to receive emails from you, it means that they want to hear more from your business. Many customers prefer emails over other forms of communication. However, sometimes you may not get the level of engagement or ROI you expect. This could be due to many factors. Maybe you are making certain mistakes in your email marketing campaigns that are costing you. In this article, we will discuss some common email marketing mistakes that you can avoid, to drive better results.
Spammy Subject Lines
Subject lines are crucial for your emails. It encourages users to open your emails. Email subject lines can grab the attention of your customers. Create subject lines that are short and precise. It should also be compelling enough to make the user curious. Do not write long subject lines, be precise. When writing subject lines, you should also ensure that it is relevant to the offer or content in the email.
Subject lines should also provide value to your users, it should not simply trick them into opening your email. One bad practice is using clickbait. This type of subject line can come across as spammy and untrustworthy. Always ensure the authenticity of your emails. Do not opt for practices like clickbait which can lead the users to unsubscribe to your emails or mark it as spam. Use relevant and fresh subject lines to improve open rates and engagement.
Not Using a Clear CTA
Call to action or CTA enables your users to take the desired action. CTAs can lead the users to the respective landing page where they can convert. It can lead users to your blogs, products or services page or any landing page to download a resource. Without a clear CTA, users would not know what the purpose of your email is and may not take any action.
To create a relevant CTA, first determine the purpose of your email. For example, if you want users to check out your informative blog content, you can send them a newsletter that leads them to your blog page. Or if you want to update users about a new product or service, you can include a CTA that leads them to your product page. The purpose of sending an email should be clear based on which you can add the relevant CTA.
Ensure that you use the right words in your CTA button that encourages users to click on it. For example, terms like “Get your free trial” or “Download Now” can get users to take the desired action. A CTA button should be easily visible to your users. Place the button where users can see it immediately. Provide the right link to the landing page. Avoid using multiple CTAs in a single email as it can confuse the users.
Check out these email marketing statistics to help you build a successful email campaign.
Poor Email Design
Email design is the process of designing your email strategically to resonate with your target audience. The design should be aesthetically pleasing, attention-grabbing and align with your brand image. This design helps you enhance user experience, which in turn increases engagement. Over 20% of marketers surveyed said that email design was improving their engagement rate (HubSpot,2020).
Start by enhancing your email layout. Layout helps in organizing and structuring your email content. A cluttered and sloppy layout would discourage users from engaging with your content. When users read your emails, they should not feel confused and overwhelmed. Make use of white space strategically between your text and visual elements. This helps to elevate the design of your emails. You can use free email templates available online if you are not sure about how to design your emails.
Next, use fonts that are clear and legible for your users. As most people access their emails on a mobile device, you need to ensure that your text is easy for everyone to read. The size should not be too big or too small. Using a responsive design is always a good practice. Responsive designs enable your emails to change format to fit the screen that it is being viewed on like desktop, tablet, and mobile device. This helps in creating a good user experience.
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Sending Emails Manually
Email automation is a powerful tool that can help you reach the right people at the right time by using automated workflows. This is an effective way to nurture leads and drive more sales. Automation enables marketers to personalize their email content and set up workflows. According to Statista, 90% of consumers find personalized content very or somewhat appealing. With email automation marketers can create a series of personalized and automated emails to help build business relationships. According to HubSpot 2020, email automation campaigns are among the top three tactics used by email marketers to improve performance.
When you set up workflows the emails are automatically sent to the users on the scheduled time. This reduces the work of marketers of sending emails manually. This way marketers can focus on other important tasks and be more productive. Email automation also ensures that follow up emails are sent to recipients on time.
Sometimes if you are sending emails manually, you may miss out on sending emails to some contacts or forget to follow up. Automation reduces the chances of human errors and ensures that emails are sent to the selected contact list on time. Sending follow up emails on time can help improve communication and improve the performance of your email campaigns.
Ensure that you keep updating your automation campaigns if there are any changes for example, removing certain contacts from the list. Although automation does the work for you, it is important to keep updating.
Not Segmenting Your Audience
Segmentation is the division of your contacts into groups based on set criteria. To create personalized emails that resonate with your contacts you need segmentation. Audiences can be segmented based on location, purchases, interests and more. Segmentation enables you to create different email lists that focus on specific attributes. You can create different emails tailored for different lists rather than creating a mass message.
You can use certain tools or software, like HubSpot, that helps in segmenting your list. Another way is to create lead magnets that will allow you to target website visitors and automatically segment them in a particular list. You can also send a quick questionnaire to your leads or customers to understand their preferences, interests, or pain points. This can enable you to segment your email list and send customized content that resonates with the recipient.
Skipping A/B Testing
A/B testing can help you test your emails to ensure that they perform well. Create two or three versions of the same email and test various elements so that you can select the version that performs the best. This testing can be on subject lines, design, CTA placement, email copy and more. According to Litmus 2019, companies that A/B test every email see email marketing returns that are 37% higher than those businesses who never include A/B testing.
Many businesses underestimate the fact that A/B testing can significantly improve their email performance. If you don’t use A/B testing, you miss out on opportunities that can help enhance your emails. As seen in the statistics above, businesses using A/B testing had a higher ROI than those that did not. Don’t miss out on this step as it can help you create a high-performing email that resonates with your target customers.
Email marketing is not always easy. You are going to make mistakes while implementing your email campaigns. But the common email marketing mistakes discussed above can help you save a lot of time and resources. Keep these points in mind when you plan your email strategy. Now that you are aware, you can easily avoid these mistakes. It can help you create, enhance your emails, improve conversions and ROI.
If you are making some of these mistakes you can easily fix them and incorporate good practices that saves you time in the future. If you want to know how to build an email strategy from scratch, here is a guide that can help you.
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