Any emerging email marketing startup has chosen the right line of work. Brands are realizing how delicate email marketing can be which is why they are giving the power to email marketing companies. According to HubSpot, 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. Not to mention that 73% of Millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.
The statistics show how important the email marketing campaign is. However, even the most experienced professionals can make mistakes, not to mention the startups. Email marketing can be a tricky business so consider the following common fails that could happen with an email marketing company. Learning from these mistakes can help you avoid them and build a strong brand.
1. Not making your emails mobile-friendly
Considering that mobile opens accounted for 46% of all email opens, it would be a huge mistake if you don’t optimize your emails.
The reason why companies make this mistake is that they don’t think of it as one of the priorities. Even if they do optimize their campaign, later on, lots of people will first receive unresponsive emails.
Opening an email with small fonts that can’t be read or links that are too close can stop the recipient to perform the action.
People usually access their email over the phone while they are in movement or they want to access the information fast. If they can’t make out the email’s content right away, they will give up.
Don’t risk losing a portion of the users just because you didn’t make the emails mobile-friendly.
2. Not segmenting the audience correctly
Personalized emails perform best. That is why we segment the audience based on their preferences.
But what happens if you don’t segment the email subscribers in the right way? A mess.
Take as an example Amazon who was sending baby registry emails to people with no babies on the way. As you can see, even the best of them make mistakes.
Such a mistake can completely confuse the audience and make them mark you as spam.
Be very detail-oriented when it comes to segmenting the list. When you are at the beginning of your email marketer career, you can’t afford to send wrong emails to wrong people.
3. Adding broken links or not adding them at all
Imagine this: the reader opens a perfectly designed email. Everything about it is appealing and inviting. He decides to make a purchase, click on the CTA (call-to-action) and then – nothing.
Do you think that they will give it another shot? Probably not because the initial excitement has passed.
Forgetting to add links where needed or adding broken links have cost companies many sales.
No one should see a blank page when they click on an activation link.
To avoid this, always double-check that you have added all the links properly and that they are functional.
4. Not making the header image clickable
The reason why companies hire email marketing experts is to increase their number of sales. That is why you need to design the email for that purpose.
One of the most common mistakes that even the best marketing companies make is not linking the main image of the email.
When a reader accesses the email and sees the headline, it is much easier for them just to click on the image below and follow the lead to the main source.
Scrolling down to find the link can be discouraging.
Jonah Evans, an email marketer at TopWritersReview shares his own experience on the matter, “Even if the link is just below the image, some people are used to clicking the image and will perform that action automatically.”
Keep in mind that you need to direct your efforts into designing all the email elements to provoke the action out of recipients.
Luckily, the fix is simple. Add the link to the image and you’ll all set!
5. Wrong spelling
This mistake is probably the most common one. It is so easy to slip a letter or two and not notice what you have done.
However, such a mistake can have a really bad or confusing effect. Imagine if instead “Dear John” the recipient sees “Dead John.” He might laugh at this fail but he also might find you unprofessional.
Spelling mistakes can be seen everywhere from emails to website content. This doesn’t mean that they are justified.
Make sure that it doesn’t happen to you by installing a grammar and spelling check like Grammarly that will automatically highlight all the mistakes while you write an email.
6. Sending out the wrong message
Adidas, the famous sportswear company was guilty of this fail. So let’s learn from their mistake.
After the Boston marathon, they sent out an email to Boston Marathon runners. The content was: “Congrats, you survived the Boston marathon!”
While their intention was good, they didn’t think about the unfortunate events that happened in 2013 when bombing during the marathon wounded or killed several people.
Some recipients were outraged and left negative feedback about the company. Adidas sent out an apology message but it was too late to repair the damage.
This example shows how important it is to double-check any content decision that you make.
7. Not tracking the results of your email marketing efforts
So you’ve been working with a company for quite some time and you’ve been completely devoted to their email marketing campaign. But are your efforts bringing real results?
What would you say if a business owner came and asked about the progress? “It seems that people are answering the email so it is going well,” isn’t a satisfying nor a professional answer.
You need to keep track of the campaign’s progress at all times.
Focus on the following metrics:
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- Open rate (look at total opens vs. emails delivered)
- Click-through rate (look at the number of recipients who clicked on a link inside the email vs. emails delivered)
- Unsubscribe rate (look at the total number at unsubscribes vs. emails delivered)
- Complaint rate (look at the number of people who market you as spam vs. emails delivered)
- Bounce rate (look at sent emails which weren’t successfully delivered to recipients vs. emails delivered)
- Conversion rate (look at the number of email recipients who completed the desired action vs. emails delivered)
- Campaign ROI (check out how to measure ROI)
Measure these metrics on a weekly or a monthly basis. It will help you understand the efficiency of your efforts. Also, you’ll be able to make changes if certain aspects of the marketing campaign aren’t working.
Wrapping up
Making mistakes is a regular part of any business. Slipping a few letters when writing an email or forgetting to add a link can really happen to any email marketing company. However, if you can take some measures of precaution and learn about these mistakes in advance, you need to take that opportunity. That is why this list of top seven fails will help you prepare for your upcoming tasks.