These days, email marketing is a huge player in the marketing game. With the crazy ROI from email marketing, it’s well worth taking the time to amplify your strategy. Unfortunately, your emails could be driving away customers rather than retaining them.
If you’re looking to boost your web traffic and improve your conversion rate in your next email campaign, keep these mistakes in mind (and avoid them):
1. Too Many Messages
Consistency is key in most cases when it comes to marketing. However, more isn’t always better when it comes to email marketing. One of the biggest reasons people unsubscribe from email lists is due to a high frequency of emails.
To avoid spooking your customers, you need to be strategic about how many emails you’re sending out and when you’re sending them.
How often should you be sending out emails? Well, there’s not a simple answer to that question. Trial and error is the name of the game here. A good starting point is twice a month and then up it to a weekly send depending on the feedback you receive from your list. Just keep in mind that sending emails daily or even every other day will be too much.
Also, it’s important to think about the time of day you’re sending out emails. Make sure the timezone makes sense for your customer base. Shooting out a promo email at midnight isn’t exactly going to hit the mark compared to a more popular time, such as 10 AM when people are going through their inboxes.
Our inboxes are full, don’t add to the pile of emails when it’s not necessary!
2. Lack of Proofing
It’s easy to push something out the door without a deep proofread. This isn’t great practice when it comes to copywriting, especially with email tracks. Let’s be real: emails that contain typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes are not a good look for your brand. If the typos are bad enough, some may think it’s a spam email.
That said, always check over your work. Even more so, have a colleague take a glance at it. It’s easy to stare at the same 50 words and miss an error of your own.
Pro Tip: Utilize a software program such as Grammarly to check your work in real-time. That way, you can confidently send out emails without the fear of errors OR being too wordy. It’s a lifesaver!
If you’re not completely comfortable taking on the copywriting portion of your emails, consider outsourcing to an agency. (We know some people who can help 😉)
Checking your work also ties back to making sure all links are functional in your email. As we all know, click-through rates are a critical indicator of success within email campaigns. Not taking the time to make sure all links work is bad news. Make sure that all URLs are typed properly and that the pages on your site are running smoothly. A broken link isn’t the end of the world, but it definitely isn’t doing any favors for your brand.
3. Lame Subject Lines
Your subject line is the first thing recipients see and is the deciding factor on whether or not they are going to act on it.
The key here is to play it cool. Hyped-up email subject lines seem spammy. Avoid phrases with the same vibe as “YOU CAN DROP 20 POUNDS IN A WEEK!” We’ve all seen those before, right?
Subject lines that push readers to open:
Don’t trick people into opening – Show your value to the reader. Make sure that it’s clear that there’s something in it for the customer.
Focus on the subject, without the fluff – You only have so many characters to use, don’t waste it with unnecessary words like “greetings” or “hello.” These can easily go in the email’s body. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
Personalize, personalize, personalize – I once had a college professor say that the sweetest sound to a person is their own name. This holds true when it comes to emails as well! Using their name makes the recipient more likely to open the email.
AVOID YELLING AT THE READER IN ALL CAPS – It’s the digital equivalent of yelling and people don’t like it. Enough said.
4. Not Mobile Friendly
More than 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. With a stat like that, it only makes sense to ensure that mobile users are able to have just as good of an email experience as desktop-only users!
When evaluating your email format, take a look at:
Responsiveness
Color Contrast
Font Size
General Formatting
If an email doesn’t display properly on mobile devices, recipients will delete it within seconds – don’t let this be yours! Failing to adjust your email campaigns to load properly results in lost customers and lost sales. Be sure to test out your emails on mobile devices beforehand to make sure the user experience is smooth sailing.
Email offers a cheap way to reach customers, but poorly designed campaigns could do more harm than good. Keep these mistakes in mind the next time you’re writing a campaign and your customers won’t be running for the hills.
Need a hand with your email marketing strategy? We can help!
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