Watch Out: Dangerous Email
Walk away from the light! Don’t make mistakes that could kill your business.
Okay, okay, maybe that’s a bit too dramatic. But really, far too many people are making email marketing mistakes that decrease their chances of success. Avoid the pitfalls, and consider the following errors – and at times even blunders – that cost companies both revenue and reputation.
1. Botched Subject Line
Many subject lines are truncated. Consider how cutting off just the last few letters the subject line of “A Guide to Getting Started with Analytics” ended with a really bad first impression!
You’ll want to edit carefully, and check out how your email will appear in your customers’ inboxes! Test the results! Did you get this one? TEST. THE. RESULTS. FIRST. If the emails don’t get opened, they won’t get read. If they aren’t read, you’ll lose sales. And that’s no bueno!
2. Too Much, Too Often
Avoid being tagged and labeled as spam. If you flood their inboxes, this is a guarantee. You may want to consider an email marketing company who can measure metrics of who opens and clicks — or who unsubscribes. This can help you decide how to spread your marketing across your readers’ inboxes.
Avoid going into your customers’ spam files
If your potential customer unsubscribes, then you’ve lost them forever. That translates to a 0.00% chance that they’ll make the purchase. So, send wisely.
3. Neglecting the Smartphone and Tablet
A whopping 50% of emails are now opened on smartphones or tablets. Maintain the big picture here: remember that the goal is for your reader to take immediate action. Be aware of creative ways to elicit a response from their smartphone or tablet, where it’s not as easy to navigate.
Keep it simple when sending an email campaign to mobile users. The more the consumer must do to make the purchase, the less likely they are to buy. In this case, less is more.
4. No Call to Action
You know this: you have interested users. If you’re making it tough for them to click on the deal or to use a promotion code, you’ll lose business.
5. Too Much to Read
The rule of thumb here is 30 seconds or less. If your readers can’t read and digest the content in that time frame, they’ll click ‘delete,’ and there goes the potential purchase.
Keep it simple. Avoid overwhelming your reader with too much content.
6. Burying Your Website Link
The goal is to have the buyer click on to your website for even more choices of products and services. Keep the link to your website front and center. Don’t bury it at the bottom of your blast, or you could lose business here as well.
7. Including an Unfriendly “Sender”
Think about what they are going to see in their inbox. If it’s a name, they are more likely to open it. If it’s a company or an overt sales pitch, they will probably ditch the email and the buying opportunity. Who the email is from is even more important than the subject line.
8. Missing the Boat!
There is an important window of time in which to send the email blast. If you direct your buyers way before a sale actually starts, if will fall right off their radar. They’ll know they have time to get back to it, and – it’s clear what happens when the task isn’t important to accomplish “right now.” It falls by the wayside.
Conversely, you’ll also lose possible buyers if they get the blast just hours before your promotion ends. Chart what time frame works best; maintain authentic metrics, and send that blast in a timely manner. Avoid “too early” and “to late” so that you don’t lose that potential business.
If you’ve been making some of these mistakes, don’t stress! These can be easily addressed and fixed, and you’ll soon be grabbing those lost sales right back.
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Guest post by Valerie J. Wilson, freelance writer who covers business, marketing, and education.
Photo Credit: barmala
Photo Credit: Andrew Mason
8 Email Marketing Mistakes That Could Cause You to Lose Business is a post from the Mass Transmit Broadcast Blog. Subscribe to receive blog posts via email. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!
