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10 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2018

Published on:
January 9, 2018
By:
TransForm Solutions

Email marketing is a powerful way to engage your audience and achieve marketing success. However, to be successful in your email marketing, you will need to use tact, and avoid making mistakes that most people often make. While many small business owners use free email marketing tools to support their marketing initiatives, others employ professional email marketing companies to do the job. Regardless of the kind of email marketing tool you choose, it is important to avoid making these top email marketing mistakes.

1. Failing to offer incentives

Email marketing lets marketers educate their readers by sharing valuable content. Many businesses fail to offer incentives and promotional offers to their regular customers. You don't have to offer big-ticket goodies, but small incentives offered intermittently go a long way in luring customers. Keep your target audience hooked to your brand by offering exciting deals, freebies, or discounts on shipping.

2. Failing to engage customers

Email marketing should not be treated as a one-way communication platform by marketers for pitching their spiel. Email readers should get an equal opportunity to express their views. Ask them to fill up surveys to understand their needs and request their feedback. Answer frequently asked questions to engage and gauge the level of interest among readers to steer your email marketing strategy.

3. Sending spam

Sending spam could be the worst email marketing mistake that you may ever make. Readers subscribe to your email based on your promise to offer them something relevant to them. Don't share random information or send unsolicited information. For example, if your readers subscribed to hear investment advice and view investment products, do not exploit the platform by sending credit card advertisements. Keep your emails focused.

4. Sending email from a no-reply email

When a marketing email arrives from a no-reply email, readers are instantly repelled, and such land up in the spam folder. Another blunder most marketers commit is the failure to include contact details and social profiles in the email. Your readers should always feel that they have been contacted by another human being, and not be an automated tool.

5. No segmentation and personalization

The first rule of email marketing is not to treat all your customers alike. Segment your email list based on different factors like new subscribers, frequent buyers, lapsed customers, etc. Send personalized product recommendations based on their purchase history. Email marketing software helps you to connect with customers humanely. Marketing automation enables you to handle repetitive tasks like welcoming new subscribers and reaching out to customers with abandoned carts. No matter what, do not forget to personalize your marketing messages.

6. Failing to choose an appropriate email template

The customer inbox is filled with all kinds of emails. Failing to recognize the importance of email templates can derail your email marketing campaign. Choose a nice and striking email template based on the message you want to communicate. Whether you are selling a product or educating your customers, your email template should be carefully chosen to match your marketing goal.

7. Messy subject line

A confusing subject line is a train trying to pull a cart without a horse. Even if everything falls into place, an inconspicuous subject line may bring your campaign to a halt. Your email subject line must be short and crisp. Do not insert misleading information in your subject line just to push your open rates. Never use fluffy adjectives like urgent, extremely important, breaking news, or exclusive just to create a false alarm. Never use an all CAPS format. A subject line is an icebreaker. Do not make any spelling and grammar mistakes.

8. Missing brand's personality

Email marketing is not about following what your competitors do. It is about doing things differently. Let your brand's personal your email. Readers subscribe to your email because you are unique. Your content must be designed with that in mind. Place your logos at the right places and choose the font, color, and size that reflects your brand image.

9. Failing to optimize for mobile viewing

Most people view emails on mobile. Design your emails to deliver a fascinating mobile viewing experience and don't just make them readable. Designing for mobiles should not mean cutting down on all aesthetic elements. Design responsive emails optimized for different mobile devices. Before sending out emails, test them on different mobiles and email clients.

10. Not making data-driven decisions

Not tracking an email marketing campaign is a shot in the dark. You wouldn't know where your campaign is heading while your money is pumped into a black hole. At the bare minimum, it is sensible to track delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and conversion rate. Make data analytics an essential part of your email marketing strategy and avoid becoming one of those bad email marketing examples.


Email marketing mistakes can be easily avoided With suitable email marketing services, these common email marketing mistakes can be easily avoided. Offer incentives to engage customers, don't spam, personalize, optimize for mobile, brand your content, and use data analytics. You may be grateful to every customer who subscribes to your email, but customers will be grateful to you only if they get what they

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