When your email marketing campaign fires on all cylinders, there’s no denying that this connection with your target audience rises above all of your other marketing options. However, that doesn’t that mean standing tall in the inbox is an easy affair. In fact, there are plenty of pitfalls that can keep your emails from the eyes of the viewers that matter most. With this in mind, let’s spend a few minutes looking at the four types of emails that absolutely fail in the inbox, as well what your brand can do to avoid watching these substandard offerings sink your next campaign.
The “Over the Top” Amazing Offer or Result Email
The first type of email that can turn off your inbox readers embodies one of the oldest tricks in the spam book – the ridiculous, over the top offer or results claim in the subject line. In this approach, your branded messages make an outrageous claim or statement, which requires extraordinary evidence to back up. As Kimanzi Constable of Entrepreneur magazine explains, going down this path seems like a great idea for brands looking to make a sale, but there’s only one problem; your viewers simply can’t believe that these result or offerings are real.A better option, whether you’re truly promoting some groundbreaking industry innovation or a standard promotional run, is to keep things simple with your subject line. Staying conversational and brief allows your subject line to intrigue readers and induce them into clicking the open button. From here, strong text content and supporting calls-to-action (CTAs) can help present your campaign material in a more effective, less spam-oriented manner.
The “Quick Question” Click Bait Email
Sitting on the opposite side of the spectrum from the over the top message is the click bait email. Constable goes on to point out that brands incorporating this type of email marketing content often lead off with a seemingly quick or vague question, designed to illicit a cheap click from the inbox viewer. “Interested in making six figures a year?” and “You’ll never believe this” both serve as strong examples of this spam technique.Obviously, we’ve already explained that there’s nothing wrong with being brief, just try to not to take the indirect or misleading approach. This method can definitely boost click rates in the short term, but don’t expect to have readers open up these messages in the future once they’re on to your tactics. Your brand is much better off offering relevant and useful content that ties in with your subject line once the reader opens your email.
The “Too Personal/Too Obscure” Email
As far as personalization and identification go, there are two ways you can really stack the odds against a viewer clicking the open button associated with this message, according to Ryan Pinkham of Forbes magazine. The first way to do this is by getting a little too friendly with the subject line. Personalizing this portion of the email is a perfectly fine strategy, but calling out audience segments and demographics by name or putting too much personal info in this space (think first, middle, and last names) comes off as creepy for virtually any brand.Additionally, failing to identify your brand in the “From” portion also serves as a roadblock for getting readers to dig into your email content. With so much spam flooding into today’s inboxes, users are more cautious than ever when it comes to choosing what they open. If possible, utilize branded “From” lines in the preview section of the message, as well as a company specific sending domain. This way, your target audience won’t have any questions when trying to figure out if the message in front of them comes from a source they can trust.
The Email That Mobile Viewers Can’t Open
Pinkham also points out that it’s hard to expect viewers to open your messages at all if they’re unable to view these offerings on a mobile device. With more people than ever before using tablets and smartphones to view the latest additions to their inboxes, one bad experience can ruin your reputation with these viewers.Thankfully, we’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about mobile optimization for new and established campaigns alike, so avoiding this email misstep isn’t a monumental endeavor. With these tips in hand, as well as the rest of what you’ve learned about the prime offenders that can keep readers from opening your messages, you brand should be on the right track for keeping the good vibes flowing with the best marketing channel across the entire digital landscape.
