Email marketing has a lot more in common with a beauty pageant than you might think at first. You spend a lot of time getting your outreach ready for the big moment and the last thing you want to do is fall flat on your face once your emails take center stage against the competition. However, this happens all too often for brands that don’t know the ropes yet when it comes to connecting with customers via their inboxes. To keep your messages looking their best and on the right track, look over these five common mistakes that have tripped up other brands who tried to strut their stuff via email marketing.
Image-Only Emails
While it might seem a little odd to add imagery to an email marketing mistake blog post, image only messages definitely have a spot on this list. With over 66 percent of email subscribers disabling images by default in their inboxes, an image only message won’t convey anything other than a blank screen to these viewers. To overcome this hurdle, don’t commit to having your text built into image formats. This way, you can still reap the benefit of compelling visuals, all while hooking the audience with great content that would otherwise go unread in the image-only format.
Content That Lacks Relevancy
Another prime time offender that has derailed plenty of email campaigns are messages that simply don’t have much to do with the targeted audience. This lack of relevancy comes from marketing tactics that simply slap together a few stock messages and tie them to several keywords or other metrics that target certain audiences. While this might not seem so bad at first glance, just try and imagine what it must be like for a customer who looked up vacation plans for a family to receive email offers for singles getaways. While it might get you to chuckle a little bit now, it’s definitely not as funny when it’s your brand that is the butt of the joke.
Being Too Lazy to Test
Complacency probably won’t take you very far in the other facets of your business strategy, so why should it be good enough for your emails? While you might come out of the gates blazing with a great set of messages, going the path of least resistance and simply reusing or rehashing content isn’t a smart strategy. Neither is making changes without any rhyme or reason. Although it does require a little extra effort, take the time to roll out test runs of your emails using A/B testing and other strategies. By doing so, you’ll have a chance to not only get a better read on what your audience likes and dislikes, but also keep your content fresh and interesting after your initial outreach.
Unreadable Mobile Formatting
Even if you’re not a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably been inundated with all the talk about the mobile craze on other sites. Despite the seemingly constant coverage that the rise in smartphone and tablet usage gets around the web, simply looking out your front door was probably all the evidence you needed to see that people can’t get away from these devices. Because being glued to your phone is now the norm, if your emails are only designed for desktop viewing, you’re cutting out a sizable portion of your audience. Instead of just hoping your emails show up right on the customer’s iPhone or Galaxy tablet, make sure your offerings are not only viewable, but optimized for these platforms. Otherwise, you’ll soon find out that the trash folder or, even worse, the unsubscribe button are only a few finger strokes away for customers who don’t want unreadable messages cluttering up their screens.
Multiple Daily Messages
Ever had a friend that calls or texts you way too much? While they might mean well, you’ve probably gotten to the point where you knowingly “miss” or avoid these messages because you just need some time for yourself. Unfortunately, you could be taking on that same role unwittingly by sending off emails multiple times a day. Customers love deals, but they definitely don’t love getting spammed. Because of this, you need to avoid the temptation of sending multiple emails a day and give the audience a little time to mull over your offers before you hit their inbox again. Depending on what you’re business offers, the right blend could be anywhere between one a day to once a week. Using a little testing and customer feedback can help you nail down the time and ensure you’re not getting too pushy with your email deals.
