E-mail marketing mistakes seem minor but can significantly impact business performance.
Below is a list of the most frequently encountered e-mail marketing mistakes.
Most of them are relatively easy to avoid, and the benefits you will gain by taking the necessary steps to do so will be far more valuable than the cost of avoidance.
Mistakes fall into one of three categories:
- Mistake and consequence are equal
- Major mistakes with minor consequences
- Minor mistakes with not so minor consequences
E-mail marketing mistakes not infrequently fall into the last category.
They seem minor but can significantly impact business performance. Below is a list of the most frequently encountered e-mail marketing mistakes.
Most of them are relatively easy to avoid, and the benefits you will gain by taking the necessary steps to do so will be far more valuable than the cost of avoidance.
The 8 most common e-mail marketing mistakes:
i. Fuzzy subject lines
Clarity is more important than cuteness. A mail with a subject line that is short and to the point is more likely to be read than one that is cute, but not saying much.
ii. Poor e-mail hygiene
A mail that smells off to Google is more likely to end up in one of the secondary (social, updates. Forums) inboxes, or even in the junk/spam inbox.
Familiarize yourself with relevant Gmail hygiene criteria, and verify implementation, to increase the likelihood of mail actually getting to where it is most likely to be read.
iii. Failure to measure email inboxing
Mails that don’t get into the primary inbox still count as having been delivered. Since statistics show that at least twenty percent of commercial emails are shunted out of the primary inbox, delivery data can be misleading.
Use tools that break down deliverability at the granular level, so you know which emails made it into primary, and which didn’t.
iv. Poor or no engagement segmentation
ISPs measure and prioritize mail engagement levels. A high engagement level increases the chances of getting into primary, which further boosts engagement levels. Once you’re off the track, it’s difficult to get back on.
Staggering your e-mail campaigns by first sending to highly engaged subscribers, and then, after 30-60 minutes, send to the unengaged subscribers will boost your deliverability rates and improve your inboxing ratios.
v. No re-engagement strategy
You spend valuable resources getting people to subscribe to your email list. If they reduce their engagement rates, it impacts your operational cost-effectiveness.
In addition, inactive subscribers drag down your open rates, click-to-open rates, email deliverability, and sender reputation. Use reactivation campaigns to identify those who still want to hear from you and those who don’t. Multi-mail campaigns are more effective than single mail ones.
vi. Image-based CTA buttons
For an email to be counted as opened, images need to be downloaded. However, unless the recipient directs the email client to download images automatically, they will not be viewed by a recipient.
Using an HTML button increases the open and click-through rates.
vii. No mobile optimization
Two-thirds of recipients are likely to open emails on a mobile device either all or part of the time.
A hard to read mail does not endear the sender to the recipient. Effective mobile optimization is no longer a nice to have, but a must.
viii. Bad testing decisions
Sending at random times, using small sample size and to many variables all negatively impact testing results. Appropriately scheduled test sends times, ensure sample size is big enough to guarantee statistical reliability, and isolate tests to a single variable for optimal test sterility.