Does this situation sound all too familiar? You’re almost ready to send out a mass email to your customer list but before you hit send, you get nervous. Did you double check everything? Are there any typos? Do all your links work? Is your email mobile friendly? Did you think through every single step?
Here are five common email marketing mistakes and tips on how you can ensure you’re sending out a high quality email every single time.
Boring subject lines
It all starts with the subject line, so make it count. The subject line of your email should be treated as one of the most important aspects of your email….if not the most important. An interesting subject line goes a long way into getting someone to open. No opens = no one reading your content.
So, how do you grab someone’s attention? Stand out from inbox clutter with an engaging subject line. Get creative! Keep your subject lines conversational, compelling, personal and fun. It's always good to take a step back, channel your audience, and ask, "What would make them open this email?"
Misleading content
Content is king, as they say. Now that you did all of this work to get your readers to open your email, it’s time to entice them with your content. Your email should be easy to skim and filled with engaging content.
A good rule of thumb—before writing your email ask yourself these two questions:
What is the purpose of this email?
How are we providing value to our readers?
Keep this in mind throughout the entire time you’re crafting your email. It should be crystal clear why you’re sending this email. Do not send an email for the purpose of sending an email, have strategic content and provide value.
Ignoring your mobile users
Mobile remains the most popular reading environment. Optimizing for mobile users is absolutely imperative in your email marketing efforts, but we still see less than desirable mobile experiences.
Here are a few quick tips to optimize for mobile:
Use a responsive email template. Most email service providers have responsive templates. These templates will automatically revise your email to fit the screen of mobile phones, tablets and PCs.
Single columns. Using one column will make your email compatible for all devices, no matter how small.
Use small images. If you have 5 large images in your email, this will take a long time to load on your phone. Use fewer images, and make sure they are small (600 pixel width should be as wide as you go).
Test. Always make sure to test your email on your mobile device before sending to your customer list to ensure there are no weird spacing issues or other odd renderings. Two great testing platforms are Litmus and Email on Acid.
Non-existent CTA buttons
One of the main purposes of email is to drive your readers to do something. Whether that’s to make a purchase, sign up for a webinar, or schedule a meeting… the list goes on. Email is a great tool to drive customer engagement. Therefore, you do not want to have CTA buttons that are hard to find, or worse… non-existent.
Make your CTAs easy to find! Use bright, bold colors and lettering, make your CTA into a button—whatever you need to do to make the CTA stand out from the rest of the content, do it.
Forgetting to check your analytics
Analytics provide detailed information into the actions your audience takes. How many people opened an email? Is there one time/day that is better for your users than another? What percentage of your readers are clicking your CTA button? Are they unsubscribing?
When you review your analytics after each campaign, you are able to discover patterns. Every email list is a group unique from the next. Maybe it makes sense for your business to send emails on Monday at 8pm, but for someone else it may make sense to send them on Thursday at 10am. You will not know this answer until you begin to dive into your analytics.
If you’re looking for additional email marketing help, drop us a line.