Watch Out for These 5 Surprising Email Marketing Strategy Mistakes (With Examples)

Despite the common myth that email marketing is dead, email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing solutions today. Done right, email marketing can generate impressive leads as well as drive additional revenue from your existing customer base. However, certain mistakes can compromise what seems like a solid email marketing campaign. Keep reading to discover a few email marketing mistakes to avoid.

1. Writing Bad Email Subject Lines

A great email campaign focuses on grabbing the reader's attention immediately. With so much digital noise to sort through, online users are quick to discard messages that don't provide value. A reader will first look at an email's subject and quickly decide if it's worth opening. Therefore, it’s important to craft captivating subject lines that capture the reader’s interest and tell the reader what value to expect inside of the message.

If you spend hours crafting your email marketing content but fail to write a captivating subject line, your incredible content may never be seen. The subject line is the most critical component affecting open rates and must receive due attention.

While there are certainly numerous best practices for crafting subject lines, only data will show what your audience responds to best. If you are not sure what subject line tactics to use, consider using A/B testing which common email marketing tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact include in their email marketing software. With A/B testing, you can easily test multiple subject lines and automatically select the winning version for your audience.

2. Selling Too Hard

Although you are trying to drum up business, don't let all your emails be about selling a product! It's not enough to tell potential buyers to spend their money. Today's consumer loves useful, educational content. If communicating information about sales or your products is all your email marketing does, your campaigns are bound to fail and unsubscribe rates will skyrocket.

Instead, give readers valuable content, so that they are excited for what each email may contain. Provide tips, unique insights, guides, and any other information your reader might find helpful. The idea is to build a relationship with your audience and establish your business as an expert.

With email marketing campaigns, education should be #1 priority and selling should be #2. Typically, if you prioritize those goals properly, revenue will increase. On the other hand, if you reverse the order, unsubscribe rates will increase!

3. Not Catering Email Campaigns to Mobile Users

As of 2022, 58.99% (excluding tablets) of online traffic is from mobile users. Email campaigns that do not properly design for mobile users miss a huge portion of their audience. A sound email marketing strategy should optimize content to be readable on both large and small screens.

For example, if you design a fantastic custom graphic that is very visual and has text overlayed, that text may look great on desktops and laptops. However, when that email loads on a mobile device, the content is scaled down visually. As such, the text overlayed on that image may become unreadable for smartphone users.

Readers should not have to struggle to read your emails because they take too long to load or are not structured properly. When testing email messages, read them on different mobile devices to improve the open and read rate. Platforms like Constant Contact and MailChimp have a direct mobile preview function within their email campaign platform, which makes the testing process easier.

4. Relying Too Heavily on Images

While a few high-quality images can help create an attention-grabbing email marketing campaign, it’s important not to overload your emails with images. Many readers may have email images blocked by default, which can result in virtually a blank email if you’ve used too many images. Also, images take longer to load within emails and should be properly resized in order to avoid causing user frustration.

For best results, use just a few high-quality images or graphics spaced evenly throughout your email content that visually support your content. Additionally, be sure that you add alternative text (AKA alt tags) to your images. As a result, if the images are blocked, the users will see the alt text explaining what they are missing by not loading the image. Additionally, this practice can help subscribers using screen readers understand your visual content.

5. Not Allowing Readers to Reply or Take Action

One of the most common email marketing mistakes is not allowing your readers to reply or easily take action on your email marketing messages. To cultivate a better relationship with your current and potential customers, it’s essential to provide your readers with an easy way to get in touch with your business.

Make sure the reply email for the campaign is actively monitored and all responses are addressed rapidly. Additionally, use call-to-action buttons and links throughout your email to direct visitors to the right spot to learn more, take action on a promotion, or contact you for more information.

Free and Affordable Email Marketing Software to Help You Create Quality Email Marketing Campaigns

To create effective email marketing campaigns, it is crucial to utilize the right tools. At Igniting Business, two of our favorite email marketing tools for small businesses include MailChimp and Constant Contact. Note that you do not even have to spend money to get started with email marketing! Try out MailChimp’s free version today or get a free trial of Constant Contact to start your email marketing strategy! Paid packages with higher subscriber limits and advanced features typically start at $10/month.

Contact Our Email Marketing Experts

At Igniting Business, we strive to help your small business reap the benefits of email marketing. For more email marketing tips, or to learn more about our professional email marketing services, contact our marketing experts today!

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