20 Common Email Marketing Mistakes: How to Avoid Them

Do you want to know the most common email marketing mistakes?

Email marketing is a great way to connect with your customers, but it can be easy to make mistakes. Learn from other businesses’ mistakes so you don’t make them yourself!

Avoid making these mistakes and you’ll see better results in your email campaigns. Mistakes can cost you time, energy, and money – so learn what they are and avoid them!

Read our blog post on the most common email marketing mistakes and find out how to fix them.

List Of 20 Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Here are some of the most frequent email marketing blunders, as well as how to avoid them.

1. Selling Too Aggressively

It’s crucial to know why you’re emailing your consumers before sending them an email. You want to gain something from the connection, whether it’s more sales or more visitors to your website, but you also need to maintain a relationship with your consumers.

Customers will grow disengaged if every email tries to sell them something. Make some effort to strike a balance between helpful material and product promotions.

For example, if you manage a hardware store, you might send out a weekly email with ideas on how to better complete projects around the house or on the job site. You may intersperse this regular material with relevant new goods or sales.”

Content marketing helps you to engage customers by sharing insights and thoughts. You can strengthen your status as an industry expert while also earning consumer confidence and developing a connection by doing so. Better open rates and conversion rates will be as a result of this.

2. Not Optimizing For Mobile Devices

Improving your emails for portable devices is critical as customers utilize smartphones to view email.

You can typically see in reports if most people are reading your email on a smartphone or pc. Still, it’s always a good idea to send yourself a test copy of your email and check across devices to see whether the text is big enough, the graphics or video looks OK, the rhythm of the email flows well, and if the email is too long to scroll through if reading from mobile devices.

Customers get a positive experience with the most OK emails on both mobile and desktop. It may take a few more minutes to perfect the format of your email, but it’s well worth the time to guarantee that your emails are mobile-friendly.

According to Adestra, if your email doesn’t appear correctly on mobile, roughly three out of four mobile users will trash it right away hindering a successful email marketing campaign.

3. Neglecting Your Reputation as The Sender

Among the most typical email marketing mistake – and one that can hurt your open and click-through rates – is failing to check your sender’s reputation. This score is calculated by considering your daily email volume and your bounce and cancellation rates.

Your sender reputation will suffer the more often your emails bounce or recipients unsubscribe. A more excellent sender reputation may be associated with fewer emails sent.

You must first track your sender’s reputation to enhance it. The simplest method is to use a website or service that requires your URL to retrieve your score. Sender Score is a perfect example: To check your score, simply enter your URL, monthly email sends volume, and a few additional details.

You’ll also get sender reputation reports and advice on how to raise your score. If you follow the advice, you should find that fewer of your emails end up in spam folders.

4. Keeping Customers from Being Segmented

When the message is focused, marketing is considerably more powerful. And the more you go into it, the better. Gender and age are acceptable starting points, but behavioral segmentation based on data like purchase behaviors provides even more benefits to clients and improves marketing effectiveness.

It is critical to cater to the individual demands of each consumer. Customer segmentation is a method for doing this. This method entails dividing your clients into smaller groups based on their purchasing behavior.

If you send email campaigns directly to these groups, consumers will likely engage with your content. A classic email marketing blunder is ignoring this more direct approach.

Consider the method to be similar to personal email marketing. Customers want to feel important and not simply another name on your mailing list. An excellent place to start is to include customized greetings in each email.

5. Failure to Incorporate Unambiguous Call-To-Action Statements

Your material, as you’ve undoubtedly read a time or two or ten, requires a call to action (CTA). This is true whether you’re talking about a homepage, a blog article, or an email.

You’re leaving it up to your readers to figure out whatever you want them to do if you don’t have a CTA. Your readers are intelligent, but this is too much to ask of them.

So, before you start writing your email marketing strategy, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want it to do.

What do you want to achieve?

Do you want to spread the word regarding the piece of information you’ve created? Do you want to let the reader know about a new product or an upcoming event? Do you want to sell something?

Your email’s language, pictures, and style should all be geared toward this goal. Then, before sending a message, double-check that your call to action is attractive and directs the reader to the desired result.

So, How Can You Create a Compelling Call to Action?

Here are a couple of ideas:

6. GDPR Issues Are Being Overlooked

The world of email marketing altered in late May 2018 when the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into force. Businesses must produce documentation that consumers have agreed to receive emails to comply with the GDPR.

Although these rules do not apply to emails sent to people in the United States, including an opt-in function in your email list is a brilliant idea no matter where your receivers live.

Even where not illegal under actual law in the United States, such email is seen as malware among most individuals and all email inbox suppliers, implying that you will be susceptible to the ‘law of the spam filter,’ which will penalize all emails that you send, not just marketing email.

By avoiding typical blunders and adhering to legal standards, you may place your company in a position to gain from email marketing.

7. Neglecting Analytics

You should utilize analytics to create continuously engaging email marketing messages. Examine your campaigns’ click-through rates. Keep track of how many people open your emails. Keep track of how many signups you’re getting and how many email recipients are canceling their subscriptions.

Determine what your emails with the most significant open and click-through percentages have in connection so you can use that knowledge in future campaigns. Learn about the most crucial email marketing KPIs to keep an eye on.

Without tracking data, it’s impossible to establish and improve your email marketing plan. Some email marketing platforms interface with Google Analytics, allowing you to track how many people click through from your emails to your website.

When looking for an email marketing tool, you can prioritize selecting one with many analytic features. If mail marketing is a big part of your marketing strategy, you’ll want to employ a sophisticated email marketing tool.

Conducting email campaigns without keeping an eye on analytics is a costly error. If you’re investing time & expense into email campaigns, make sure to track your results with analytics.

8. Subject Lines That Are Poorly Written

The first and essential key to successful email marketing is getting the recipient to open it. According to MailChimp, the average engagement rate for emails across all industries studied was 21.33%.

Try to stick to standard practices when it comes to subject lines. Although subject lines differ slightly depending on the firm, it’s a good idea to keep them short.

According to AWeber, email subject lines are typically around 60 characters long, with the average being slightly over 40 characters. According to Marketo, the ideal strategy is to use 41 characters over seven words.

Write brief, concise, and interesting subject lines for maximum interaction. You can do better coming up with exciting email subject lines. While limiting subject lines under 60 characters is easier said than done, it can assist you to stick out in someone’s inbox.

Some organizations may find that utilizing emojis or colorful language in the subject line enhances open rates, depending on the audience.

Other firms may be more successful if they use professional and straightforward language. The tone of your subject line is mainly determined by the people who will be receiving your email.

9. Too Much Reliance on Images

Your initial reaction could be to fill your emails with stunning, eye-catching, professional images that will pique your readers’ interest.

While this isn’t always a bad thing, keep in mind that several of your visitors may not be able to see graphics in their emails. You’ll miss out on these clients if you don’t have a backup plan.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t use photos in any way. All what that means is that you’ll have to be a little more cautious about how you utilize them. Even if the photos don’t load, your reader will be able to get a fair notion of what your email is about if you use suitable alt text.

If an image fails to load or is prohibited by the service, “alt text” will replace it. It’s added with the “alt=” element in the image’s HTML code, but the top email marketing services will allow you to add alt text without knowing HTML code.

Even if you use alt text, an email with several giant empty boxes and a few lines of content will not be favorably received by your readers. Avoid using graphics as much as possible, and ensure that all of the most important ideas are conveyed in plain language so that your readers don’t miss them.

10. Sending Emails at an Inopportune Moment

According to HubSpot data, emails sent around 11 a.m. received the most significant open rates. This isn’t to say that sending an email at 11 a.m. is the optimum time for your business and market, but it’s worth trying out different send times to discover which one best interests your audience.

Sending emails at a convenient time for your primary audience is a fantastic idea. Morning Brew, for example, sends out a daily email at around 5 or 6 a.m. that summarizes the latest business news. This newsletter is delivered early in the morning since its target readership reads it before working.

Sending the email early also assures that it will not be behind on current events each day. If the magazine goes out at noon and a vast business story comes at 11:30 a.m., the staff won’t have much time to put out a thoughtful, well-researched product.

Even if your company doesn’t transmit time-sensitive information through email, it is a brilliant idea to determine when your audience prefers to receive it. Send emails at unusual hours to avoid being lost in a crowded inbox. The importance of timing in email marketing cannot be overstated.

11. Forgetting To Customize Email Marketing

The most effective emails pique the reader’s interest. It’s critical to produce tailored messaging to engage your audience, from segmented email campaigns to including a recipient’s name in the headline.

For a small firm with a small email list, you can go deeper into personalization than larger companies. With individuals getting dozens of marketing emails every day, personalizing your message to target groups or people subscribed to your campaigns might have a significant impact.

You have a greater chance of getting somebody to interact with your email if you send segmented messages with tailored written content. As a result, it also increases your chances of turning them into paying customers. Personalization is required to stand out in a crowded inbox.

12. Not Making Use of Autoresponders

You must set up more than just a welcome message in your automated email system. An autoresponder, also known as an email drip campaign, is a sequence of emails that may be sent out routinely in response to various events.

If someone receives a free guide you’ve placed up as a lead magnet, for example, you may welcome them to your email list – with the opportunity to opt-out, of course. You can send a follow-up email a few days later with particular advice or opportunities related to the topic of the free guide.

They’ll probably appreciate the follow-up since they’ve previously indicated interest. You might also include a voucher for future purchases.

13. No Request to Be Added To the Safelist

When your emails end up in the garbage bin, it’s a clear indication that you’ve made some email marketing blunders. Request that your email receivers add you to a list of acceptable senders to prevent being blocked.

In your welcome email, you might also give instructions for adding your email address to a reader’s contact list.

14. Not Double-Checking For Mistakes

Are you happy with the copy, photos, and style of an upcoming email? To be sure, send yourself a test copy. Think about getting up and refreshing your brain before proofreading your work. Although editing oneself is difficult, it is possibly the most crucial to eliminating typos and minor errors.

You may even send a test copy to another team member to discover email marketing problems early. It’s best if as many people see your work as possible. Be receptive to criticism – if someone is perplexed by an email, they are unlikely to be alone.

15. Attachments Clogging Up Inboxes

What comes to mind when you get an email from a corporation with an attachment? Many individuals will mistake it for SPAM, or even worse, a virus.

If you want to include important documents or information in your marketing email, do your recipients a courtesy and upload the item to a cloud-based service instead. Include a URL so they may access or download it at their leisure. Your emails will come out as more professional and reliable.

16. Being Untrustworthy As a Sender

Other than putting up a precise email address, there are many other ways to be open as the sender. Since you risk breaching the 2003 Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, lack of openness is a vital error to avoid.

To avoid misunderstandings, make sure to include your firm name and address in every email.

17. Making It Difficult For Your Subscribers to Respond

Let’s imagine a corporation sends an email to its subscribers, and one of them wishes to respond for whatever reason. What if they cannot initiate a discussion by just pressing the reply button?

When somebody is forced to explore a company’s website to connect, they are likely to become irritated and less inclined to interact again.

Use an actual address in the “From” portion of your email and the “Reply” area. If the responses become too time-consuming, include a “Contact Us” link in your email that directs potential customers to a helpful landing page.

18. Utilizing All Caps

Even if you want to shout your great news from the rooftops, using all capital letters isn’t the way to go.

Why?

Because SPAM filters are likely to catch your email. It’s possible that your clients won’t see it until they clean out their rubbish folders.

Understand the latest SPAM trigger phrases so you can avoid them in your subject lines. Yes, you want your consumers to “be shocked” and “call soon,” but do you want to appear like a late-night TV commercial?

19. Not Adhering To the Brand

Stick to your company’s goods, services, and beliefs — or a distinct brand voice — if you have one. There’s a rationale you’ve established a brand. When it comes to building loyalty, consistency is crucial. Going off-brand in an email is a huge no-no.

It’s okay for you to mix things up a little, but your target audience should always come first in your judgment. Will they enjoy your email, or will it perplex them? Some SPAM filters may also identify the content of pictures. Staying on-brand will help you avoid difficulties.

20. Being Disconnected

Things may become hectic. But that’s no reason to cease sending emails as frequently as you used to. Even during sluggish seasons, you should be able to offer discounts and industry news to your contacts to keep you top of mind. Staying on track with your advertising plan can help you get the desired outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Choose An Email Name

A proper email name is essential since it reflects you or your company in various ways.

Getting excellent email addresses on Gmail and Outlook is quite difficult these days because most email addresses are already taken.

Here you will find some email name suggestions and how to choose an appropriate email address for yourself or your company.

Steps to Select the Most Appropriate Email Address for Yourself

Things You Should Look for in a Professional Email Address

The Four Types Of Email Marketing

Email Newsletters

This is one of the most typical and successful marketing tactic. Make use of it to deliver helpful information and resources to your audience as a small business.

Create compelling material, including thought leadership, how-tos, and news about new services/products, to offer value to your subscribers’ inboxes.

If you want to test the effectiveness of your newsletter, see if the material helps in developing a relationship with subscribers, boosts participation and involvement, and enhances subscriber devotion.

Acquisition Emails

These can assist your small business in acquiring clients who have signed up to receive your emails but have not yet converted.

If you want to move your leads through the pipeline fast, then acquisitions emails are your best bet.

Use them to develop your small business, generate more income, and target individuals who have shown interest in what you have to offer.

Retention Emails

Utilize Retention Emails for your small business if you have some expertise with email marketing campaigns.

Your small business may keep the channels of communication open by sending a message seeking feedback or an offer to subscribers who haven’t connected with your business or email campaigns in a while. Retention Emails are a highly effective email campaign tactic for keeping your hard-won consumers.

Promotional Emails

Email Campaigns are an excellent approach for your small business to increase sales signups and introduce new product offers. Offers that tempt and urge your target to acquire a new product or service are included in promotional emails.

Use promotional emails to thank loyal customers with special offers, introduce new goods or services, and cross-sell goods to your existing customers.

Does Email Marketing Campaigns Still Work In 2022?

Advertisers devised whole new techniques to reach clients online with internet marketing – because people’s online interactions and material consumption develop, and so do the marketing strategies used to reach them.

There are options now more than ever before for getting your company in front of potential clients. Many businesses that want to grow their online presence are turning to strategies like digital marketing, video advertising, and SEO to boost site traffic.

And it appears that email marketing, a tried-and-true method, will continue to have a great deal to offer in 2022 and even beyond.

E-marketing was the first route to reach audiences online, long before social media and Google Ads. Email marketing is still essential for companies planning digital marketing initiatives today.

Conclusion

Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most popular and efficient marketing methods. Unfortunately, the majority of experts are doing it incorrectly.

Although the errors are elementary to correct once discovered, recognizing them is the most challenging phase. We’ve covered some of the most common email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. Use the suggestions to enhance your marketing effort and boost client retention.

If you’re looking for a more effective way to market your business, it’s time to start thinking about email marketing.

You can get started with Getresponse – choose from one of their four plans that best suit the needs of your company, and they’ll help you create campaigns on whatever platform suits your needs best.

Whether you need something simple like transactional emails or want an advanced campaign solution tailored towards customer engagement, there are options available in Getresponse’s suite of products.

Start sending out successful mailers today!