The last posts that I’ve written are about how to get the best out of your email marketing program (for Restaurants or Hotels and Resorts), reasons to add a newsletter to your web or blog and how to build a successful newsletter. This time I’m turning up side down and I’m going to talk about what do you have to avoid in email marketing. My experience with Pixelnews allows me to identify the most common mistakes in email marketing campaigns:
Too complex design
You have to realize that designing an email campaign is not the same as designing a website. Don’t try to use fancy flash or java scripts or try to embed a You Tube video, it just doesn’t work, and you will get crazy trying to make it look ok in the different email clients. Try to design a layout as clean and simple as possible with the correct links that will get your subscribers to the website or landing page you want.
Adding the wrong reply email address
It is pretty common to find mistakes in the reply email address or marketers that prefer to introduce a false address to avoid to get their inboxes full. Receiving feedback from your subscribers is one of the best ways to improve your campaigns and your product/service, so you cannot afford to miss that replies.
All Image, No text
I’m tired of seeing email campaigns that only have an image or a few images and no text at all. This campaigns hace two main problems:
• Are very likely to be considered as Spam by the main ISP (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail)
• Most of the email clients don’t download the images automatically so your subscribers will receive a blank email. Then they will delete it or worse, mark you as spam.
Spammy Subjects
More marketers than I thought still hasn’t understood that using subject lines with all caps, using words like WIN, PRIZE, FREE or using multiple exclamations!!! will make their emails look like Spam.
Wrong Links
The last of the most common mistakes that I’m used to see is when I click on a link in an email and it get me to a blank page with big letters that say: 404 error: Not Found. Before you send out your campaigns make sure that you have introduced the links correctly.
The economic situation that we are living today makes you analyze even more the ROI (Return on Investment) of every of your marketing actions. Don’t let these avoidable mistakes make you lose sales or decrease your reputation.
Tags: email marketing, mistakes
Really interesting and I agree with all the above. I would also add another two mistakes that I have seen made many times. Personalisation and using it wrongly. Personalising your email can improve your responses, open rates and click rates. But if you send an email to Dear Blank (the name is missing), or Dear Taylor (the wrong field is used - surname instead of first name) it comes across really badly. It looks like your data is poor or you haven’t taken the time to set up the email campaign correctly.
Also - not Testing your email is asking for trouble. My motto is Test, Test and Test again. You can tell when an email has not been testing when you can spot errors, typos and grammatical mistakes. You would then avoid many of the other mistakes above by testing all links, return emails are working etc.
Thanks for the comment Ruth, and for adding some other mistakes that I missed, you are completely right.
Many thanks for sharing your insight with us.
One point I’d like to raise; you say “Don’t let these avoidable mistakes make you loose sales or decrease your reputation.”
I do not doubt you know your subject, but it would be good to follow your own advice and make sure you proof-read and check the copy for grammar and spelling before posting… first impressions count and you weaken your reputation with basic errors such as these.
We are communicators and presenting ourselves as experts within the industry, so let’s make sure we do it correctly as well as effectively. As Ruth says above; “Test, Test and Test again”.
Mitchell, thanks for the comment and for the warning about my spelling. You are completely right!
Hi, good post , I share thats points of view. Really , actually, nobody thinks in email advertise.
thanks, by your post.
Hello,
Some solid points, thanks… I worked for Constant Contact for a few years and have experience helping small businesses with their email marketing campaigns.
One little mistake I’d like to bring up is timing…
Like many people, I have a smart phone (blackberry). Sometimes my email goes off at 3 and 5am from big companies like Amazon or Overstock! Very annoying and definitely avoidable.
I understand the reasoning for sending out mass emails during off times but I don’t agree with it. Wake me up in the middle of the night and I’m unsubscribing.
Good point on testing! Test everything! From the times emails go out to Subject lines and more.. segment the list and test different Subject lines against the open rate. The subject line is the first thing your subscriber sees/reads…
Best regards,
AJ
Thanks for sharing your insight with us AJ. I would say that timing is not a little mistake. It is another thing that email marketers should care about a lot.
You’re right Jose! Timing is a very important aspect of email marketing..