Let me ask you this. When was the last time you opened your email and how many promotional emails you opened?. According to Mailchimp, the average open rate for emails across all the industries analysed was 21.33%. So what is happening to the rest 78.67% mails. Is there any silver lining that is preventing those emails from falling to the open list. This might be because of the following Email Marketing Mistakes which nobody dares to share with you, 

Email Marketing Mistakes

Unclear objective

  • A goal without a plan is just a wish. I know you might have heard this multiple times. Email Marketing is not an exception. What normally Email marketers do is doing their routine tasks of creating and sending emails, but fails to include clear calls to action. This is where it is backfired. Selling too hard leads to audience unsubscribe from your newsletter and offer and even land you in spam list.
  • So decide what you want the recipient to do. Go straight with calls to action. Whether you want them to subscribe to your news letter or to buy your product, make it clear.

Promoting Multiple Products

  • Warren Buffet once said not to test the depth of a river with both feet. He was referring about taking risks in traditional marketing. It is also true in digital marketing. In reality, promoting multiple products in a single Email is not a risk worth taking. It will overwhelm and confuse email recipients and will not serve either of the purpose.
  • Marketo found that Email subject lines with 41 characters across seven words the best approach. This is easier said than done. You can at least aim to make it under 60 characters which will help you stand out in someone’s inbox. If you are asking your subscribers to buy multiple products, sign up for another email list. Make sure to enable the action to be taken in as few clicks as possible.

Forgetting to personalize campaigns

  • The best emails engage the audience. With people receiving dozens of promotional emails every day, tailoring them for the recipients helps you stand out in a crowded inbox. If every email tries to sell your products, your customers are going to become disengaged.
  • The best way forward is to segment your customer base. The tone of your subject line must resonate with your recipients. Make the recipients feel valued and make it their need to open the mail and take the desired action. It can be as simple as including a recipient’s name in the subject line like a personalised greeting.

Not Brainstorming

  • Personally speaking, i hate being too formal and professional. Many industries have shed their practice of being too formal. It might work on the military set up, but not on the creativity front. 
  • 47% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone. So be creative wherever possible. Write short subject lines that are clear and engaging. You can use emojis and use Bold fonts to make it appear interesting to click and open. Make sure to optimise for mobile and tablets to see if the font is big enough, the graphics or video looks good.

Wrong timings

  • Timing is an important aspect of email campaigns. Data from HubSpot suggests that emails sent at 11 a.m. had the highest open rates. Campaign Monitor suggests that Wednesdays and Fridays are the best days to send emails. So sending emails at odd hours or days will get you lost in a crowded inbox. This will reduce open rates and obviously affecting your web traffic conversion rates.
  • Try experimenting with different times to see which time best engages your audience. For example, Morning Brew sends a daily email between 5 or 6 AM that details the latest happenings in the business world. The entire idea is that the news arrive early before the regular newspaper

Neglecting analytics

  • Once in a lifetime, it is better to look back. Emails are not sacrosanct, mistakes can and will happen. So consistently make sure to use analytics to verify that your efforts lead to something. Check the click-through rates, open rate of your email campaigns. So keeping an eye on how many new subscribers you are gaining and how many people unsubscribe is always the best approach.
  • Figure out your emails with the highest open and click-through rates and use that information when crafting future campaigns. 

Overview

Marketing is all about relationship. So make it a relationship worth fighting for. You can do it by effective communication and making the customer feel valued. For this, there is no other tool than Email Marketing. Standing out in a crowded inbox is not as hard as you imagine. Send yourself a test copy of your email and ask yourself if you would open the mail if you were the recipient. Otherwise, you’re just crowding their inbox. 

By taking note of the above mentioned Email Marketing Mistakes, you can effectively make your Email marketing more engaging and converting, You can bolster your position as an industry expert while also gaining the trust of and building a relationship with customers. This will lead to higher open rates and improved conversion rates.