With the rise of this new world of technology, marketers have limitless options to gather new leads on the Internet while still paying attention to customer retention. 

And email marketing is one way this can be done. Yet, poor email campaigns leave a poor impact on reputations and raise the possibility of getting sent straight to the spam folder. 

For this article, we’ve prepared 9 email marketing mistakes that most marketers have committed in the past few years and tips to avoid them in the future.

But first, let’s introduce you to email marketing as a whole. 

What is email marketing? 

Email marketing is a form of marketing used by certain businesses to maintain contact with their customers through email lists in order to keep them up to date with all new news, services, discounts, and products. 

It can also be used to keep your customers engaged and aware of your brand’s value.

For these reasons, email marketing is considered a very powerful marketing channel. It’s a staple in the world of digital marketing. It can play a major part in your marketing strategy. Especially through brand awareness, keeping customers engaged between purchases, lead generation, and building relationships. 

Not only is email marketing cost-effective, but it’s also the best way to reach out to your audience. Because email, unlike anything else, would just be sitting there in your inbox until you decide to do something about it (deleted, archived, read, etc).

Surely, as a day-to-day Internet user, you would receive tens if not hundreds of these emails on a daily basis. Some of them are from your favourite brands, others not so much. However, brands don’t rule email marketing; good emails do.

And in order to help you create good emails, we will go through some of the mistakes that you should avoid.

9 email marketing mistakes

1. Messing up links

One of the worst things that could happen to you as a marketer is sending out a beautifully written and outlined email only to realise that the links attached are broken or wrong, or better yet, non-existent. 

Making such a mistake can be times worse in situations when the link is in the email for the audience to engage with it (vote, form, download, etc.).

It’s preferred in these situations to instantly delete the email with the “linking” mistake and send out a correct one instead.  

2. Email marketing mistakes: Poor subject lines 

The subject line is the first thing that catches the receiver’s eyes. That’s why it’s very important for it to be very precise and concise.

The reason subject lines are so important is receivers get tens or even hundreds of emails per day, which makes it difficult to go over all of them. So, many of them just skim through the subject lines in hopes of finding something interesting. 

Still, a good email subject does not equal a hyped-up email subject, and readers would often mark those as spam. If not, it would just make them roll their eyes and dismiss the email. 

3. Personalisation fails 

Personalisation refers to producing emails that are tailored to the information of each individual client or prospect. And making a mistake when personalising your email would certainly leave the wrong impression on them. 

Such errors can be as simple as not replacing the name space with an actual name. Associating an ID with any links or space provided in the email is quite important and can be detrimental.

4. Not taking advantage of message previews

Most email software includes a preview feature that introduces the receiver to the topics discussed in the material. This helps readers determine if the article is worth the while or not. 

Don’t mistake this for a subject line, as the latter works to grab your readers’ attention, while a preview is to help them figure out if they want to continue reading further or not. 

It’s important to always keep in mind that the first lines are the ones that would sell your product. The rest of the email is irrelevant if not read. 

5. Allowing no replies 

It’s safe to assume that no one likes to receive an email that ends with Do Not Reply. Limiting your reader and not allowing them to reply or ask any sort of questions will do nothing but stir them away from your product or service. They will be seeking out other businesses that will provide them with the freedom to express themselves, one that you have eliminated in your email. 

So, it goes without saying that anonymous emails will not get you going in the market. Always make space for them to reach out and keep in touch with you. If the requests and questions get overwhelming, you could simply just link them to a page where they can leave their comments and questions to be answered later on. 

6. Email marketing mistakes: Display issues 

Unfortunately, one of the most common email marketing mistakes is that marketers tend to forget about mobile users. 

Almost 47 % of people across many demographics prefer checking their emails using a mobile application. That is a great number to consider, so it’s important to optimise your emails for mobile users. 

So make sure to always check your emails on a mobile application or browser. All recipients must be kept in mind. 

7. Rubbing off the wrong way 

Many email recipients tend to avoid opening shady emails. And by shady, we mean emails that could potentially be a phishing scam. 

There is, of course, a good reason for that, as many people have already fallen prey to such scams. If not, they must’ve read about it somewhere on the Internet. Therefore, everyone is always aware of this. 

If your company frequently uses shady messages, it will permanently stain its online marketing reputation. To avoid the issue, use fewer hyperboles in your emails and always maintain a professional tone. 

8. Using too many graphics and stock photos 

Readers are often not interested in almost exclusively graphics email content. Marketers are falling under the false belief that their correspondence will somehow appear relevant with image-heavy content when in reality, that’s the furthest thing from the truth. 

Though there is no denying that the appropriate amount and usage of charts and graphics can raise conversion rates and add some creativity to your content, you mustn’t overdo it. 

9.  Email marketing mistakes: Typos

Managing a successful business that provides excellent services or products and still having typos in your email just doesn’t work together. 

There is nothing that turns clients away from your content more than a badly written email. It gives them the impression that your company is not serious or professional enough to bother with what they’re sending out. That’s why it’s very important to go through the correspondence more than once to check for spelling errors.  

How to avoid email marketing mistakes

Mistakes are normal, but the recurrence of them is not, so we’ve included some tips to help you avoid falling into these errors ever again. 

1.  Proofreading more than once 

Checking your email over and over again is your best tool to build a satisfying piece of marketing material. You must check everything before ever considering pressing the send button. Here are some proofreading tips:

• A spell check is a must to make sure there are no grammar or spelling mistakes. You can use programmes like Grammarly for this
• Revisiting your email on a mobile device to have different perspectives
• Use the help of a co-worker or someone outside the marketing team to proofread for you. For example, they check the links for you

2. Setting aside a decent amount of time for the email creation 

With a good amount of time, it’s less likely that you’ll make the simplest mistakes. 

A minimum of 30 minutes window is perfect for making any last-minute edits on the email if needed. Only send out the material once you’ve made sure everything is checked. 

3. Creating a checklist

Creating some sort of checklist will definitely make your job much easier and smoother. It can be set step-by-step, and you’ll have to make sure it is completed before sending out any email to a list.

It’s preferable that the person who completes the list is other than the person who created the email itself, as it is easier to notice someone else’s errors than to notice your own mistakes. 

4. Sending plain-text emails

To avoid any complications, replace the built-in templates with simpler plain text.

Your priority here is to reach your audience, so it’s not in your favour to take the risk and send out a website looking email that could potentially not display on your subscribers’ screens. 

Do you want to avoid those mistakes? Get in touch today!

The above mistakes are not as uncommon as you think, so you might find yourself making them as a novice email marketer. If you want your email marketing experience to be as smooth as possible, book a discovery call with us today.

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