Email marketing has grown to become one of the most powerful direct marketing methods available today. According to a recent study, email marketing earned about $45 for every dollar spent on it. With such a high ROI (return on investment), it’s clear that when leveraged properly, email marketing can get huge results for little investment.
Of course, to get those results, you have to build your email marketing campaign correctly. And achieving this starts with avoiding these common email marketing mistakes.
- Emailing far too often—It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf. If you send an email every other day about “Huge One-Time Only Deals”, your subscribers will soon stop paying attention to your messages. Why would they feel compelled to act when they know you’ll be having another big sale in just a few days? Additionally, sending too many emails can start to get annoying to your subscribers, leading to a high unsubscribe rate.
- Not emailing enough—Of course, just as bad as emailing too often is not emailing often enough. I’ve received emails from companies that I’d completely forgotten I’d signed up for because they hadn’t contacted me in months. You never want your customers to forget about you. At minimum, you should be sending them a newsletter once a month, but it’s better to touch base a little more often if possible.
- Buying an email list—Buying your email list is a bad idea for 2 main reasons:
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- It makes you look like a spammer. In order to put someone on your email list, you need to have their permission. This requires them opting in to join your email list. Buying a list can cause you to be seen as a spammer, and that can lead to serious trouble.
- It’s not targeted. No mailing list will ever be as targeted as one you build yourself. When you build your own email list, you know that everyone who subscribes to it is truly interested in receiving your offers and newsletters.
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- Not focusing on the subject line—The subject line is the most important part of your message. If it isn’t a strong, benefit-driven subject line, your subscribers won’t be motivated enough to open the email. But that’s not the only reason your subject line is important. Remember, your email needs to clear spam filters. If your subject line sends up any spammy red flags, it won’t get delivered to subscribers.
- Not integrating email with social media—Here’s a stat to consider: 20% of Facebook, and Twitter users have posted or shared something from permission email to their social account(s) via a “share” option. – Merkle , “View from the Social Inbox”. Social media is a fast-growing marketing tool you can use to spread your message far and wide. When combined with email marketing, social media can create a viral effect, increasing your brand awareness and getting you more conversions.
- Making it difficult to sign up for your list—Someone should be able to sign up for your email list in just a few seconds. Don’t make them jump through hoops or offer up a bunch of unnecessary information just to become an email subscriber. Make subscribing to your email list as simple as you possibly can.
Consider enlisting the assistance of a marketing and advertising professional.
Does your business use email marketing? Why or why not?