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7 Email Marketing Mistakes You’re Probably Making (& How to Avoid Them)

by Kaitlyn Roberts
5 min read
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Email marketing is a great way to connect with your audience, but only if you do it the right way! While most businesses recognize the importance of email marketing, too many still make mistakes that drive customers away, costing them both time and money. Here are 7 common email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them:

1. Sending your customers too many emails

Some businesses make the mistake of sending too many emails to their customers. Emailing multiple times a week may seem like a good idea to stay in touch with your subscriber list, but the truth is that your audience might start to view these as spam. Email services like Gmail and Outlook filter out emails that come in too frequently, meaning those emails won’t end up being read.

Worse yet, this practice could cause you to lose loyal customers who feel inundated by your marketing efforts. Email marketing is meant to draw in new customers while helping you stay top-of-mind for current customers . Don’t focus solely on building your lists, but also on finding and maintaining real and meaningful relationships with your customers. Remember, email marketing is meant to build up your relationships and usher users through your conversion funnel.

2. Writing About Irrelevant Content

Another common mistake is sending out content that isn’t relevant to your customer’s interests. Email marketing works best when it is personalized and tailored to the interests of each specific person or audience group, so don’t send out generic messages. Emailing only about the business itself will make customers feel like they are being spammed, which can end up hurting your reputation in the long run.

To avoid this mistake, try to think from a customer perspective when crafting your emails. Segment your larger audience into interest and demographic groups to better tailor messages. If you are offering products related to cooking, you can use purchase data to segment users with cooking interests and compose emails about upcoming food festivals in your area, healthy recipes, or fun kitchen gadgets that people may be interested in. Emailing about relevant topics will keep customers happy and engaged with your business!

3. Using cliche or sales heavy language

Are the emails you send out really just one big sales pitch? Email marketing is still about building relationships, so your primary goal should be to offer value.

The best way to do this is by sending helpful content that the customer will find valuable. This could be an educational piece of content, a how-to video, or even just fun facts that are indirectly related to your products. Emailing about things that will keep customers engaged with your brand while also offering value shows off your authority in your space and makes them more likely to actually purchase from you in the future.

4. Writing too little copy

While less is more when it comes to some types of marketing, that’s not the case with email marketing. Including too little copy can quickly turn away subscribers because they won’t feel like they are being engaged or informed.

Your readers are looking for value in your emails, which means you need to provide enough explanation about whatever product or service you are promoting in your email. Emailing too little is the easiest way to create a bored audience and have your readers unsubscribe from your emails.

5. Writing too much copy

It’s easy to see why so many people make this mistake – it’s the complete opposite of writing too little copy! Email marketing works best when you provide enough detail so readers can understand why they should care about what you are offering. However, don’t write a novel in each email because your subscribers won’t have the patience for it. Email marketing is especially important in a fast-paced world where people are constantly bombarded with information, so you need to make your emails short and sweet if you want them to be read.

Our favorite tip here is to make sure you include subheaders in your email so people can scan them quickly. Using what’s called a “skimmable” layout will help you better convey the content of your emails without having to write too much copy!

6. Forgetting your mobile users

It’s 2021, and if you aren’t already, you should be ensuring your email marketing campaigns are mobile-friendly. Email marketing is an important tactic for reaching customers on the go, so if your emails aren’t mobile-friendly, then that likely means you are missing out on quite a few customers.

The best way to check if you are making this mistake is to preview your emails across multiple mobile devices. If your emails aren’t coming out as intended, then you should use a program like MailChimp to quickly edit and test mobile styles in your email campaigns.

7. Not having a clear call to action

Being engaging is important, but you also need to make sure that customers are given every opportunity to do business with you. Email marketing is all about getting your customers excited to engage with your business, so if they can’t easily find how to do this in your email, then what’s the point of sending it?

An easy way to tackle this issue is by including a prominent call to action (CTA) in your email. Everything from promoting a specific product or service, encouraging readers to sign up for an email newsletter, or even just asking them to follow you on social media can help you achieve your goal!

Avoid these mistakes to stay on top of your email marketing game!

Email marketing is one of the most affordable and effective ways to stay in touch with your customers, but only if you do it right. Unfortunately, this powerful tool is still frequently misunderstood by many businesses.

We can assist

Are you ready to begin your next email campaign but still need some assistance? The Workhorse team is here to help you level up your email game whether it’s your first send or you’re looking to improve conversion rates from your growing database. Our seasoned team of marketing professionals can help you create and implement a tailored email strategy to boost your business. To discover what we can do to help you succeed, contact us today!

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