5 common errors business make with email marketing
Email marketing is crucial for the success of any business, but is it always effective? The answer is a resounding “no.” Email marketing is only effective when it’s implemented and executed correctly. With the right techniques, email marketing is a powerful and cost-efficient solution with one of the highest returns on investment (ROI). Here are some of the most common errors businesses make:
Salesy” Emails (a.k.a. Spam)
There’s a fine line between a great sales pitch and spam; make sure you don’t cross it. If a reader sees a spammy subject line, they won’t open the email. Worse yet, your emails may actually be hitting the reader’s “spam” folder, so no one even sees it. If you want your emails to be effective, you’ll have to cut out the spammy content. If you want your readers to stay interested, you’ll need to provide valuable content that they actually want to read – not a spammy sales pitch.
Timing
How often are you emailing your readers? Do you have a schedule? Timing can make or break your campaign. If you’re emailing too often, readers will unsubscribe or delete your emails. If you’re not emailing enough, they’ll forget you exist. So, what is the sweet spot? It differs for each company. You may need to test a few different emailing schedules, checking your analytics to see which works best. As a general rule of thumb, though, one email per month is too little, and more than three emails per week is too much.
Strategy
Your marketing strategy is the bread and butter of your email campaign. This outline should have clearly defined goals, based on views, conversions or traffic. You should review your analytics regularly to make sure you’re staying on track. If you don’t have a written email marketing strategy, that should be your next step.
Weak CTA
If your emails are opened but your click-through rate is still low, the problem may be your call-to-action (CTA). A strong CTA is essential; in fact, it may be the most important part of your email. It should be motivating and persuasive so readers want to click the link.
Impatience
Sometimes, an email campaign is working, but the business thinks it should be working faster. Remember that your emails won’t drastically increase traffic or sales in the short-term; email marketing is a long-term strategy. You may not see significant results right away, but they should come eventually.
If you aren’t seeing the results you want, there’s a good chance that one of these common mistakes is the problem. If you want better results from email marketing, it may be time to take some action.
