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The Common Pitfalls with Email Marketing

As a business owner who needs to develop quality marketing campaigns, email marketing remains one of the most sound choices. That’s because this communication channel is ideal for engagement, developing relationships and gaining leads to convert.

The best part about email marketing is it’s a cost-effective way to build an audience. Plus, it gives you greater returns on investment than other marketing forms.

According to Constant Contact, email marketing gives you $45 in return for every dollar you spend on campaigns.

While email marketing works well for many entrepreneurs, others will say their campaigns have flopped many times. Email campaigns can fail for various reasons, so let’s uncover the most common pitfalls with email marketing and how to fix them.

1. Sending Emails Too Frequently

When investing in email marketing, you’re likely to send scheduled messages you structured to your liking. Yet as your campaigns take off, sending more to maintain engagement and traffic can be tempting.

However, this is one of the many common email marketing pitfalls. Sending emails too frequently can make it challenging for customers to keep up with if it becomes a daily occurrence.

Unfortunately, customers can start unsubscribing because of this reason. It’s known as email burnout. Too many emails can also be the reason customers flag your brand as spam.

Even if this isn’t the case, your subscribers may become disengaged and ignore your messages.

Increasing your email frequency or sending an extra email every once in a while is okay. However, ensure you watch your metrics to learn whether your customers don’t want to hear from you daily or multiple times each day.

2. Content Is Too Sales-ey

Like most entrepreneurs, the primary goal of email marketing is typically to increase sales or website traffic. However, you still have to foster a relationship with your subscribers.

When every email tries to sell a product, your customers become turned off and eventually disengage.

Instead, find a good balance between selling and offering helpful content. Then when it comes time to sell, it helps to nurture your audience with a drip campaign.

Dripping is a strategic way of sending information to create demand or FOMO – fear of missing out.

Yet when you’re not selling, sharing tips and helpful ideas allows you to engage with your audience. Doing this will position you in your industry as an expert and help you gain your customers’ trust.

In turn, you will increase your open and conversion rates.

3. Sending Campaigns at the Wrong Time

Some experts will say that noon is the best time to send an email. Others will tell you the best time is to send during the midweek.

But because these are the “best times” to send an email per industry standards, that doesn’t mean they will work for you.

Instead, it’s worth testing to see which times and days work best for you. Experimenting with this is good practice since you can find out what makes sense for your target audience.

For example, your audience could be interested in learning about the latest trends in the business world. Therefore, they might enjoy reading your content early in the morning before they get their day started.

Either way, it’s good to ascertain when your subscribers like to open your emails. Avoid sending them at odd hours since they can get lost in a crowded inbox.

Remember, timing will always be an important factor in email campaigns.

4. Unclear Calls to Action

In the end, your emails have a purpose. Whether you want customers to read a blog post you shared, purchase a product or follow you on social media, you should always have a CTA (call-to-action).

Being clear about what action you want customers to take is crucial. Otherwise, the messages you send only take up space in their inbox.

Before sending an email, deciding what you want the recipient to accomplish is best. Next, you can draw their attention to a CTA button that must be bold enough for them to see.

When you enable them to take action, it also helps to keep it simple by limiting as many clicks as possible.

Ensure you avoid including too many CTAs. Doing this often confuses email recipients and prevents them from taking action.

Or they could be taking action. However, you’re spreading yourself too thin with various funnels.

5. Lacking Personalization

Personalization is a crucial part of email marketing. You might think of it as a buzzword. However, it’s one of the main drivers of email campaign success.

In fact, 62% of survey respondents are willing to share their email to receive personalized offers. These statistics show that consumers expect you to tailor their content to their unique preferences.

Ensure you personalize your content by starting with the subject line. You could use the subscriber’s first name or create something intriguing based on their interests.

The more you understand your customers’ demographics, the more highly relevant your emails will be to them.

Another way you can create personalized content is by recommending products based on their behavior on your website. For instance, if they have a cart open but haven’t finalized their purchase, you can send a cart abandonment email.

This type of email informs them that their items are still available.

On the other hand – if customers have purchased a product – you can recommend more products based on the recently purchased items.

Take this as an opportunity to increase customer loyalty and consider offering discounts, rewards points or special perks. Ensure you segment your customers based on their demographic and behavioral characteristics to deliver valuable, personalized content to customers.

Optimize Your Email Campaigns for Best Results

Fixing these common email marketing pitfalls doesn’t have to be a challenge. Most of these you can adjust with a few quick changes to your email marketing strategy. The only information you need is to know what your customers want. (And if you want some short and sweet video course how-to’s, join TFM and access their entire learning library!)

Ensure you’re monitoring your analytics and testing your campaigns for good measure. Testing and optimizing your campaign strategy will help you avoid these pitfalls and guarantee better results in the long run.

Eleanor Hecks is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine. She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience and user interface. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and Lucy. Connect with her about marketing, design and/or tea on LinkedIn!