Email marketing is one of the most important marketing tactics for businesses both large and small, yet most companies don’t use it correctly. When done right, email marketing can help you attract new customers, engage existing customers, and even reconnect with those no longer doing business with you. When done incorrectly, email marketing wastes money, time and resources, and can negatively impact your marketing efforts overall. Here are a few email marketing mistakes and tips on how to get it right.
In the broadest sense, email marketing uses email to promote a product or services. More specifically, it’s a marketing tactic used to develop relationships with potential customers and/or clients. It’s essentially the same as direct mail except that instead of sending mail through the postal service, messages are sent electronically via email.
While using email for your marketing efforts can be very effective, there are plenty of opportunities along the way to get it wrong. From building a list to follow-up after an email is sent, there are several email marketing mistakes to avoid.
Need more ideas to build your email list? Here are 40.
Email marketing is not a one-message-fits-all effort. Many companies send the exact same message to prospects, current clients and past clients, when those messages should be tailored to three different audiences. More targeted messages get more results. Not segmenting lists to send more targeted email messages is only going to make your email marketing message ineffective.
Email subject lines can make or break your email marketing. Many great emails never get opened because their subject lines are ineffective, boring, or stale. Still, many marketers put little thought into their subject lines, which is a big mistake! The subject line is one of the first things a recipient will see, so it’s essential that yours is the one that stands out and catches their attention. Here are a few suggestions regarding subject lines:
Need ideas on great subject lines? Here are 36 email marketing subject lines to get you started.
There are a few basic email marketing metrics that every small business marketer should know. At the very least, you should know your email marketing open rate, click through rate, and conversion rate. How many people actually opened your email? Of those emails opened, how many people clicked through to your website? Of those, how many people took the desired action you wanted? If you don’t even know these basic metrics, you have no idea if your email marketing efforts are effective or if you’re getting the ROI you hoped for. Savvy small business marketers will dive deeper. Here are 17 email marketing metrics to determine how well your marketing is working.
Many of the “mistakes” highlighted above can be avoided by using an email marketing system like Mailchimp, Vertical Response or Constant Contact. Several email marketing platforms are very inexpensive, and there are even a few free options, yet some small businesses continue to email straight from their own email address. Big mistake! You’re unable to test your emails first, you can’t measure the results, and likely the deliverability is poor. Sending a message in BCC to a large number of recipients is a particularly bad idea. Using that tactic basically makes you a spammer. Don’t be that person!
Email marketing is as powerful as ever! If you’re not using it as part of your small business marketing efforts, it’s time to get on board, but make sure you’re doing it the right way and avoid these typical email marketing mistakes.
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