People are social by nature and we set ourselves apart from other animals through the way we communicate and present ourselves.
Similarly your business is unique to other competitors in the way it builds and portrays itself (the brand) to its customers and prospects.
And out of the many channels of communications available, email is the only one where the conversation can be personalised depending on which point of entry the customer chooses to interact with your brand.
Here are some common mistakes that most email marketers make:
1. No welcome email
Almost every subscriber expects some sort of a welcome email when they subscribe to any email list. It is confirmation that they have performed an action and it is reciprocated in a manner in which they expect.
It’s as good as meeting a someone and not greeting that person and not even making yourself known. The first impression is extremely important, but not making the effort to present yourself with the opportunity to make that first impression is equally damaging.
A welcome email, is triggered immediately after a prospect has agreed to exchange time to receive your emails.
2. Not asking for permission.
Don’t assume that your prospects want to receive everything at any time. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. What would you do if you received email from a brand that you do not recognise? Would you continue to subscribe or even purchase? I don’t think you would.
3. Don’t hardsell. It’s as good as saying, “Thanks for joining, the solution costs you RM x.”
A visitor subscribes to your email newsletter hoping that your brand can help solve their problems.
Somtimes email marketers forget this and tend to sell their products under the pretext that it is providing a solution.
4. Not fixing on a sending schedule
Don’t forget the importance of time. Consider when you are sending your readers emails. The likelihood of them not reading your email is high if the majority of your customers are based in Malaysia, but your email is being sent after 12 midnight.
5. No personalisation
This is a very common mistake. Imagine sending out an email to a guy about the latest dress discount your store is having right now.
It doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t add any value to the subscriber.
Always make sure you segment your list before sending out your email, even though it is done through an email service provider.
6. Multiple emails sent together
There are many email marketers that set overlapping automated email lists. While they may contain different messages the subscriber in short gets spammed.
7. Stopping subscribers from leaving
You can’t win over everyone. And sometimes somethings aren’t meant to be. If a subscriber wishes to unsubscribe a marketer should readily offer this.
Not giving subscribers this option might prompt them to report your email as spam to stop receiving emails and this will lower your sender reputation (means the likelihood of your future emails being in spam is higher)
8. Improper punctuations & grammar
Regardless of any business, there is no excuse for poor grammar. Especially punctuations.
The grammar used is a reflection of your image and professionalism.
9. Improper email tone
A spell-checked email copy is useless if it conveys the wrong tone. The prime areas where marketers tend to miss their footing in setting email tone is improper salutation, wrong choice of words or even how they sign off.
10. “Ciao, Mr. Shawn”
Addressing your subscriber with wrong personalization is one of the common mistakes that email marketers tend to commit. The root cause of the error exists in wrong list entry, wrong personalization tag or even the lack of a tag.
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Your email is a reflection of you. Don’t make these mistakes as it will only does the brand’s personality get dented, but you also weaken the relation between you and your subscriber.
Did we forget any other mistakes? Share your views in the comment section below.
Learn how you can integrate email marketing into your business here.
