Email marketing is one of the most proven, reliable digital marketing tactics having been in
existence
since the days of the internet. This widespread channel needs to be addressed with a
well-executed
digital marketing strategy.
Effective management of this campaign will give your business the opportunity to use a
channel that
is well known, low cost and far reaching. Below we cover some of the biggest mistakes
companies
make when it comes to managing and executing their email marketing campaigns.
Absence of goals:
It’s true of all digital marketing campaigns that setting proper goals is the essential
first step to
success. Old, legacy campaigns like email marketing are often the least likely to have
specific goals
attached to them.
If your business is keen to acquire more repeat customers, then a goal that contributes to
this
objective may be to send more repeat traffic to the website (with the ultimate goal of
getting them
to convert). In that case, higher email click-through rates from existing customers would
indicate
progress toward the goal.
If you haven’t set clear, measurable goals for your email campaigns, the first step is to
take some
time to reassess and redesign the campaign. Even if you did set goals some time ago, it’s
time to
evaluate whether they’re still relevant and redesign and redraft the email campaign.
Improper list segmentation:
It is likely that the recipient of the email may delete the email without reading it. Sending
bulk emails
will land the email in the spam/junk folder. Hence, list segmentation is one of the most
critical
factors in determining email marketing success.
Increasingly, users expect the marketing messages they receive to be personalized and
relevant to
them. Because of the sophistication of segmentation options, email marketing is one of the
channels
in which the challenge of personalization is most easily accomplished. It’s essential to
spend time
maintaining and optimizing your distribution lists. It would be better if you could design
and write
unique emails for each segment to make it relevant and attractive.
An unstructured distribution schedule:
As with all elements of your email marketing campaigns, distribution times should be tested
and
optimized. Send email because you have something to say and you have reason to believe
it’s a good
moment to say it. Day of the week, time of day, and mailing frequency can all significantly
impact
your ability to capture audience attention. Test each of these variables to ensure you’re
making the
most of every email you send out.
Boring content:
There’s more than enough content on the internet right now. In the Inbox your email is
competing
for attention with work and personal emails, not to mention promotional content from other
brands. That means that in order for your email content to get noticed, the one thing it
absolutely
should be is, interesting. This necessitates creating high quality brand value and
interesting content
that can take a number of different forms depending on the target audience. For a clothing
brand it
might be highlighting a particular trend and offering tips on how to style it. For a B2B
business it
could involve promoting a new case study or original research paper. Email content must be
designed to appeal to users’ needs and interests, and it must be engaging enough to make
them feel
that it deserves their time.
Missing CTAs and mismatched intent:
Every effective email has a call-to-action (CTA). Without it the user has no direction about
what to
do next. To get a user to act, your email needs to tell them exactly what to do. That’s
the job of a
CTA.
So, having a relevant CTA is very important that correctly sets the user expectations. What
do we
mean by setting user expectations? Everything about the email itself, and the CTA in
particular,
should prime the user for what will come next. For example, if the email is promoting a sale
and the
CTA reads “SHOP SALE� but the user is directed to the homepage when clicking on it,
there’s a
mismatch between expectations and outcome. Similarly, if the email promotes a sale but the
CTA
reads “WHAT’S NEW�, you’ve created ambiguity that can be a put-off for the users.
Conclusion:
By correcting a handful of relatively simple mistakes and oversights you can improve your
email
marketing initiatives to generate stronger returns at lower costs.
