The 5 Biggest Email Marketing Mistakes Companies Make

As they say, “It takes money to make money.” That’s true for marketing in general, but email marketing has the advantage of having one of the lowest costs of any marketing strategy. Despite its low price tag, email marketing has huge revenue potential if you know how to use it. The problem is that too many companies don’t realize how much of an art and a science there is to planning, writing, designing, and sending out effective marketing emails. Our pros at McCauley Marketing Services have spotted a few key mistakes that derail companies’ email marketing strategies far too often.

Not Taking the Subject Seriously

Your customers sign up for one mailing list to get a coupon, another to get free shipping, and another to get exclusive or educational content, all on a regular basis. They end up receiving hundreds of emails per day, and it’s easy for yours to get lost or ignored in the shuffle. Your subject line is the only piece of information they have when they decide whether to open your email or scroll past. Your subject lines should be attention-grabbing while giving readers an idea of what they’ll get from opening the email, like “Exclusive Savings You Won’t Want to Miss.” Avoid dull subjects like “June 2019 Newsletter.”

Keeping Your Emails in Isolation

One of the most essential parts of a strong marketing plan is variety. You need to put several techniques to use at the same time, from social media marketing to search engine optimization. Just as important as having this variety is ensuring that you have a unified message and that you intertwine these various techniques together. This includes your email marketing. For example, share your emails on social media as fresh content. You should also use your emails to add publicity to your other types of marketing content, like your latest blogs and videos. This may sound easy, but there are many factors that will impact your campaigns and a smart strategy will make a big difference in ensuring your success.

Assuming Your Email List Will Build Itself

You could create the most compelling emails in the history of mankind but if there are only seven people on your mailing list, they’ll still bring in minimal revenue. Some companies assume that if they send out great emails, the word will spread, and people will seek them out to sign up. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. You need to make a concerted effort to build your email list. Launch marketing campaigns with email sign-ups as your primary objective. Add an easy and prominent email sign-up form on your website. Offer incentives like discount codes or new content for people who sign up. However, make sure you’re only getting email addresses from people who know what they’re signing up for. If you add people unwillingly they’ll flag your emails as spam, which will make these spam filters more likely to block your emails from going to people who actually want them too.

Failing to Evaluate Your Strategy

Data analysis may not sound like the most thrilling task in the world, but it’s a crucial part of any in-depth marketing campaign as well as an overall strategy, including your email marketing. Emailing services track a wide range of data points like open rates, click-through rates, and more. You should take a look at this data on a regular basis to see what your most successful emails have in common. After all, there is no way to improve your strategy if you don’t know what is working and what isn’t.

Neglecting the Call to Action

This is both one of the easiest things you can do to make your emails more effective and one of the most frequently forgotten steps: adding a call-to-action. If you want your customers to take action after reading your email, such as making a purchase or scheduling an appointment, you need to tell them. Include a prominent, eye-catching CTA button that takes them directly to the page where they can take action. For instance, if you want readers to schedule an appointment, your “schedule now” button should go directly to the contact page on your website, not your general home page.

Email marketing has powerful potential to make your events, campaigns, and overall revenue more successful, but only if you know how to plan a great strategy and execute it well. Avoiding the mistakes above will help, but this is only a small taste of the expertise you need in order to get great results. To put your email marketing in the hands of the professionals, call McCauley Marketing Services to find out how we can help.