The Integrated Email
By Debra Ellis
About Debra
Email marketing is the most effective way to increase sales, improve service, and keep customers coming back. Getting the most out of email campaigns requires an integrated strategy that crosses channels and motivates people to act. “The Integrated Email” provides realistic solutions and best practices for navigating the land mines of spam filters, short attention spans and increasing competition that marketers face today.
Debra Ellis is a seasoned direct marketer specializing in using integrated strategies to keep customers coming back and buying more. She is the author of several marketing guides and the Multichannel Magic blog. She can be reached via email (below), on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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7 Email Marketing Mistakes Even Seasoned Marketers Make
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Email marketing is so easy that it is tempting to use it as a set-and-forget marketing tool. After all, if the subscriber list is large enough, almost every send will generate revenue. Marketers dealing with constantly changing technology, platforms and channels have little time to commit to a channel that works with minimal effort.
Failure to optimize email marketing strategy and execution affects customer loyalty, sales and costs. Email provides a personal, one-to-one connection between customer and company. It's a shame to lose opportunities to build relationships, increase revenue and reduce expenses by not committing the time and effort required to maximize email effectiveness.
Most of the mistakes made in email marketing have simple fixes with minimal costs. Here are seven common mistakes made by even the most experienced marketers:
1. Treating All Subscribers Alike
People choose to receive your emails for personal reasons. Some are trendsetters who want to see the latest and greatest items. Others are discount shoppers seeking the best deal. Nestled between the two are a variety of personalities looking for specific solutions to their problems. Failing to recognize the different types and create customized marketing messages for them speeds the email fatigue process and reduces sales opportunities.
2. Failing to Capitalize on Contact Opportunities
The email subscription process provides several opportunities to connect with people interested in knowing more about your business and products. Each step should be used to educate, entertain, and enlighten new subscribers. Poorly designed confirmation pages and welcome emails are lost opportunities.
3. Ignoring Deliverability Rules
The problem with this mistake is simple and obvious: Emails that don't reach recipients won't generate responses. Spam is a huge problem. According to a report by Symantec, 75 percent of global emails are spam (pdf). The tools designed to eliminate spam aren't perfect. Encouraging subscribers to whitelist your emails increases deliverability but it doesn't guarantee it. Ensuring that all emails follow deliverability rules improves chances that people will actually receive them.
4. Repeatedly Sending the Same Visual Email
Creating branded templates so that your emails are easily recognized is a good practice. Using the same one repeatedly isn't. You have less than three seconds to capture the recipient's attention before the delete button is pushed. People respond to visual information first. If all of your emails look alike, they trigger an "I've seen that already" response.
5. Presuming Recipients Recognize Icons and Know What You Want Them to Do
Icons are great visual add-ons, but they need a text call to action to encourage people to take the next step. People are trained from an early age to follow instructions. If you want them to connect with you on social platforms, visit your website, call your business, or get directions to your store, tell them. Icons without a call to action are tools for people who already know what they want. Icons with a call to action encourage people to do what you want.
6. Neglecting to Make Emails Mobile Friendly
According to a study by YesMail, over 41 percent of mobile device owners said that they have made either an online or in-store purchase as a direct result of an email promotion they viewed on their device. Are your emails easy to read on the small screen? Do all sections render properly for mobile devices? Some emails show a blank body when viewed on cell phones. Be sure to test your emails on Apple, Android and Blackberry devices to ensure recipients can read them.
7. Expecting HTML Emails to Automatically Convert to Readable Plain Text
The automated conversion tool provided by most email marketing services simply converts HTML to text. It does not make it readable. If your email is filled with links, the text version will look like a page of computer code instead of a message from a company that cares about customers and prospects. Always create HTML and text versions of every email to insure the message is appealing and readable for all recipients.
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