In the last year, researchers have discovered (through data research) that the average person receives 400-plus commercial emails each month. Commercial emails refer to emails from businesses selling products and services. With this high number of emails, it is no surprise that most of these promotional emails are simply discarded. This means that the message(s) of the email(s) is not breaking through the noise competing for a recipient’s attention.
Experts suggest that for every dollar companies spend on email campaigns, the return on investment is an average of $44. This number is not surprising since efficient emailing cannot only be highly targeted, but is very inexpensive. However, it doesn’t matter how inexpensive your email marketing campaign is, if your emails are not breaking through, it is still wasted money.
Here are 10 mistakes that companies can make when using an email campaign.
- Sending solely promotional emails with little regard for educating or providing value to your readers. Such emails fail to build trust, form relationships or establish your brand amongst your potential clientele.
- Using a quality email delivery service. Quality email service cost money; therefore, purchasing one will cut into your profit margin.
- Making emails reminiscent of school days. This can be emails where you use an excessive word count. This can mean including everything you want to say versus simply piquing consumer interest into visiting your site
- Ignoring the open and click-through data, which indicates the information your readers are interested
- Designing your email for desktop viewership only and not optimizing your campaign to view easily on a tablet or mobile phone
- Littering your emails with too many links. This practice will trigger most spam filters, but even if your email does make it through, your recipients will most likely view the message as spam anyway and delete it before giving it a chance
- Taking an “ask for forgiveness” versus “ask for permission” approach when adding people to a database for an email campaign
- Using a boring subject line or overly promotional subject can get your email deleted before the reader gives the information a chance
- Emailing solely stock content that is provided by vendors or partners without customizing the content to suit your needs
- Sending the same email campaign more than once a day or sending the campaign every time you need of an outlet
Being guilty of any of these can affect the effectiveness of your email campaign. Making subtle changes cannot only make your campaign more successful, but also can lead to an increase in clients.
