If you're struggling to connect with your target audience online, your business may benefit from an email marketing strategy. Already trying email marketing, but with little success? Improve your strategy by avoiding the biggest email marketing mistakes! Email marketing is still a thriving marketing channel that brings direct results in terms of conversion rates and ROI, especially during these times of pandemic.
With email, you can deliver your latest content, news updates, sales information, coupons and more all to your audience's inbox. This is what makes email marketing more direct and targeted towards your most engaged customers, compared to social media marketing that seeks to engage your current audience and also expand it. Both channels have their benefits and are most effective when used in conjunction with each other, but today we're taking a closer look at how to improve your email marketing strategy. More specifically we're covering three important email marketing mistakes to avoid: not letting your recipients contact you, spamming your audience with emails, and not following the legal rules of marketing emails.
#1 - Not Letting Your Recipients Contact You
While email marketing campaigns can be effective, consumer inboxes are already inundated with endless marketing emails from businesses big and small. Recipients simply won't bother opening an email if they can't immediately tell the sender's name . This doesn't mean you should list a personal email address as the sender of your marketing emails, but the email address listed as the sender of your campaign should be an email address that represents your business. To put it more simply - don't use [email protected] or [email protected].
Using "No-reply" or "DoNotReply" will put your audience off for many reasons. First, recipients will not see the email as trustworthy. Consumers have become more conscious about computer security, meaning they aren't likely to open an email if they don't believe it's from a legitimate source. Additionally, using generic and non-responsive email addresses lacks the personalization that audiences want to see from businesses today. Finally - and most important - consumers want to know how to contact the sender of your email campaign and your business if they have any questions or feedback.
Sending marketing emails without the ability for recipients to respond or contact your business makes it appear to your customers that your business doesn't prioritize customer service and customer relationships.
The solution to this email marketing mistake is to send emails from a recognizable name (either an individual with your business email domain address, or from a clear company email address) and to also include other contact information in your email itself, such as a phone number, social media links or your address.
#2 -Spamming Emails
Email marketing can give you great results, but you should never overdo it. By that, we mean sending too many emails to your customers. Overwhelming your audience with constant email campaigns is a fast track to recipients unsubscribing and potentially filing your company's marketing email address as spam.
Think about your own personal email inbox. You likely receive tens if not more than a hundred emails per day, leading to thousands over the course of a year - and your customers are the same way. It's important to keep your audience engaged with email campaigns on a routine basis, but too many emails risk losing all engagement and being labeled as spam.
Your campaigns and newsletters should add value to your customers, and they should look forward to receiving your emails. However, if you start sending too many messages in a short timeframe, your messages lose relevance. It's important to remember that when people sign up to receive your emails, it means they have some amount of interest in your content. Give them a breather, and try not to annoy them.
In an ideal world, the same customers would be frequently making purchases from your business. The reality, on the other hand, is that purchasing for individual customers is less frequent. Pushing more emails on your customers will only make them want to do business with you less, rather than more. Therefore, it's best to keep your marketing emails down to once a week on average.
If you want to give your customers the option of receiving more frequent emails, you can allow users to provide their preference with a checklist or poll when signing up for your email list. Then, you can send more targeted emails through a process called segmentation. This way, only the consumers who opt in to get more emails will receive them.
#3 - Not Following the Rules for Sending Emails
Not only can you further annoy customers, but you can also get in legal trouble by not following the rules when it comes to sending marketing emails. While businesses in the United States follow the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in regards to commercial email standards, businesses in the UK will need to follow the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws and guidelines in effect from the EU since May 2018. Our blog post, " Optimizing Email Marketing for GDPR Compliance ," covers the basics of what UK businesses and organizations need to know about the legal side of email marketing. Two of the most important aspects of GDPR compliance for email marketing are (1) only sending emails to users who you have recorded permission to email and (2) providing clear opt-out or unsubscribe options for your emails.
Email Marketing Made Easy
These three email marketing mistakes to avoid are only the beginning of what makes an effective email marketing strategy. If you're looking to improve your current strategy or implement email marketing for the first time, Virtual Stacks Systems UK can help! As a full-service digital marketing agency, our content and digital marketing experts have the skill and industry expertise to deliver effective email marketing campaigns to your consumers. We invite you to learn more about our email marketing services , including one-off campaigns and ongoing email strategy, and to to get started!
