Despite the popularity of social media as a leading
marketing tool, the world of email marketing is still alive and well. With is
its success of reeling in new customers 40 times more efficiently than
platforms like Facebook and Twitter, email marketing continues to prove its
success and reliability in an ever expanding market. Still, plenty of marketers
are still struggling to tap into the potential of email marketing. Forty
percent, in fact, report their failure to obtain positive ROIs. They’re
diligently composing their messages and formatting designs only to find later
that they’re receiving bungled results.
If you’re part of the percentage of marketers who have found
their email marketing strategies to be ineffective, there’s good news. You’re
just not doing it right. To overhaul your efforts, consider the top mistakes
that are likely compromising your email campaign:
Mistake #1: You Didn’t Get Permission
At some point, you’ve likely been on the receiving end of a
non-permitted email marketing campaign yourself. Similarly, you can also
probably understand why nothing will motivate a consumer to clean out their
inbox and start clicking “unsubscribe” buttons to emails. When consumers sense
they’ve been tricked into receiving a flood of emails from marketers, they
typically feel as if their privacy is being invaded upon. More often than not,
they’ll delete your emails, unsubscribe from your list and in worst case
scenarios, report your efforts as spam.
Avoid having your messages blocked or automatically rerouted
to the junk bin of an account by getting permission from your target audience
instead. Start by implementing a binary opt-in protocol that requires
subscribers to request access to your emails and then confirm that they
actually made the request. Research shows double opted-in subscribers have a
75.6% increase in total message opens and an increase of 114% in clicks.
Mistake #2: You’re Collecting Bad Email Addresses
If you’re not validating your lists before clicking the
“send” button, you’re doing your email marketing campaigns all wrong. Tools
like Yesmail or LeadSpend allow you to verify the accounts of your users and
make sure that subscribers haven’t either abandoned or closed their addresses.
Remember, using a reputable email service provider and sending off messages to
bad email addresses can present you with two problems. First, know that if
you’re getting charged by the number of people on your lists you’re essentially
sending money off into a black hole — you’ll never see returns. More
importantly, you risk having your account blacklisted by email providers like
Google and Yahoo, who penalize marketers for sending messages to too many
inactive addresses. Be sure to regularly purge your mailing list to avoid being
tossed into the spam bin.
Mistake #3: You’re Repeating Yourself Too Much
When it comes to email marketing, it’s crucial that
advertisers recognize how essential content is to their efforts. As tempting as
it might be to cut through the clutter of an inbox with an attention-grabbing
subject line that promises “dollar deals”, don’t proceed if you don’t plan to
live up to the hype. Keep in mind that consumers already distrust advertising.
If you’ve managed to gain the trust of your customers enough to obtain their
email address, don’t wreck your ship by taking advantage of that confidence.
The more your consumers feel let down when they open your email and get into
your content, the more they will be pushed into deleting, unsubscribing or
reporting your messages. Always be sure to deliver what you say in your subject
line. Remember, sacrificing the integrity of your brand is never worth a few
clicks.
Mistake #4: You Aren’t Personalizing Your Messages
Consider how many times you’ve opened up an email to find
your name in a conspicuously different font or color than the rest of the text,
or read something like “Hello, there.” As a marketer, you’ve likely seen right
through these tactics, but know that you aren’t the only one. Today’s marketing
world is striving to deliver more customized experiences to consumers in an
attempt to produce higher results. Unfortunately, most are still hitting bumps
along the way and dissuading customers who are quick to pick up on attempts to
draw them into a product purchase. Of course, it’s not always possible to get
things so personal as personalization right, but it is crucial to make
consumers feel unique as much and as accurately as possible.
The next time you draft an email for your audience that
promises a selection of your products “picked out just for them in mind”, be
sure to dot your I’s and cross your T’s. Improve the effectiveness of your
campaign by tweaking your messages so that they appear as natural and distinctive
as possible.
Article From: customerthink.com
