There’s no doubt email should be on any digital marketer’s arsenal. It helps you communicate with a more targeted audience, plus it gains a return like no other.
The catch is, the average customer will be exposed to at least 120 business emails per day. Not to mention the spam content that comes with that bunch.
This is why more and more emails are left unread each day. And the last thing you want is for your emails to end up gathering dust in a corner.
Don’t let your efforts go to waste. Before you go on a hunt for good email hosting providers, ensure email marketing success by correcting these top seven email mistakes you could be doing.
7 Things NOT to Do When Sending Emails to Customers
1. Ignoring the subject line
You’d be surprised how many email newsletters and special offers are sent with subject lines still reading “Please Edit This Subject”.
This isn’t where we tell you how to write the catchiest, most engaging subject lines (we’ve talked about it in detail here), but they’re often the last thing written and can be easily overlooked.
Your subject line is the first thing your customer will see. What message do you give them if you neglect to change it from the placeholder text?
2. Failing to view your email on multiple platforms
You’ve worked hard creating a great-looking email and checked the subject line. But have you checked how your email displays on other browsers or apps?
How an email displays will vary on your recipient’s device. But there are tools, such as emailonacid, you can use to check how it will look across dozens of email clients.
You’ll be glad you did because if the images aren’t displaying correctly, or your text looks bad, nobody is going to read your content.
3. Having multiple calls of action (or none at all!)
Be clear about the purpose of your email. Is it to direct traffic to a new blogpost? Offer a promo? Promote a new product?
Whatever it is, make the purpose clear by inserting a call-to-action in your emails. Otherwise, your email will go to waste—and there’s no way to measure the success of your campaign or marketing strategy.
On the other hand, placing multiple CTAs within a single email can do just as bad.
If you can’t decide whether to let customers do a review, follow you on social media, or avail your offer, you’re dividing them into three different funnels—instead of doing the one most important action your business needs.
RECOMMENDED: How to Create Irresistible CTAs for Sure Clicks (+ Samples)
4. Forgetting to proofread
When you’re crazy busy running your own business, it’s easy to write an email, finish it up, and send it right away. You may feel like the time you’ve spent writing your email is long enough, you skip re-reading your work.
Proofreading is important. Read the email out loud or get someone else to read it.
A simple mistake, such as a broken link or a misspelling, can speak volumes to your customers. It can suggest you don’t care enough to proofread your emails.
5. Not verifying email addresses
It may seem like an unnecessary step. But by verifying email addresses, you can reduce the number of bounces your emails receive.
It makes sure everyone receiving your email actively signed up for it themselves—and that your customers get the information they need.
If you pay per number of contacts in your database, it’s cost-effective to make sure you don’t have duplicates or invalid email addresses taking up space.
6. Ignoring the right timing
Timing is everything, even in sending emails!
The emails you send at 11 AM may get a different response from your mailing list than those you send at 6 PM.
The truth is, there’s never really a fixed day or time that’s sure to give you higher open or click-through rates. Here’s a hint, though—it all depends on your audience.
Knowing your target audience will let you gauge the days and times they’re likely to read their emails. Understand them better with an excellent tool, such as Google Analytics.
RECOMMENDED: Tracking Your Website’s Performance Through Analytics: A Starter Guide
7. Leaving out an unsubscribe link
Not providing a clear way out for customers, or simply relying on them to ask to be unsubscribed, is bad practice. It could get you blacklisted as spam.
The new GDPR law also requires businesses to allow customers to opt–in and opt–out of their emails.
Don’t miss out on placing an unsubscribe link in your emails. Make sure it is visible and accessible to readers anytime.
Start sending emails today
It’s never too late to correct these common email marketing mistakes. Doing so will not only put your marketing efforts to good use. It’s also bound to give you significant results real soon.
Ready to plan a killer email marketing strategy? Click here.
If you don’t have a custom email yet, get a reliable email hosting plan and show your customers you mean business.
