5 Email Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Clients
By: Richard Kafie
Tags: Email Copywriting, Email Marketing, Sales Email, Email Conversion, Email Marketing Tips

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

In an era where businesses have to increasingly rely on robust email marketing strategies to gain an edge, missing sight of just a few key details can mean a world of difference. According to German research firm Statista, the estimated global amount of email users in 2019 hovered around 3.9 billion, and is projected to reach a whopping 4.3 billion by 2023. In other words, it’s getting bigger folks. Given this positive trend, well planned and efficient email strategies are, if anything, only destined to become more central to your success. This need not keep you up at night,however, for just a few minor tweaks can result in remarkably positive changes. In this article, we´ll exclusively go over practices you should stay away from, or outrightly stop doing (in case you already stepped in the mud).

Stop Sending So Many Emails

Sometimes, pulling back the brakes a bit can help you regain control and win the race. On occasion, doing less equates to doing more. We all fall prey at times, to the unfortunately common misconception that barraging our customers with ads and sales offers will win them over. But much like an agile acrobat treading a tightrope, we must aim for the almighty balance. One between an ambitious, overly aggressive approach, and an aloof, and unengaged one. You can think of email content like ice cream. “Mind a spoonful?” Sure. “A sunday?” Why not? Try offering a gallon and you´ll quickly stop getting the same response. Even the things we enjoy the most, will, if consumed excessively, make us reach a natural point of aversion. This is exactly what you want to avoid with your clients. Make sure to be consistent in providing quality content without reaching the point of excess.

2. Being Too Impersonal

Imagine you´re at a party, and meet two people, Bill and Jane. Bill addresses you disinterestedly, regularly forgets your name, and comes across as impolite and unconcerned with you. Jane, on the other hand, relates to you with her whole hearted attention, addresses you by name, and seems fascinated by your interests, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. Who would you be more receptive towards?

Making a deliberate effort to know your clients and segment them accordingly, should be a key piece in your email strategy. Customers (people in general really) crave to be understood. By failing to show them your familiarity with their problems and interests, you’re making them think that they’re just not that important to you. So, please, do yourself a favor and throw away all those tasteless, generic drafts devoid of demographic specificity. You shouldn’t address a 15 year old interested in skating the same way you do a cooking-obsessed, 80 year old grandma, and I hope you won´t.

3. Too Many Calls To Action

This one relates to our first point about over-aggressiveness. While providing a clear call to action in your emails is undoubtedly a must, the proverbial principle of moderation must still be abided. If you continuously find yourself flooding your messages with buttons and external links, you can rest assured you’re overdoing it. Not only does such relentless prodding send an energy of desperation, but it also saturates the readers’ attention. In fact, data offered by Steven MacDonald from CRM firm Super Office, seems to corroborate this. The data suggests that the optimal amount of CTA buttons was around 3, anything lower or higher would dip down conversions. Steven writes:

“Our own study found that the average number of call-to-actions within an email marketing campaign is 3.3.

One one hand, you have email campaigns with zero (!) call to actions and on the other, you have campaigns with more than 10.”

As shown above, the magical number seems to be 3.

4. Not Giving a Good First Impression

We’ve all heard that you shouldn’t judge books by their cover, but following this advice in business will rapidly lead you astray. Potential clients are always judging companies by their cover. In a study carried out using eye tracking devices at Missouri University of Science and Technology, researchers found that it takes just two-tenths of a second to form a first impression when visiting a website. Assistant professor Dr. Hong Sheng claims:

“As more people use the Internet to search for information, a user’s first impressions of a website can determine whether that user forms a favorable or unfavorable view of that organization.”

Though this research solely applies to users’ perceptions of websites, it’s safe to assume emails are no different. So ask yourself: “How professional do my emails look? What kind of language am I using to communicate with my customers? Are my emails aesthetically pleasing? ”No matter how great your products and services are, a bad first impression will scare prospective customers away.

5. Not Adapting to Mobile Devices

Unless you´ve been living under a rock for the past 15 years, it should go without saying that people live permanently stuck to their phones. Most of our attention is consumed by the daily avalanche of tweets, instant messages, and (you guessed it) emails we receive. Phones are the ultimate portal to people’s attention, and failing to exploit this avenue can frankly result catastrophic. Statista, reported that at least 50% of all emails are opened on phones, further illustrating their importance to businesses.It would be a shame if your brilliantly crafted newsletters ended up in the digital trash bin at a mere finger swipe. Take the time to ensure that your messages are mobile-friendly and totally compatible with smartphones.