Is Email Marketing Actually Damaging Your Business?

How many people do you know who don’t have an email address? Chances are, the answer is not many. Even if it’s for the single purpose of signing up for social media accounts, almost everyone uses email. This is just one reason why email marketing is a solid choice for businesses trying to get their messages directly in front of their potential customers. Not only that, 39 percent of email users check their email one to three times per day. When correctly done, email newsletters are a highly-effective way to nurture leads, increase customer loyalty and drive traffic to your website.

However, an email campaign isn’t something you can just mindlessly send and forget. If you’re not following email marketing best practices, you could end up losing loyal patrons and potential customers, therefore causing serious damage to your brand. Find out if you’re making any of these email marketing mistakes and discover how to fix them.

You're Only Thinking About the Conversion, Not the Experience

It's easy to get caught up with the goal of increasing conversions, and while this is important, it’s also critical to give your readers a good experience. But what does this mean?

Before you send out your email campaign, ask yourself: Is it something consumers want from you? Yes, they are subscribed to your newsletter, but what kind of experience would they prefer? Remember that an email newsletter that doesn’t lead to a conversion is still an important part of the sales cycle. Today, consumers have the opportunity to interact with your brand many times before converting, and a good experience at every stage is part of the process.

Email Marketing Best Practices: Personalization is Key

In this day and age of sophisticated technology and big data, personalization is the most important part of any communication between your business and the consumer. By personalizing> your emails, your message will stand out in your subscribers’ full inboxes and lead to more qualified leads.

Today, users want their information fast, and they want it to be relevant. If it’s not, they’ll move on to your competitors. If you’re not taking advantage of personalization tactics, you could be losing customers left and right. Here are a few quick, simple things you can do to personalize your email campaigns:

1. Instead of the "noreply" email address, send as an actual person that subscribers can reach out to.
   
   If you're noticing your emails are getting filtered as spam, a "noreply" email address could be the reason. "Noreply" email addresses make users feel like they aren’t important to your business. Your email marketing efforts should open the door to a relationship between you and the consumer. Don’t use this platform as a one-way conversation.

2. Create birthday and anniversary campaigns.
   
   Every business should be sending birthday campaigns or anniversary newsletters to their email lists. This is an easy way to get personalized messages into your subscribers’ inboxes and boost your relationship. Include a coupon code to make the reader feel like this communication is exclusively for them.

3. Send welcome emails.
   
   It’s always a good idea to remind people why they signed up for your list and give them a sneak peek of what’s to come. Consider sending new subscribers an exclusive offer to thank them for signing up.

You’re Sending Irrelevant Emails

Many people think sending too many email newsletters is the problem, but in reality, it’s sending newsletters that are irrelevant to your audience. People love to get emails that interest them, and if you can do that daily, more power to you! Build a relationship, and trust, with your subscribers by only sending information that is applicable to them. 

Email Marketing Best Practices: Segmenting Your Email Subscribers

Almost half of all marketing emails are sent to every subscriber, so if you haven’t segmented your email list yet,  you’re not alone. But now is the time to do it. If you’re sending loyal, long-time customers email newsletters introducing your company, you could be hurting your reputation.

With email marketing, you have the ability to deliver a personalized email to different groups of people, serving up only the most relevant content for each person. By narrowing your focus and sending messages to targeted groups within your lists, your recipients will find your campaigns more valuable, and they’ll be more likely to open the email next time around. According to MailChimp, segmented email marketing campaigns had 14.45 percent more opens and 63.7 percent more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.

Some popular ways to segment your email subscriber list are by:

1. Job title
2. Location
3. Customer type
4. Subscriber activity
5. Signup date

These options allow you to send more detailed information to customers at all stages of the sales cycle. For example, segmenting by signup date can help you identify and send to some of your veteran subscribers. Additionally, it could also allow you to send follow-up campaigns to the newest additions to your subscriber list.

You’re Using an Outdated Email Newsletter Format

Statistics show that 55 percent of all emails are read on a mobile device, and that number is only going to increase. If you’re only formatting your email newsletters for desktop, you could be sending potential customers to the unsubscribe button. It’s important to use analytics to see the devices your visitors are using for email and utilize this information to dictate your email designs.

Email Marketing Best Practices: Tips to Optimize for Mobile

1. Your emails must be responsive and work with many screen sizes.
2. Use a single-column layout to ensure proper display.
3. Text should only be as long as it needs to be.
4. Use safe fonts, such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. Many custom fonts will not display in certain email service providers.
5. Subject lines should be under 30 characters to ensure it does not get cut off.
6. Call-to-action buttons must be large and prominent to easily lead to conversions.

Make Email Marketing Help, Not Hurt Your Business

Email marketing can be a powerful tool to generate leads and build relationships with consumers, but it can be incredibly damaging to your brand if not done correctly. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with email marketing, the digital experts at Blue Compass can help. Contact us today to come up with a plan of action to get your email marketing on the right track.