4 Common Mistakes Businesses Make In Email Marketing

As an email marketing professional, there are several tips and tricks when it comes to deploying successful email marketing campaigns. Typically, there are four mistakes that immediately stick out. Let’s identify these mistakes and explore tactics to make sure your next email marketing campaign is a huge success!

Staring at a blank screen can feel intimidating. Aside from how to write the best copy, which pictures tell the complete story? Starting with the goal is the first step. What are the desired results from sending this email?

Once the goal is identified, everything else is centered around achieving said goal. Next is arguably the most important aspect of the email: The call to action.

Identifying the call to action, often referred to as a CTA, is the “what.” What is it that I am asking the recipient of this email to do? A strong CTA can be as simple as “Click Now” or as bold as “Don’t Wait, Claim Your Offer!”

Time and energy are spent crafting your email campaign. It would be a shame not to:

• Display a simple and clear CTA: tell your recipient what to do and how to do it.
• Have a visible CTA button for readers to easily identify and select.
• Create more than one CTA button positioned in at least two areas of the email, often referred to as the primary and secondary positions.

Another common mistake is failing to have an incentive. Depending on the circumstances, your audience may need a little nudge. A good example of an incentive can be as simple as “receive a $5 gift card” or “get 50% off your next purchase.” A strong incentive is helpful in persuading your audience to participate in the “what” and click the CTA. The higher your email engagement, the higher your conversion rate. Conversion rates, click rates, and open rates are great key performance indicators or KPIs to determine if your email marketing campaign is successful.

All too often, businesses make the huge mistake of forgetting to instill urgency within the email. Urgency accomplishes several objectives that will immediately increase KPIs for your email marketing campaign:

• creates a firm end date
• provokes immediate action
• prevents delayed responses
• decreases the amount of time a client can change their mind
• prompts a quick decision
• increases FOMO or fear of missing out

A few examples of creating urgency within your email are as simple as “Offer Ends Soon” or “Limited Time Offer.” Using words that convey the message that this offer will not last forever, this offer has limited quantity, and this offer is a special discount creates urgency and signals to the recipient of the email that they should act quickly.

Simply put, a value proposition is a clear and concise message to your potential customers that conveys why your offering is worth their time or money. Neglecting to do the following can result in a failed email marketing campaign:

• positioning your offer in a strong, compelling manner
• clearly delivering the message of why your offer is better than the competitors
• quickly demonstrating value
• clearly outlining the benefit

Implementation is the key to crafting successful email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is both an art and a science. Testing different tactics and measuring outcomes is the fastest way to understand how an audience behaves and determine how the audience is most likely to respond. Getting started is easy. Select a small sample size of your audience and conduct a simple A/B test. Be sure to pay close attention to the CTA, incentive, urgency, and value proposition.

Happy creating!