While it may seem that everyone in the world is on social media, even more have email addresses, and even more of these people will check their emails more than their social media feeds. Email marketing is a great way to advertise your business, get out news about new products or events that you may be hosting, and promote engagement with your customers. However, there are a few mistakes you can make that will make your life harder instead of easier. Doing these things can result in a high spam rate, few clicks, disengagement (including unsubscribing), and more.
- Sending your campaign from a “donotreply@whatever.com” address. This automatically turns people off because they realize it is a marketing email and that it is sent from an address that they cannot respond to. This is IF it even makes it to their inbox as opposed to their spam folder! In fact, many people will not even open an email that is sent from a do-not-reply domain. Consider instead using a domain that is just for your email marketing campaigns.
- Not having a clear point to your email. Without a definitive call to action — “Call us today to learn more about our fall workshops!”, “Click here to contact us and get one month free!” — your marketing does not have an action for you to benefit from. Make the call to action easy to find. If it is hidden on the side of your message or not in a font or with an image that would make it stand out, it is likely to be missed. Many of your readers are glancing over the email rather than reading it word for word, and putting your call to action in a visible place and making it stand out from the rest of your message will increase the likelihood that clients will see it and click.
- Using too many images. While it isn’t bad to have an image centered in your message, using too many turns your readers off — especially if they are reading from a device where they have images turned off. Additionally, too many images can make your message look unprofessional, and if they are unrelated to what you are doing, can even make people unsubscribe.