Avoid the “Unsubscribe”
Small businesses rely on communicating with current and prospective customers through social media, email marketing and even the good old-fashioned phone call. Unfortunately though, email marketing mistakes are all too common, which ends up leading to a high number of recipients either trashing your email before they read it or clicking “unsubscribe” from your newsletter all together. So, before hitting “send” on your next campaign, take a peek at these five common mistakes that can diminish your B2B email marketing effectiveness and learn how to engage customers by avoiding these slip-ups in the future.
1. Forgetting Your Audience
One size does not fit all. If an email marketing campaign is written without the target audience in mind, a valuable connection is lost. Not understanding what makes your target audience tick (find out what keeps them interested) is one of the most common email marketing mistakes small businesses make – and the key to surviving the engagement game. Not sure what keeps them interested? Ask them. Emails should focus on the customer…not your product. Just because you’re selling a service or a product doesn’t mean you need to be pushy. Let your brand’s personality shine through.
Also, keep an eye on what your competitors are doing—who are they targeting? Pull ideas from their campaigns (without copying) to zero in on your audience.
2. Sending a Confusing Message
One of the biggest email marketing mistakes is a lack of focus. An email campaign with too many buttons, too many call-to-actions (CTAs), or one that’s too long, can dilute its effectiveness. In addition to keeping the email focus clear, it should also have a consistent message. Writing headlines is a fine-art; it must be written in a way that baits your customer to open it (keep it under 35 characters), but also one that mirrors the body of the email. If a headline implies one thing and then the email implies another, your business’ trust & brand integrity is destroyed. Your recipients should know and understand what they’ve signed up for and why they’re receiving an email from your company.
Once you strategically orchestrate a creative, focused email, you’ll then have the opportunity to upsell and cross-sell without being pushy.
3. Hitting Send in a Rush
In a rush? You could miss the opportunity to include a strong CTA. Take time to make sure your email is organized, includes a strong, catchy headline that lures them to open the email and contains a CTA. Though it might be tempting to USE ALL CAPS with selling phrases like, “ON SALE NOW!” – these all-caps-catchphrases could be deemed as spam and will never even get to your customer. In fact, spam filters have gotten quite smart; they learn more about what junk mail looks like every time someone clicks the “mark as spam” button and could filter your newsletter before it reaches its destination.
Get your campaign to the inbox, not the junk folder, by avoiding all caps, excessive exclamation points, too many images, and phrases like “free,” “act now,” or “limited time offer.” So, take a deep breath, keep your subject line simple and to the point and then re-read the campaign before hitting send.
4. Ignoring Campaign Reports
If you don’t take the time to measure the results of your campaign, you’ll lose out on a lot of valuable information. Take a look at the insights to analyze performance for improving future campaigns. You’ll find out what day/time has the highest open rate, which call-to-actions generated the most engagement, identify trends, click rates and most importantly, conversions.
5. Forgetting About Mobile
Stats show that more than half of emails are opened on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets; considering this rate, it’s also important to keep your email marketing campaign mobile friendly. Use a responsive template that automatically adjusts to any sized screen and make sure that the website pages you’re linking to are also mobile optimized. Avoid long text that requires endless scrolling and include a touch-friendly CTA button.
Deliver Creative Email Messages
Whether it’s sending monthly e-newsletters to current clients, or nurturing leads with follow-up educational materials, CMDS can help you deploy an effective email marketing strategy. Let us help you start making things happen. Contact us now.