When you put serious time and effort into email campaigns for your business, it can be disheartening when results are lackluster. If open rates are poor and emails aren’t driving any clicks or activity on your website, it is time to take a hard look at your email marketing process. We’ve compiled some of the most common email marketing pitfalls to avoid:
Inauthentic voice or clickbait. We’ve all seen clickbait on the web–a sensational article title or e-mail subject line, encouraging us to click. Most times, the article or e-mail is lacking any real substance or quality. Instead, it just aims for people to click and drive revenue. Getting an open or a click-through on your e-mail is only meaningful to your company if the user has genuine interest in your product or service. Clickbait doesn’t serve your sales and marketing goals. All of your e-mail content should be in an authentic voice that is true to your brand and consistent with other marketing communications for your company.
Highly produced HTML e-mails instead of plain-text emails. The debate continues over which type of email is best: HTML or plain text. We suggest making sure your company is using and testing both. E-mail service providers like MailChimp allow you to A/B test different messages and compare metrics like open rate and click-through rate. In certain situations, a short plain text e-mail – rather than a highly designed HTML email – can resonate more with users if the message is clear, concise and compelling.
Passive approach to lead response. Once you send an email, what do you do next? If your answer is, “Wait for someone to respond,” you are stepping right into one of the biggest pitfalls in email marketing. It is essential to take an active approach to email marketing. Use data available to you to monitor who is opening the email and clicking through to your website. Which pages is the user visiting? What information are they seeking? You can use this information to learn more about the user, have a better conversation, and ultimately drive a conversion for your company.
No focus. If you are sending one message to the masses and hoping that it resonates with the right person, your email campaign will fail. It is essential to focus your email to a precise, targeted audience–prospects who have real interest in your products and services and are ready to buy. A focused approach to email marketing will produce the best results for your organization.
The team at Company 119 offers a focused system for your sales and marketing efforts, including email marketing. Give us a call today to learn more about ways you can better reach your target audience.
