Common mistakes to avoid for improved email marketing in 2009
Sometimes it’s easier to fix a mistake than to start a new habit. So, here are some common mistakes to avoid and tips for improving your email marketing this year:
Subject lines
Two of the most common mistakes are lengthy subject lines and subject lines with no call to action to encourage the recipient to open the email. Although subject line length depends on the topic and audience (see our subject line length blog post), it is possible for the subject line to be too long, with the most important words getting cut off at the end. This leads to a third common mistake - failing to put the important words first in the subject line. Of course, testing is always the best way to determine the best subject lines for your audience.
Safe sender lists
Are you asking subscribers to add you to their safe sender list at the top of each email? It’s easy to do, and imperative in your welcome email. Our ClickMail CEO recently received an interesting email that went a step further, letting subscribers know the effect of hitting the spam button instead of unsubscribing. It essentially said, “Please don’t affect our deliverability by calling this email spam. Please unsubscribe instead.”
Calls to action
Sadly, we still see emails lacking calls to action. Even worse, we see buried calls to action. Email is interactive; don’t mimic a printed marketing piece by putting the call to action only at the bottom. Use text links and buttons in your emails to drive a response, and make sure your call to action appears at least once above the fold.
HTML email with no text
Another common mistake we see is the marketer sending out emails that are only HTML images. Many of today’s email clients block images by default. Your emails must be designed with image blocking in mind - make sure your call to action and/or message can still be seen if the images are blocked. Using HTML text is a good way to ensure your call to action still stands out. While the overall look may suffer slightly, the performance of the email improves.
Welcome emails
Many email marketers are still behind when it comes to welcome emails, despite proof that they can have a higher open rate than all your other emails. Oftentimes, if a welcome email is being used, it’s boring, dry, and fails to do the four things a welcome email should do: confirm to the recipient that they made a smart decision to subscribe, remind them what they can expect from you, emphasize your brand, and link back to your site.
After reviewing these common mistakes, think about the ones you might be making. Avoid them to improve your email marketing in 2009!
Deliverability tip
Use a consistent, static “From” email address, so when a recipient adds your email address to their address book or safe sender list, you are assured of making it to the inbox. If you send from different addresses, you lose that opportunity.
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