1. Sending emails from a DONOTREPLY domain
One of the basic mistakes of email marketing is to send a message from a donotreply@ domain. How come? Well, it essentially tells the recipients to avoid any kind of engagement and do nothing about your message.
As your goal is to drive action based on the content of an email, you definitely need to change this awkward habit and replace donotreply@ with something more natural. A personal name is usually the best solution because it makes the message look friendlier and more natural.
2. Being too apologetic
Some marketers try so hard not to disturb the audience that they end up looking too apologetic. Such a tactic will not make you look more pleasant in the eyes of the average subscriber.
On the contrary, it will make you look sleazy and uncertain, so stop pretending you are sorry for sending emails to your subscribers. After all, nobody forced them to subscribe, while you are the one who’s doing a lot of work to craft quality content.
3. Not personalizing messages
Even though you are communicating with hundreds or even thousands of subscribers, you are not supposed to treat them as the faceless group of users. The whole point of digital marketing is to personalize messages, so you better make sure to do it consistently.
Jake Gardner, a digital marketer at the assignment help agency, says modern email marketing platforms will help you to segment the audience: “You can personalize messages by using real names and customizing content based on user’s interest, location, gender, habits, sales funnel position, and so on.”
4. Wrong timing
Do you know when your subscribers are checking email messages? If not, then you are probably sending emails when nobody’s reading. According to the study, the best time to send an email is on Tuesday or Thursday around 8 am. It doesn’t mean, however, that your audience is following the same pattern and you have to identify the perfect timing single-handedly.
5. Using emojis in emails
Emojis are a cool thing - no doubt about that - but they are not designed for business communication. Users expect you to sound and look highly professional, which is why you have to avoid adding emojis to email messages.
You can make an exception only if you are addressing a younger audience group that is used to new features and visual elements. But let’s face it – are you really using email newsletters to reach out to teenagers?
6. Writing long messages
A typical email subscriber is not really crazy about reading online. With so many emails and other types of digital content floating around every day, it’s hard to imagine anyone reading more than a few sentences.
This is exactly why you should go easier with the word count and focus on the most important messages only. If you need an entire page to explain the purpose of your email, you are probably not too certain about it, either.
7. Exclamation marks and all caps
If there is one thing we can guarantee here, it is that people hate exclamation marks and all caps in any digital format. It’s easy to figure out why – such elements make the audiences feel like you are yelling at them. At the same time, exclamation marks and all caps prove that your copy is not good enough to deliver the message, so you have to point out the essence and make it look more important than it really is.
8. Not proofreading
What can we say about grammar and spelling mistakes that you don’t already know? Not proofreading is one of the worst email marketing blunders anyone can make as it threatens to ruin an entire business and years of hard work.
The mistake is particularly awkward in the digital environment because the Internet is flooded with excellent proofreading tools. It takes only a few minutes to scan your text in Grammarly or Hemingway, so don’t be lazy to make use of these platforms before sending a newsletter.
Supercharge Your AWeber Account
Take Your Email Marketing To The Next Level With These Powerful Tools
9. Sending messages too often
Another thing you should keep in mind is that too many emails don’t make your business look better or more attractive. It’s quite the contrary – sending more than one or two emails a week will make you look pushy, boring, and intrusive.
If you are sure that your email message is fine, let it rest for a while and give users enough time to think about the content and react accordingly.
10. Writing vaguely and unclearly
Every email you send must have a clear goal and purpose. You always have to answer one question: What is it that I want to achieve with this message? If you know the answer, writing an actionable piece of content won’t be an issue. Unfortunately, many email marketers do the opposite by writing vaguely and unclearly. That way, they can only chase the audience away and initiate lots of unsubscribe actions.
11. No CTA buttons
This mistake goes hand in hand with the previous one. Namely, vague messages do not contain a clear point and usually come without a call to action (CTA). It’s a huge error as you definitely want subscribers to take action after reading your message.
The solution is evident – always add a CTA button to your copy. It will make the content actionable and help you to achieve whatever your business objective might be at a given point.
12. Using clichés, buzzwords, and heavy language
We understand your desire to build a professional reputation and strengthen authority, but heavy language won’t help you to achieve this goal. We strongly recommend you to avoid clichés, buzzwords, and niche jargon in your emails.
What makes this tip so important? Well, jargon and buzzwords show that you don’t know how to explain your standpoint using normal everyday language. Such a copywriting practice will make you look unconfident and confusing.
13. Not delivering as promised
When users subscribe to your email newsletter, they do it because they expect you to deliver as promised. This means they hope to start receiving high-quality content, so make sure not to disappoint your subscribers.
If you promised to deliver amazing infographics, send them amazing infographics. If you promised high-quality articles, make sure to write them. This is the only way to preserve professional authority and keep growing the follower base.
14. Hiding the unsubscribe link
Your subscribers are not your prisoners. A huge mistake would be to hide the unsubscribe link and generate tons of angry leads. It’s not only a bad business and marketing practice but also a clear sign that you don’t feel confident about the content you are delivering.
It’s a sign that you are afraid of losing subscribers, but don’t let it ruin your image in the eyes of potential customers. Unsubscribe actions are a regular thing, which means you have to allow people to stop following your business in the email newsletter format.
15. Failing to test and analyze email marketing
The last mistake on our list can make your entire email marketing strategy less productive. After all, you cannot improve what you do not measure.
Your job is to analyze email campaigns and learn how subscribers react to each segment of your content creation strategy. The more you learn about it, the better your future messages are going to be.
Conclusion
Too many email marketers make too many mistakes while designing newsletters. You should be smarter than that and learn how to avoid common email marketing blunders. We showed you the top 15 mistakes which could make you sound unconfident in emails. Make sure to remember our tips – it will turn your newsletters into more powerful marketing tools!
Susan Saurel is a full-time digital marketer from Houston, Texas. She works remotely and travels the world in pursuit of meeting new people and learning about new cultures. She shares her innovate marketing ideas and latest techniques with her followers through her blog and podcasts.
Author // Susan Saurel
