Email marketing: mistakes to avoid

 

E-mail marketing remains an effective inbound marketing channel used by most companies. 

According to Statista data, since 2017, emails sent and received globally continue to increase every year. While an estimated 306.4 billion emails were sent and received every day in 2020, this figure is expected to increase to over 376.4 billion daily emails by 2025.

Running an e-mail campaign is an investment. You should not spend valuable time on e-mails that are not opened and read and therefore have no impact. To help you avoid the mistakes many companies make when sending e-mail campaigns, we have identified five very common e-mail marketing mistakes.

 

1. "DoNotReply" sender addresses.

E-mails with a No-reply@ or DoNotReply@ sender are impersonal and block communication. Using a Noreply address tells the user that no one will reply to his e-mail if he asks for further information, thus closing the door to the relationship between the customer and the brand. Sending an e-mail from such an address will lead to a very low open rate. 

The most important motivations for opening an e-mail are still the sender's name and the subject line. Always send e-mails with an address that customers can reply to and that allows them to contact you if they have questions. Make sure that in addition to the address there is a telephone number and links to the company's social channels.

 

2. Incompatible e-mails with mobile devices

The ease with which users can check their emails from a mobile or tablet is not an insignificant factor. According to statistics from Optin Monster, 50 per cent of all e-mails read are opened from a mobile device. But that's not all.

40% of users aged 18 and under use their mobile phones to open their emails and 81% of users in general prefer to use their smartphones. A mobile-friendly email design is more than desirable: it is a must!

Yet there are still many companies, particularly in B2B, that run e-mail campaigns that are not optimised for mobile devices. If your e-mail is not optimised for mobile devices, it is unlikely to be read, regardless of the relevance of the message.

 

3. One standard text for all

In marketing, the message relevance is particularly important. A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Your message must be adapted to the target group in order to be relevant. The keyword here becomes segmentation. 

It is only through segmentation that newsletter content can be made truly relevant. By segmenting lists into different groups and adapting your message to the readers, you can achieve higher click-through rates and greater customer engagement.

How can e-mails be segmented? For instance by location, industry, company size and interests.

 

4. Complicated e-mail messages

A message with a clear call to action requires little thought on the part of readers. Either they respond to your e-mails, or they do not. With a relevant message you will get a response and record more website visits, registrations and sales. But if the e-mail contains more offers, the recipient is led to have to think longer... and the longer a person thinks, the more overwhelmed they are and unlikely to buy a product. 

Simple messages lead to success in email marketing. A clear and relevant message linked to a landing page makes it easier for customers to make a purchase decision.

Attention must also be paid to the preparation of emails: they must be visually appealing, have visible images and above all be error-free.

 

5. Hidden unsubscribe link

Sending e-mails, especially newsletters, without the recipient's consent is a violation of the GDPR. There are also people who subscribe to e-mails but change their minds after a short time. Placing an unsubscribe link so that it is easy to find is mandatory.

Unsubscribing from e-mails must be as simple as possible for your customers. If people no longer want to receive e-mails, the hidden unsubscribe link will not make them suddenly buy your products. Do not hide the unsubscribe link. Respect the unsubscription decision in your e-mails and do not send further e-mail campaigns to that person. Possible administrative sanctions, civil and criminal liability, as well as damage to reputation are the consequences of violating the GDPR.

 

Conclusion

E-mail marketing continues to be a promising strategy and an important channel for communicating with customers. Mistakes in email marketing are annoying, but very often easy to avoid. If you are interested in creating customised email marketing campaigns, we are at your disposal. Contact us now to manage your email campaigns even better!