Get your email where you want it to be: healthy, engaged, and profitable. Here are the top 7 email marketing mistakes to avoid in order to build a lasting empire with reassurance.
I was so excited when I set up the first email campaign and began receiving leads. Eagerly ending out emails twice a week or more at a time. However, I noticed that my open rate was not where I wanted it to be or not being seen at all. After all the hard work, nada...
Yes, email marketing works, but there are still a few things to watch out for to make sure that the email overlords don't take you out of the game (which they do) and turn you into... spam. Dun-dun-dun!
Top 7 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
One: Sending Too Many Email
It can seem exciting and tempting to send emails like drunk text messages, but it will only backfire in the end. Not only will the system kick you to the spam folder, but potential clients could give you the boot too. Yes, you have a business and yes, you have things you want to sell, but where is the connection in that? Someone signed up for your email list, your personal community, and should want to look forward to opening up your emails weekly, but if you come in hot without building a relationship prior, they will see you as a salesperson and not a genuine business owner. Give your audience value and serve - not just sell.
Two: Writing Poor Subject Lines
I want you to think of an email(s) that you personally open, what does the subject say? "Open me?" probably not. Again, this has to do with connecting to your audience, after all, you should know them best. Write great subject lines that are specific to what's inside and not a trick. People are less likely to trust you if you send them an email that says coupon, but indeed it's not.
Three: WRITING IN ALL CAPS + Emojis
Email robots have specific things they look for, ALL CAPS IN EMAILS is one of them. If your subject line is all caps it's an immediate red-flag and you will be sent to the dreaded spam folder. Until you can build a solid relationship with your audience, I would refrain from writing anything in all caps. It's just a good rule of thumb to follow because may also come off as yelling.
Unfortunately, emojis are also a target. yes, it's tempting, but If your subject line just has emojis and zero words, chances are you're flagged before you even hit send.
Four: Lack Of Engagement
Once you have everything set up, how often are you planning on emailing? Once a week? Twice? A good habit is to batch emails monthly to make sure there is always something to go out. If you don't reach out consistently, when it comes time for you to sell your product, people won't really care about what you have to say since you have been MIA. Keep relationship-building with the 80/20 rule. 80 percent serving and 20 percent sales.
Things change frequently, we have seen that these last few months with the global pandemic and civil rights movements, so be sure to stay current and pivot as needed.
Pro Tip: Don't send irrelevant emails even if you have batched them ahead of time, people will lose connection with you if you are unintentional with your words.
Five: List Scrubbing
Know when to scrub your list, we talk more about this in the Email Empire Lab™, but to summarize, know when to delete your leads. Your probably thinking like why? I worked so hard to get them why on earth would I want to delete them? The answer is this - if they aren't engaging with you meaning, not opeing your emails, they are actually hurting your deliverability.
Having 10,000 subscribers and only 30% open emails leads the system to believe that you are spam. Clean up and reevaluate your list monthly if possible. If they still want to continue to hear from you, they know where to find you. Try sending an email to subscribers that haven't open anything from you in a while, if no bite, then it's time to ditch em'.
Six: Imagery Overload
I friggen love a good gif, sometimes pictures just speak louder than words plus hilarious. If you are on my email list you exactly what I mean, I'm guilty of the gifs! However, I don't do it ALL the time, in fact, I refrain from sending more than two a month. Sadly, imagery is also a red-flag to some e-bots, they scan for images and translate as a threat. Try not to bombard copy with pictures. They are nice, but not the end result unless you are a specific business that relates to imagery. Even so, you want to have a call to action as well like "Click here to see my portfolio."
Seven: Transparency
Despite what you have heard, email isn't dead. It's constantly evolving, and so are we as business owners. It's not about writing emails that sound totally professional as if you are applying for a job, it's about making a connection with the person behind the screen. Transparency is key. I write emails based on current events and give my community a chance to respond or even opt-out.
People are not always your tribe and that's perfectly ok. Since COVID I have brought my audience behind the scenes consistently, to take a look at exactly what I have done and continue to do to pivot as a business owner. It's not easy, but it's something that they need to see when times get tough.
I am more than this screen you are reading right now, I encourage my audience to really ask hard questions, to send feedback along with things they like/don't like, or want me to work on. It's about relationship-building, the trust, like, and know factor. Email marketing should not be a sleazy sales tactic, be as transparent as you possibly can with your audience, they will appreciate you more for it ;)!