Even the most experienced email marketers make mistakes—sometimes time and again. This article discusses five such mistakes and offers tips so you don't sacrifice your emails to the junk folder.
1. Leaving the Subject Line for Last
You spend all that time perfecting the creative, the message, the positioning, copy, offer, content, disclaimer, targeting of the audience, and you're getting ready to launch. Wait... that's right, you still need a subject line! Hurry, just use the email header! This mistake happens more than you would think. Suddenly, the subject line becomes an afterthought.
Remember, if the subject line does not catch your subscribers' eye, the rest of the email will be irrelevant, regardless of how awesome it is, because it won't be opened; that's why the subject line is often referred to as the gatekeeper.
Tip: Begin your subject line strategy from the start so that you have time to research past performance; also, email it to your inbox and your co-workers' for input, to help further tweak it and perfect it. Take the time to create a subject line that YOU would open based on those previous steps and on subject line best-practices. Then, continually test to see what resonates with your specific audience.
2. Mailing Irrelevant Content
Emailing content that serves the agenda of the company but doesn't take into account what the recipient would find valuable seems like an obvious hazard. However, with immediate goals looming and marketing initiatives that need supporting, this mistake can easily become reality.
If you want to keep subscribers engaged, you need to create a consistently positive experience for them, and a big part of that is tailoring the content to meet their needs and interests. Otherwise, you will eventually have an inactive audience on your hands. And keep in mind that re-engagement campaigns require more resources—and, though essential, they are generally not as effective as a strong retention strategy to begin with.
Tip: You can achieve content relevance by sending tailored content to strategically segmented audiences, created based on actions taken by the recipient. For example: opens, clicks, purchases, and sign-ups are a few common actions that are used to create segments. Creative (including copy) can be further positioned to speak to these delineated audiences. Out of all the optimization available in email marketing, segmentation, if done correctly, provides the notable metric lifts companies are looking for.
3. Expecting New Creative to Immediately Lift Metrics
Although changes in creative (including template updates) can improve user experience and strengthen your brand, do not expect an immediate lift in metrics. In fact, you might even prepare for an initial drop.
Humans are creatures of habit, and new creative, although greatly improved, does not always translate to increased response, at least not initially. Do not let that fact dissuade you from updating your creative, but do keep in mind key features of the creative that can provide an improvement to metrics, such as the placement of the CTA and number of products offered, to name a couple.