50+ Common Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Marketing through emails is considered one of the strategies which are available in options. It helps in enticing the customer to come back and keep the brand name alive in the mind of customers.

However, there are different mistakes that email marketers make. These can affect the overall campaign and in order to improve the end results, here are the top most common mistakes you should avoid doing in 2021.

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List Of The Common Email Marketing Mistakes

In 2020 and 2021, an email will become a strong marketing channel. Since the pandemic is going on, the brands have increased and incorporated the focus on their emails to keep in touch with the audience and improve their interactions.

Knowing the mistakes to look for in creating professional emails for your company, connecting successfully with customers, and bringing prospectus to future growth.

Here is the list of the email marketing mistakes you should avoid right away.

Purchasing The Email List

Well, one of the fastest ways that can end up getting your email account flagged.

It will analyze your email service but this is a violation of the rules of consent under the General Data Protection Regulation and Canada Anti Spam Legislation.

This also risks annoying your customers who might be potential buyers and it will ruin your reputation too.

Not Listing Your Measurable Goals

Every email marketing campaign which was successful, you are not clear with what you want to accomplish and it will lead to mistakes.

You should have your goals SMART which means specific, measurable, assignable, relevant, and time-based.

Not Having an Outline For Creating The Newsletter

Especially for small business owners that don’t have enough time to invest in the process. But when you have a lack of planning, it will hold up the schedules of others as well.

If you are busy right now, the future will get busier and when you have to send an email, you scramble at the last minute to gather ideas to share with customers.

Creating Email List Without Permission

If someone gave you or your associate a business card, it doesn’t mean that you have the right to sign up with the newsletter.

One of the common mistakes that email marketers make is that they will build an initial email list without having permission first.

Not Having The Understanding Of the Target Audience

Having a clear knowledge of the brand identity can help in hitting the mark of the campaign as well as avoiding the mistakes related to email marketing.

When you create the buyer persona, you should have the representation of the ideal customer along with deeper knowledge of demographics.

Having The Complex Opt-In Forms

Including the email signup form on site is not a bad idea, but it’s important to avoid having too many questions and steps as mandatory.

Instead of having the information finding of what your recipient is interested in, include the clickable checkboxes and quick.

Getting Off On Wrong Foot

Well, you just got the subscription but if you didn’t send them the welcome email right away, you are missing your golden chance.

This will be the first email that you are going to send, and this should be when your readers are the most engaged.

Since they signed up, the brand is still in mind.

This is the perfect time for sending them an email explaining who you are and what they will get.

Welcome your new subscribers, and set the tone of the emails which is going to be important in future conversions too.

Having Messed Up Call To Action

Your content needs to have the call to action or CTA, This is important when it’s about the blog post, email, and landing page.

If you don’t have the CTA, you are leaving the audience to figure out what they are going to do, even though they are smart but this will be extra work.

That’s why, when you are composing the email, you should have a clear vision of the purpose and what outcome you are looking for

The CTA should be clear along with your text, images, and design so the readers know what they are supposed to do.

You Are Keep Using Sales Heavy And Cliché

The best way to know about this is by looking at your own inbox. You might end up seeing a lot of email subjects that look similar and blend together.

Even though the email contains unique content, product, service, etc, the reader will see it as another voice that gets lost in their inbox.

Not Meeting Expectations Of Your Readers

In case your emails are not meeting the expectation of your readers, they will unsubscribe without thinking twice.

And even if you have the best email cop, this won’t save your subscribers.

To deliver your promises, if they expect to receive emails weekly, do it instead of sending them daily.

Also if readers want the heat on frequent times but the emails are rare to receive.

This will fail the whole idea and you will lose the subscribers.

The whole point is, to deliver what your readers expect. add things that hold their attention and benefit them.

You Don’t Look Professional At All

It’s important to look professional if your website looks sketchy and it will make your readers feel skeptical.

The same goes for emails, if it’s sketchy and amateurish, the readers won’t read or even open them.

That’s why you need to look after all the points that make your email look professional such as:

Check the spelling and grammar mistakes. Proofread everything and re-read all the emails before you hit send.

Also, don’t add any kind of attachments to your emails.

Keep the language professional and respectful.

Not Giving Attention To Mobile Users

There is more than 70% of readers who are reading emails using the mobile device

So if you are focusing on the audience and their reading experience on tablets and phones, this is one of the expensive mistakes.

Formatting should be clean and simple along with the text as well as images. Also, they should be the reader and the content in a single column.

Keep the images more than 600 pixels. And test the email on mobile apps so you know it’s going to be the way you want.

Relying Too Much On Images

Well to make the email interesting, the first instinct is always to add images that can be eye-catching, beautiful, and professional.

Even though it’s not wrong, there are chances of readers having their images turned off, so you should have plan B ready.

When you are adding images, be more careful about how you are going to use them.

Choosing The Wrong Time

Sending emails should have the time selected, instead of sending whenever you feel like it.

Don’t send an email on Sunday afternoon or at midnight. Sending the time selected will help in getting more engaged audiences and better results.

Choosing Cheesy Images For Your Emails

Images are an important part of emails, the last thing you wish Is to make them look off-brand and outdated.

Some stock images might be exactly what the email needs. But it’s important that you are careful with your choices.

Just don’t go with whatever you feel might work instead of picking the right one.

Not Considering The Quality Of Subject Lines

Email subject lines are equally important as the rest of your email.

Many readers scan the email subject line for microseconds before they decide to skip or read it.

It’s important to choose the subject lines that catch your reader’s attention without sounding cheesy.

Choosing the subject line, it’s important to look after a few points such as :

Instead of tricking to open, provide the value
Keep it short, on point and sweet
Focus on the subject and avoid fluff and filler words
Keep it personalized
Make it professional instead of sensation
Avoid yelling with all caps

Not Being In Touch With Them

Well, there is no doubt that everyone gets busy but it should not stop you from sending emails and maintaining the same frequency.

Even if it’s a slow season, you should send emails, and add discounts and industry news to keep the connection with your readers.

Here the consistency plays an important role, so keep in touch with your readers,

Skipping The A/B Testing

If you are not seeing the results in your email marketing campaign, there might be something wrong and not working in your favor.

That’s why you need to do the A/B testing, this helps in figuring out what works for you and what does not.

Here you create the two subject lines for email campaigns, completely different from each other, and see which one has the better engagement.

And this will help you in knowing where you should put the resources and time.

Not Keeping Tabs And Monitoring The Metrics

Well, the SMART goals you created are important and that’s why you need to keep tabs and monitor the process.

Instead of waiting too late to change strategies and choosing the different methods, make sure you know what didn’t work.

Your Design Are Too Busy

In order to get the attention, you want to make your email look extra presentable.

However if it’s difficult for the readers of reading content because you have added colors that are way too vibrant,

Or there are too many images that distract the people, and it’s just all over the place.

The best way here is to keep everything simple and easy to avoid any kind of messed-up situation.

Changing The Brand Voice

If your company is famous for offering certain values, services, or products or has a voice. It’s important not to change it.

Once you have created the brand identity, it’s important to stick with them.

Consistency is important in order to create loyalty and getting off-brand will be one of the biggest mistakes.

You Are Pushing Way Too Hard To Sell

Well, here you avoid the trigger words and exclamation points, there are chances that you end up missing the target of email marketing especially when you are not careful with the content.

So make sure you don’t sound too desperate to sell and avoid any kind of words that make it sound like you are pushing too hard to sell.

Keeping Everything in CAPS

Regardless of how exciting and amazing news you have and whether you want to share it with your readers, using all CAPS is not the way.

There are high chances that such emails will get caught in SPAM filters and your readers might never see them.

But even if you get past that, All CAPS are not the right way of sharing your excitement. It can seem as rude and unprofessional to the readers.

Adding Extra Exclamation Points In Subject Line

Well, you might be excited about the news, maybe you are launching a new product but adding three exclamation points in your subject line is a bad idea.

It can make you look immature, also this might not be the right way of catching attention.

You need the punctuation in control and avoid any kind of words that make your subject line passable.

The best way is, to be honest, and purposeful.

Keeping The Subscribe Button Hidden

It’s difficult to let your readers go but if you are keeping the subscribe link ridiculously small in front of the same color as the background will not do the work either.

You Should consider this as a gift because those people are letting you know before they leave.

Also, they tell you that they are no longer part of the audience and you need to improve the email messaging.

Not Considering The Lead Magnet

Lead management is important as it values the potential subscribers who download for free when they sign up and provide their email addresses along with details.

It includes :

Webinars
Templates
Ebooks
Infographics
Whitepapers
Checklist

Here you have a win-win situation as your subscribers get the valuable product and service for free, and also you get the chance to strengthen the relationship.

Send Messages But Too Much Of It

Sending messages in huge quantities will cause the recipient to develop a headache.

It’s important not to bombard their inboxes with emails that hold no information.

You should be a consolation that your emails are less frequently, and it’s better than you are consistent instead of sending a lot at once,

Not Adding The Share Button

At the bottom of the email, you should add the button that helps the recipient to forward the message with an easy click. With the use of this, the customer becomes the ambassador, even though they are informal but still it helps you in growing the email list in an organic way.

With this more people get the option to share the emails and this helps in knowing that you are providing the value

Ignoring The Errors And Mistakes

It’s important that you know what you are sending, apart from being grammy correct, you need to check the copy, design images, etc.

Send one to yourself, proofread it, and consider all the pointers as well as the content. See if that makes sense to you and is delivering the exact message you want to tell your recipient.

Check the typos, minors and also links, images, etc. If there is an issue, correct it before sending it.

Not Using The Right Template

When you are picking the template, make sure you are giving it time so you find the suitable one for various emails.

You will likely use the same template over and over, and this helps in saving time without affecting the professional look.

However, this is only when you are choosing the right one.

Sending Emails Using Personal Email Service

When, it’s not a bad idea to send emails to the email address where you put your name or marketing director, but you should never send the emails for your business from a personal account.

Using your personal Gmail or yahoo account can lead to confusion. And regardless of having a small business, it’s better that you invest in an email address that is for your professional work.

Adding Images With Low Resolution

Images are important for your email, it holds the attention and helps in delivering the message more accurately.

That’s why check the image quality you are adding. If it’s stretched, pixelated or unattractive, it will make your message look professional.

Add the images which are high resolution, you can also downsize them.

Adding Too Big Images

Well, you don’t want to add images that are way too high resolution either. Having the images which are way too big, for like 1 Mb and the whole email is less than 2 MB.

This will slow down the loading, also if it’s too big it will take a lot of time to appear on the email. It makes the email unnecessarily heavy.

Not Adding The Reply Option For Subscribers

One of the common mistakes you might make while being a marketer is sending the do not reply message with your email.

It’s important to understand that no one wants to receive an email to which they can’t reply back.

That’s why it’s important that your newsletter has the right way of communicating.

If it’s too much work for you then you can add the reply button which guides the readers to the landing page to post their queries.

Having No Personalization To Emails

Well, if you don’t know the name of the contracts, the best way is not to add personalization to emails, absolutely not!

This will be a mistake as personalization is one of the most important parts of your email marketing strategy.

It also boosts the open rate and plays a crucial role in other related metrics.

Apart from adding the first name to the initial greeting, you can add these points too :

Add the specific as well as localized details
Information based on whether your customer purchased the product or not
Adding personal events, such as holidays or birthdays.
CTA which is relevant according to the customer
Adding an image of the signature instead of using the company logo.

Not Taking Benefits Of Autoresponders

It’s important to send the welcome message and using the autoresponders for this can be quicker and more helpful.

However the user is not limited, there are different ways when the automated email can help you.

It is also known as an email drip campaign, and it’s a series of emails that are sent automatically in response covering a wide range. Also, it depends on the actions.

Clogging Inboxes With Unnecessary Attachments

Sending the attachment in an email to the recipient is another mistake you should avoid.

Not just people think it’s spam or a virus. There is no reason to add the attachment, even if you have the trust of your recipient, it’s not the right thing.

This will clog their inbox when you send the attachment which is large in size where you can simply share the link.

This saves time and is easy for your recipient to simply click on the link which redirects them to the information you want to share.

Not Having The Safelist

One of the mistakes that you might be making when you see all the messages are just widened up in the junk folder.

In order to avoid getting blocklisted, it’s important that you ask recipients to add you to their approved senders. This is also known as Safelist.

Not just that it will assure your emails are delivered directly to them, but also you can add the right way of doing this in the welcome email.

Sending The Broken Links

Even though it’s a small thing, there is a huge number of email marketers who send broken links to their recipients.

The reason is quite simple, they don’t check before they hit the send button.

Make sure you don’t do the same and double-check to see if the link is working properly or not.

Using The Same Content For Different Email Segments

Well having the email list which is filling up and you are doing the double-check in order to make sure that all the subscriber data is added in the right way is a great thing to do.

But if you just have one huge list, this is one of the email marketing mistakes.

You should have different emails to the different email segments.

That’s why you should know about the right way of addressing the readers and categorizing by marketing price.

Not Cleaning Your Email List

Even though more is merrier in a lot of cases but not here, you should not add the people simply because you want to increase the overall number.

Instead of this, make sure to remove the email addresses of those who are not engaging.

It’s important to cleanse the list on a daily basis, also remove all those emails that have a hard bounce so you don’t send the marketing message to the accounts which are dead.

Sending Text Of Placeholder

Consider it as one of the most embarrassing mistakes which are avoidable, placeholder text is excellent for exp date workflow because you work on the design as well as a copy of the email in the draft.

However, sending emails that aren’t placeholder text without replacing the correct information is a common mistake.

And that’s why you should always proofread and double-check.

Starting With the Wrong Mindset

The common mistake you make is starting with the wrong mindset.

Even though you make mistakes, starting with the wrong mindset is still the top one.

When you start the email list, there are chances that you might feel scared of what to say so you don’t end up making your readers upset.

Also what if your writing doesn’t give the result you want, or your email is not interesting or too often?

Well, there are a lot of things you will learn while going through the process.

The first thing you should know is that you can please everyone. Also, you need to remove people who are not showing interest.

Make the work fun for you as well as for the readers so they can develop a genuine interest in your work.

Failing To Use the Message Preview

Most email programs give the features of previewing which gives a brief introduction to readers about the topics.

The email works as a lead in a news story, also it is based on whether readers if they want to read further or not.

Well, it’s important that your email‘s first line is interesting enough to get the attention of readers. And the preview option will help in giving a hint of what readers want.

Getting attention to quality is the first thing you should keep in mind. If your words are not accurate, you won’t be able to sell the products or services.