People are dedicated to their email according to DMA Research. 99% of people surveyed checked their email every day. Plus, across home, work and mobile, they checked their inbox on average 20x a day!
In their 2018 survey, Ascend2 found email to be one of the top three most effective tactics for B2B lead generation and lead nurturing.
These studies show that email is still an essential part of your overall digital marketing strategy.
4 Common Email Marketing Mistakes
To improve your email marketing, here are some tips on how to fix four common mistakes.
Poor email list management
Use services such as ZeroBounce to verify your contact list before uploading to your database. Weed out bad emails before your first send. Review your hard bouncebacks and make the necessary updates to your contact list.
Monitor your email list regularly to weed out contacts that aren’t engaging with your content. This unengaged group of contacts may need a different approach – such as a unique offer or different content – to reengage with your brand. Similarly, you need a different approach for contacts that unsubscribe – find out why they unsubscribed and if you’re seeing a trend in reasons, adjust your email marketing tactics accordingly.
And finally, ensure you’re getting your contacts to opt-in to your emails so that you’re compliant with CASL (Canada), CAN-SPAM (USA) and GDPR (Europe) regulations.
Irrelevant content
The DMA Research study showed that 53% of individuals will unsubscribe if they receive too many irrelevant emails.
Your customers and prospects won’t mind receiving email as long as that email is relevant and specific to their needs. The best way to stay relevant is to segment your list.
Divide your subscriber list into smaller lists based on specific criteria such as interests, behavior, industry, or geography. Personalize email content for each of these segments. According to the Direct Marketing Association, “segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue.”
Not being mobile friendly
Nearly every email marketing study done shows that over 50% of emails are opened on mobile. Poor formatting is the number one complaint about mobile email. No matter how good the content, if the email displays poorly, it’s more likely to get deleted in less than 3 seconds according to Adestra’s 2016 study.
When designing your emails, watch for oversized or out-of-place images, too much text, multiple columns that aren’t coded responsively, images lacking alt text, and missing CTA buttons (which are easier to click than a text link).
Not testing before sending
It’s never a good feeling to send out an email only to find a link didn’t work or it looked weird on mobile. Always test your emails for the following before sending: all links work, images are sized correctly, spelling/grammar errors, and the format looks good on desktop and mobile. A great way to test email formatting on multiple desktop and mobile email services is to use tools like Litmus or Email on Acid.
A/B testing is also important. Test subject lines, CTAs, images and formats to see what resonates with your audience. If sending an important email, take 20% of your list and split it in half. Send two versions of the email to each group and see which has the better response. Send the winning email to the balance of your list.
Let’s get started
If you’re not getting the results you want from your email marketing efforts, perhaps it’s time to make some changes. Effective email marketing means ongoing list review and segmentation, developing relevant content that speaks to customer needs, and delivering it in an easy to read, mobile friendly format.
Need help getting started? MoreSALES can help develop an email marketing strategy that works for your business. Contact us today.
