No matter what kind of business you’re in, email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels to increase your sales and revenue. According to Email Expert, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25.
People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people who do not receive email offers. Chances are, you’re already aware of it and hopefully using this channel to increase your sales, revenue, and build a relationship with your customers.
But if you are not getting a similar ROI from this channel then the chances are high that you’re screwing up your email marketing by making some of the below-mentioned mistakes:
1. You Don’t Spend Much Time in Writing Subject Lines
You might think that a beautifully designed and well-crafted email along with a good offer is enough to get results. But you could increase your open rates by as much as 203% by improving your subject lines.
Subject LineIf you find it difficult to craft great subject lines, here are a few tips:
- Wrap it in seven words.
- Use a familiar sender name.
- Make it sound personal without adding the recipient’s first name.
Given below is an example from Matchesfashion.com
Wishlist on sale emailSubject lines can make or break your email campaigns. If you want to improve your subject lines, then this post on 8 battle-tested ways to increase email open rates will benefit you.
Tip: Keep A/B testing your subject lines. The results will never be constant. The things that might have worked for you three months ago may not work anymore.
2. You Don’t Segment Your Email List Effectively
Back in the good old days, email blasts served as the primary vehicle for email marketing. That ship has sailed. Now you need to tailor your messages according to your prospects’ interests and preferences if you want them to open and click your email messages.
That said, sending meaningful messages to your email marketing list is not possible without deep segmentation. But there are very few marketers who dive deep into segmentation. They segment their email list once and forget about it.
42% of marketers do not send targeted email messages; only 4% use layered targeting. (MarketingProfs)
So if you want to make your emails more meaningful then segment your email list on an ongoing basis.
Given below is an example to show you how to do that:
Ideas for Customer Segmentation3. You’re Not Offering Value
Let’s face it — even a plain designed email can convert well if it conveys value to your customers. The design is important, but it’s the value proposition that induces the reader to take action.
Let’s take a look at this email from the online jewelry store BlueNile.
Subject Line:
BlueNile Email Subject Line
BlueNile Valentines Day EmailI received this email on February 13th. It’s clean, simple, and spot on. It clearly highlights the value along with the offer to induce action.
4. Your Campaign Goals Are Not Defined
Setting a goal for your marketing campaigns is obvious, but what we found out after going through thousands of emails is they lack focus on one particular goal and CTA. Many email campaigns have multiple CTAs which confuse readers and prevent them from clicking and hence converting.
Remember, “the more, the merrier” doesn’t always holds true. In fact, a single hyper-focused call to action makes it easier for subscribers to convert and can increase clicks by 371% and increase sales by an impressive 1617%.
5. Your Emails Are Too Long
Longer emails have less engagement and click rates. So why do marketers send long emails?
A vast majority of people check their emails on small screens. Many retailers have been sending emails that are too long. The longer the email, the less readable it is.
Avoid creating longer emails. No matter how amazing they look, subscribers prefer emails that are short, simple, and targeted.
Your emails should also:
- Be fun to read
- Visually appealing
- Engaging
6. You’re Sending Emails at the Wrong Time
If you aren’t careful about your send timings then you certainly aren’t getting the best possible conversions from your email.
The Grommet A/B tested its email send time to find out if sending emails in the morning instead of noon can make a difference. The results revealed that sending at 10 a.m. instead of noon resulted in a 14% lift in revenue per email.
7. You Focus More on Selling than Engaging Them
Email marketers often focus on what they can get from email campaigns: sales, referral traffic, reviews etc. But they rarely focus on providing value to the subscribers.
Focusing on your goals is fine, but if your subscribers feel that all of your emails are just trying to sell to them, they will leave your email list. “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.”
Don’t just use email messages to promote your products and services. Use them to keep your subscribers entertained and engaged. Educate them, pique their curiosity and they’ll keep checking your emails. But that doesn’t mean you have to create separate mailers to entertain your readers. You can add pun and provide tons of information in your marketing mailers too. So that your readers will feel entertained after reading it no matter whether it’s a promotional, cart recovery, or order confirmation message. Remember; as long as your mailers are providing value, your email marketing will eventually pay off.
With these tips at your disposal, it’s now time to audit your email marketing plan and look for the mistakes you can improve on.
Image Credits
Screenshots by Reshu Rathi
