3 Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Email marketing is a core piece of any strong marketing strategy, and it is a vital tool because it gives businesses a direct line to prospective customers. Like any large organization, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can reap the incredible benefits of having an audience that has opted into receiving communications. This strategy only works well if done correctly.

Email marketing lets organizations contact customers on a list to make them aware of products, discounts, news, and more. Often used to generate sales and customer engagement, email marketing campaigns also reward customer loyalty. If your SMB has not utilized email marketing yet, now is the time. To be successful, you should be mindful of the potential mistakes you could make and how to avoid them.

Three mistakes include not personalizing messages, emailing too often, and relying too much on automation.

Not personalizing messages

In this day in age, consumers are overwhelmed with messaging and advertisements. One tactic that can help your message stand out is personalization. There are many ways to move forward with a personalization strategy, but the key is to create one. Many different technologies are available; each comes with another way to utilize the data learned. Consider starting small to avoid any potential errors. If you do not know what you are doing, do not immediately set up a full-fledged personalization model. Before jumping into personalization, learn more about your customers. What do they want? How can you provide them with a service? Is this the best way to reach them? From there, you can move through the process of finding a personalization strategy without wasting your precious time and money.

Emailing too often

How many emails do you receive in one day? You might be unable to tell because of the intricate filing systems email providers have. The most common answer? Too many! If you feel overwhelmed by the number of emails you receive, you can assume your customers feel the same way. You can avoid emailing your clients too much but give them choices on how often they prefer emails when they initially sign up. This way, they won’t feel overwhelmed by your SMBs messages and won’t unsubscribe.

If providing options to prospective customers is too much, you can survey to learn what your audience wants. This way, you can get your message out while avoiding overwhelming your client list.

Relying too much on automation

Automation, especially for an SMB, is a huge time saver. Not only does it save time, but it can also save the company valuable resources like personnel and money. While there are positives to relying on automation, it may not be the best idea while you build a connection with your audience. Email providers often categorize automated messages as “spam” because of their lack of personalization or the number of times they have been unopened by the user. Additionally, if you rely too much on automation, you may not be auditing the emails for content or design errors. An email message might look good on an Android, but the layout might look wrong on an iPhone. If your SMB is using automation, ensure that a team member reviews the content, design, and plans consistently. This helps to avoid any future problems.

Email marketing is a powerful tool in your marketing kit, and it empowers organizations to meet their customers where they are and direct them to their products. Being aware of potential mistakes will only make your SMB more qualified to run these types of campaigns.