By: Alysha McLean, MNLP, MTLT, MCHt
Email Marketing can be one of the most rewarding marketing strategies for a business.
It has a return on investment of 42 to 1, which means for every dollar spent on marketing, your business is likely to earn back $42.
Creating a successful email marketing campaign, however, requires you to consider several variables.
Consequently, email marketing can sometimes seem complex.
As humans are prone to errors, it is not unheard of to make a mistake that costs the success of your marketing campaign.
Marketing mistakes can result in a drop in click-through rates and open rates, leaving you in a state of wonder and confusion.
However, by identifying some common mistakes in email marketing, you can avoid these to ensure your campaigns are successful in customer acquisition and customer retention.
Let’s see exactly what those mistakes are!
Not Welcoming Your New Subscribers
So, a new site visitor took the time to read through your website, was convinced of the benefits of your business, its products, or services, and decided to fill in the signup form.
Did you take the time to thank your new subscriber?
If not, then you are doing your business a huge disservice. This is because first-time impressions are highly important and can make or break your customer retention goals.
Welcoming a new subscriber can be as simple as sending a “thank you” email.
So, remember, a welcome or a thank you email always shows appreciation and will be
perceived positively!
A Lack of Personalization
Every day people receive multiple emails most of which get ignored.
So how do you ensure your customers don’t ignore the emails you send? Well, quite simply, through personalization.
Customers want to feel like the email was sent specifically to them.
This makes them feel special and valued.
You can achieve personalization by ensuring that the email heading, CTA, and everything in between reflect the recipient’s persona.
Even better, if you have their name – use it! People LOVE reading their own names!
This will greatly improve click-through rates.
Not Considering Audience Interests
A major factor affecting click-through rates is the audience’s interests. They can be tough to figure out since you can’t always send emails asking your customers what their interests are.
This is where customer personas come into play.
They are fictional representations designed to describe your target audience.
They allow you to put yourself in your customer’s shoes to better understand their needs, wants, and interests.
After finding out the customer's interests, you can develop email campaigns that appeal to their needs.
The email campaigns are thus received positively and will have a high click-through rate.
Not Using Segmentation
Your mailing list will comprise of different customers searching for something different from your business.
This simply means you cannot send everyone the same email otherwise you run the risk of appealing to a few and not to all.
It is important to utilize the demographic, psychographic and behavior data you will have already gathered on your mailing list to create different, yet personalized email campaigns that appeal to the different segments of your mailing list.
Not Using Email Marketing Analytics
It is virtually impossible to judge the success of your email marketing campaign without utilizing analytics.
These will let you track performance KPIs such as open rate, click-through rate conversion rate, etc.
Analytics allows you to view how your mailing list is engaging with your email campaigns so you can determine what is working and what is not.
You can then make the appropriate changes to boost the success rate.
Final Word
Email marketing is a huge asset to include in a business’s overall marketing portfolio.
A simple mistake, however, can mean the difference between success and failure.
By knowing what to do, and how to correct some common mistakes, you can help take your email marketing and business to the next level.
So, wait no more, if any of these things sound familiar, go ahead and fix them up!
Alysha McLean, Elite Coach, Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting
Alysha McLean is a high-energy Realtor and Business Coach in the Greater Toronto Area, who specializes in Mindset, Marketing and Relationship building. She has experience as an individual Real Estate agent, team member and team leader. Having leveraged Kathleen
Black’s training, coaching, and systems in her own business, Alysha is passionate about helping others experience these results for themselves.