5 Common Email Marketing Pitfalls … And How to Avoid Them!

By: Amanda Smith

All businesses and brands understand that email marketing is crucial for brand awareness and bringing in new customers, sales and leads. Not to mention the high ROI as an advertising medium. However, as a small business, the time and resources to develop great marketing emails may not always be abundant and important elements within an email could be missed, causing a poor experience for the recipient and could result in lost opportunities.

Review these 5 common email marketing mistakes so you can ensure every email you send to customers is optimized for success.

Mistake #1: Not sending a test email first
It’s easy to miss errors when you’re creating an email campaign, so be sure to send a proof of the email to yourself and a few other colleagues before the final version gets sent out. Check the proof for grammatical and spelling errors, and don’t forget to check the sender, subject line and images!

• Our EmailExpress™ experts will send test proofs to your chosen list and wait for complete approval before sending the final version.

 
Mistake #2: Not testing across all devices
Your recipients will likely check their email inboxes on desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. Optimize every email campaign so it appears correctly across all of these devices to get the best results possible.

• EmailExpress templates are designed to be compatible with every type of device, so you can rest easy while the leads roll in.

 
Mistake #3: Using an image as the CTA
Many email browsers don’t automatically download images unless prompted by the user, which means your CTA could go unnoticed if it’s embedded in an image. An easy solution is to create a coded HTML button that looks like an image. This way, it will show up even if the user has not downloaded images.
 
Mistake #4: Sending to bad lists
Are you sending your campaign to a targeted list of leads? You should be! Choosing lists based on the quantity of leads instead of the quality can give you a bad sender reputation, which means your emails are getting marked as spam. Keep your sender rep squeaky clean by sending to highly qualified, targeted leads that have opted in.

• EmailExpress takes the guesswork out of curating your lists. Send to our trusted list of 40,000+ distributors or segment by location, role (i.e. decorator, screen printer, etc.) or even by ESP® search history!

 
Mistake #5: Using a vague subject line
The most important thing to remember about email marketing subject lines is to make them as clear and concise as possible! Using tricks, clickbait or vague language are surefire ways to lose the trust of your audience. Make sure the subject line lets your recipients know exactly what to expect from the email’s content.
 
Avoid major marketing meltdowns by steering clear of these 5 common mistakes and you’ll be on your way to effective campaigns that produce results! Or, if you’re looking for an easy way to avoid these pitfalls, contact your account executive and ask about EmailExpress.