Email Marketing No-Nos
Nearly everyone that’s has access to the World Wide Web has their very own e-mail addresses. Nowadays having an e-mail address is just as common as having a house address. E-mail is definitely one medium of communication that has certainly stood the test of time because it isn’t restricted by time, technicality, budget or geographical location.
With a single click of the e-mail its recipient could literally be half the world away but would still be able to receive it almost instantaneously. What is not to love about it? And that is why internet marketers take full advantage of this.
Even though there are millions upon millions of people with e-mail addresses out there, the biggest challenge for internet marketers however, is to find their targeted audience, or those who are genuinely interested in what these internet marketers have to offer. But once you are able to find them (or vice versa), then half the work is already done.
Amassing a list just for the sake of having a long list of subscribers means nothing if they are inactive or uninterested in what you have to say or offer. For those people who are genuinely interested, it’s more than worth it to nurture a relationship and keep them interested being in the list because these people are ones that buy from you again and again.
But, it is easier to lose them than it is to get them in your list, and if you don’t want to make that fatal mistake of potential prospects slipping out of your hands, then here are what you should avoid :
No Consent
Many emails are harvested illegally through obvious illegal means like a third party selling it them and such. What they end up is a list full of reluctant people who are more than unwilling to receive e-mail especially from parties who they do not know or are unfamiliar with.
You think sending them newsletters or e-mails to this kind of list will generate any favorable feelings towards you? Well, it won’t work in a perfect world and it won’t work in the real world either.
You will only get marked as spam and furthermore they will ban your e-mail so any future e-mail that you send out to them will never ever reach their inbox again. If indeed you had potential prospects in there, such aggressive tactics will only deter them.
The best (and correct) way to get consensual e-mail is through the opt-in form on your website. For those that are willing, they will definitely enter the e-mail in the box to be in your list and to receive any future news, updates or offerings from you. And that is the right way of doing it.
Cryptic Title
Too many times, the admirable efforts of internet marketers of sending out killer content after content in their e-mail body are simply marred or sabotaged by their own under-performing titles.
Email subjects or titles are what recipients see in their inbox. It’s what they see before they proceed to look at the content body. The title is what helps them determine if that e-mail is indeed worth reading.
But don’t go off using ANY sure-fire click-magnet titles just for the sake of getting clicks.
Your email subject or title has to correspond with your content body. Using misleading titles just for the sake of attracting clicks will only do more harm than good. People hate to be deceived and it is only a sure way to ruin your reputation and chances on any future businesses potential prospects.
While there are many ways to come up with subject lines which can rival bestselling authors, the best practice is at least come up with a headline that has relation to the content body and what can the recipient gain from reading the e-mail.
By providing a benefit that can strike an emotional chord will guarantee an eager click and ensuring a higher click rate.
No Links
Whenever you send out an e-mail, it doesn’t have to be just regular e-mail. An e-mail can be so much more. Up the ante a little, but at the same time I’m not asking you to include anything controversial here, I am just asking you to find ways to spice it up.
Try to insert images or even embed videos even where appropriate, and also if you have an external source which can increase the value of what your recipient is reading, then by all means have a link inside your e-mail body that points to it.
Your e-mail doesn’t have to be like the hundreds of other boring e-mails that your list receives on a daily basis. Make your e-mail stand out and they will eagerly anticipate your subsequent e-mails and will always look forward to opening it.
Feedback
Want to show that you are a real human behind that e-mail alias? Well, take the time and personally e-mail them asking for an honest feedback of what they think about the e-mail contents so far, what they like/dislike about your product/service, what they would like to see in the future, which areas could use improvement and so on and so forth.
Sometimes their positive feedback can be used as a testimonial on your website if you are marketing a product or service and sometimes they might even provide valuable feedback, or suggestions which can be used as an idea to come up with another valuable content.
And if the majority of them has a common problem that is related to your niche, then try to come up with a solution and then present it to them, doing that and you will be seen as a credible and authority figure in your niche in no time
So don’t come off as a cold or unapproachable person, engage them on a more personal level but at the same time maintain some kind professionalism because you don’t want to cross the line. You still want to maintain that professional outlook because you still want people to take you, your brand and your business seriously.
Measure Results
If you don’t have any kind of ways, methods or even tools to measure the results of your e-mail marketing campaign, then you will never know how well you do and you will never know how, where, when and what to improve upon.
In short, your e-mail marketing campaign will never grow and thus will never reach the level of success that you would like it to.
Nowadays there is plenty of software, services or tools available which can help you measure your e-mail’s open rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate and more. These data are crucial for you to improve your e-mail marketing campaign so that you can be more efficient and effective.
Without these data, it is nearly impossible to tell what is working and what is not, and without these data, your e-mail marketing campaign might be comparable to traditional mail marketing, which is definitely a waste of such great potential.
What Matters
When people opt-in into your list, it goes without saying that they want to receive something that benefits them. Be it, informative, educational, motivational, enlightening, or simply emotional you have to give them something that is deemed valuable by the people in your list.
So you should aim to deliver content that is of high quality and relevant which can really resonate among your readers. Do not blindly send out e-mail after e-mail every other day just for the sake of sending them something. When broadcast an e-mail or newsletter to your list, it has to have a purpose.
But at the same time, you can’t afford to only send out an e-mail only once a month. You have to balance frequency with favorable content. If you take too long a time in between broadcasts, people can easily forget you and will be put aside.
As long as e-mail use and popularity do not wane, (which currently shows no such sign) it is safe to say that e-mail marketing is here to stay. Therefore it is an internet marketer’s best interest to build a responsive and targeted list as soon as they can and nurture it as best as they can.
The task of growing and nurturing a list might be a never-ending process but the continuous benefits that you can reap from that list make it all worth the effort.
