9 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2024
Email lists have been all the craze in the blogging world for ages, but today, everyone from small businesses to big brands seems to be reaching for the inboxes of their target audience–and for good reason.
Content Marketing Institute reported in 2020 that 87% of marketers use email to promote their content, making it the second-largest content distribution channel (with social media being the first).
If there’s one reason for this many businesses to jump onto the bandwagon, it’s the ROI. According to DMA, email marketing generates an average return of $42 for every $1 spent.
And although social media is still the most commonly used content distribution channel, email has proven much more effective. When it comes to converting new customers, email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Building an email list is a smart marketing move. It works, and you can save money by moving away from more expensive marketing tactics like running social media or Google ads.
Top 9 Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them in 2022
1. Blowing Up Subscribers’ Inboxes
No one likes to be spammed, and more businesses and bloggers are discovering that just because your subscribers joined your email list to hear from you, doesn’t give you full reign to dominate their inbox.
But how many emails per week is the “right” number? How often do people want to hear from you?
First, we can look at what most email marketers are doing.
SeventhSense and Databox teamed up to figure out the frequency at which marketers are sending emails to their lists. The answers included frequencies like “daily,” “weekly,” “multiple times per week,” “monthly,” and “multiple times per month.”
The results showed that the most popular frequency was “weekly,” with 33.3% of marketers claiming it as their practice. 26.7% say they send emails multiple times per month.
The remaining three options are tied for last place, with 13.3% of marketers saying they email their subscribers either monthly, daily, or multiple times per week.
What’s more though, the majority of respondents–63.3% to be exact–say they email subscribers who are disengaged less. In other words, not all subscribers are being sent the same number of emails–it depends on how much they engage with the ones they receive.
Finding the perfect number of emails to send per week–if there even is one–is an experimental task.
While the most commonly used options are “weekly” and “multiple times per month,” you might find that your audience responds to a different frequency better. It’s necessary to be consistent, but also to strike a balance–don’t nag your subscribers, but also don’t let them forget you.
Although only time, trial, and error will reveal the “right” email frequency for you, there is a way to speed up the process: let your subscribers choose for you.
Instead of sending everyone on your list the same emails, add a “send me an email when…” option to your sign-up forms. That way, subscribers can choose when they want to hear from you.
2. Leaving Out a “Welcome” Email
People who subscribe to your email list already know who you are–otherwise, they wouldn’t have subscribed–but “welcome” messages are email marketing etiquette 101.
Your email subscribers shouldn’t be treated just as faceless website visitors, blog readers, or social media followers. When they signed up, they voluntarily handed you their contact information because they want to hear from you. A welcome email is especially important from a B2C marketing perspective if you want to get to know your customer and allow your customer to get to know you.
They’re more invested in the people who only consume your content, and they should be treated as VIPs.
Sincere welcome emails make subscribers feel like they’ve officially joined the club, and they give you the opportunity to thank them for their support. Plus, welcome emails are perfect opportunities to include CTAs or links to other ways new subscribers can interact with and/or support you.
For example, you might remind new subscribers of the freebie they got from joining your list, link to other free gifts you offer, and encourage them to follow you on social media.
If you want to take it a step further, you can even create an entire welcome sequence–a series of emails that introduces a different part of you and your brand.
Lastly, don’t forget to encourage subscribers (both new and old) to reply. Being able to communicate with you one-on-one reminds them of the benefits of being on your email list and their “VIP status.”
3. Sending Unattractive, Hard-to-Read Emails
Just like blog posts and any type of web page, emails need to be scannable, easy to read, and well-formatted.
Most email service providers come with a default font, text size, and format. However, these are usually way too small or plain to suit your subscribers’ fancies. Never settle for just the default formats, and always customize your email settings.
Speaking of settings, what kind of elements does a high-quality email consist of? Well, to name just a few:
– Big font that’s easy to read
– Letter coloring that’s dark enough to read easily (i.e. black instead of gray)
– Lots of white space
– Engaging images and visuals
– Bold, italics, and underlines to make important words and sentences pop
– Headings to organize the email into separate ideas/topics
These elements make your emails easy on the eyes. No one wants to open an email just to read an essay with large paragraphs, no headings, and tiny font. If your emails are unattractive and thus feel like a chore to read, the less likely subscribers will be to open them in the future.
But while you should rarely use the default settings of an email marketing platform, it’s essential that all your emails are consistent with each other. Pick a style and stick to it–it’s how your subscribers remember and recognize you.
4. Expecting People to Subscribe Without an Opt-in Offer
Gone are the days when forms with “subscribe for updates!” or “subscribe to my newsletter!” are effective ways to pull in leads and grow your email list.
While it might work for some people, most need to be motivated to give you their email address (especially in a world full of scammers who sell their information).
The best way to achieve this is by creating an opt-in offer, also known as a “content offer” or “freebie” in the blogging world.
Freebies can be free ebooks, guides, worksheets, challenges, calendars, PDF files, and anything in between. Your opt-in offer can even be a specific email sequence, such as a three-day email course on something in your field.
For example, on CollectingCents, I have a number of opt-ins like this one that is specifically for people looking to learn more about blogging and SEO:
This allows me to understand what the subscriber is interested in so I can only send them future emails that they are actually interested in which decreases the unsubscribe rate massively
(This is really simple to do- you just tag subscribers based on what opt-in form they come in form).
When it comes to building an email list, you can’t be afraid of “giving away too much” for free. Your opt-in offer is what turns a regular website visitor into a lead because they’ve expressed interest in what you offer. From there, you can attempt to upsell through CTAs in your emails.
Email marketing–and content marketing in general–is people-driven and value-focused. Before your content can convert a lead to a customer, it must provide them with value.
5. Keeping an Inconsistent Email Schedule
We already talked about email sending frequency, and hopefully, you now have an idea of how often you’re planning to touch base with your subscribers.
What’s just as important as how often you send your emails though is when.
For example, if you decide to send out emails once a week, will it be on Tuesdays? Wednesdays? Fridays?
By keeping a consistent schedule, your subscribers will know when to expect content from you and can look forward to receiving it in their inboxes. Plus, keeping a schedule can help you track progress, stay motivated, and determine whether or not your current sending frequency is working for you.
6. Failing to A/B Test Subject Lines and CTAs
Your subject lines majorly impact one of the most crucial email marketing KPIs (key performance indicators): open rate.
Likewise, CTAs (calls-to-action) heavily affect the most crucial: conversion rate.
These two things can be tricky to nail on your first few tries, and odds are, you won’t. Like finding out your optimal email frequency rate, subject lines and CTAs typically require some trial and error.
However, this process can be simplified and sped up by one simple marketing technique: A/B testing.
Performing an A/B test involves taking two or more versions of the same type of content (i.e. a subject line or CTA) and comparing them to determine which one performs the best. For example, you might send 10 emails with the CTA “buy now” and 10 with the CTA “learn more” to see which leads to more clicks and conversions.
Even if you don’t A/B test your CTAs, failing to test subject lines would deliver a detrimental blow to your email marketing efforts.
Remember, email marketing is a superb way to make money online, but you can guarantee it won’t lead to any sales if your emails don’t get any clicks.
Without a subject line that effectively draws in clicks from your subscribers, no one will even see the CTA inside.
So instead of randomly experimenting with various subject lines, try following a few formats and then compare them to see which formula received the highest open rates.
Here are a few examples:
– Employee Recognition ideas that you need to try??
– Before you write another article, read this!
– Let’s bread it down: Google’s new update
Here are a few things you will notice in those subject lines- they pique interest, they fit into the subject line well so the full sentence is visible, and I used emojis to make it more casual.
Each audience is different so don’t be afraid to play around with different ideas.
7. Not Personalizing Emails
In 2022, you can’t practice successful marketing without personalization. This is especially true for email marketing, where no subscriber wants to be addressed as “Dear subscriber,” or with just a simple “Hello there.”
Instead, invest in an email marketing service where you can personalize emails to include the subscriber’s first name.
When you do this, your emails will start off with addressing the subscriber by name, which makes the exchange feel much more personal and trustworthy.
Another way to personalize email marketing is by avoiding autoresponders. Although it can be difficult to respond to each person, it’s better to hire someone (like a freelancer or virtual assistant) to help you answer emails than install a program that sends an impersonal, generic response to everyone who hits “reply.”
Instead, only use autoresponders when you’re out of the office or to let subscribers know when to expect a response (such as within 24-48 hours, or 7 business days).
8. Having a Tacky “From” Field
Who your emails say they’re from is just as important as who they’re sent to. Instead of having every email be from “becky@herbusiness.com,” customize it to look as though your subscribers are receiving an email from someone already in their contacts.
Three of the most common options include:
From [First Name] From [Business] From [First Name from Business]
Using the same example as above, Becky could customize her “from” field to say:
From Becky
From Her Business
From Becky from Her Business
These three formats look more personal, less scammy, and thus more trustworthy. In fact, depending on the platform you use, your emails could be ending up in your subscribers’ spam box or “promotional” inbox instead of their primary.
9. Not Sending a Test Email Before Hitting “Send”
Lastly, a common rookie mistake of email marketing is failing to send a test email before sending it off to the masses.
A test email could be the difference between ending up in spam and making it to your subscribers’ inboxes.
All you need to do is send it to only yourself first, then see where it ends up. If the email landed in your spam folder or another category like “Promotional” on Gmail, tweak items like the “from” field or the subject line until it finds its way to your primary.
