There are some things you can do with your email marketing, that while seemingly innocent, will make your subscribers want to throw you off the proverbial cliff ... right into the spam folder. Rather than risk becoming the Thelma and Louise of email marketing, there are some simple things you can avoid. We'll call them the five deadly email marketing mistakes.
1. Death by repetition.
If your subscribers see the same exact thing each time you send an email campaign, they're going to tune you out. That could mean switching up your email design from time to time for holidays or special promotions -- or even the types of emails you send. Try something new once in a while!
2. Death by lack of focus.
Some people put all their efforts into their email marketing campaigns and then forget the rest. Your email can do exactly what it was supposed to, but it's all for naught if the landing page it leads to can't finish the job. Consider what your goal is for your subscriber from start to finish.
3. Death by unbalance.
Email marketing is all about balance. That could mean having the right amount of images versus text, or sales versus information. Too much text will likely go unread, while all images can buy you a one-way ticket to the spam folder. If all you do is try to sell, your subscribers will start ignoring you. Balance that out with some education on your industry and build trust with your subscribers. They'll ultimately buy from who they trust!
4. Death by lack of hygiene.
I don't mean not bathing (you shouldn't need an email marketing column to know to do that). Keeping old and useless email addresses in your email list isn't only unnecessary, it's actually harmful. Sending to those old addresses can start to harm your deliverability.
5. Death by not delegating.
In business today, we wear a lot of hats. There's a lot to do! Take one thing off your plate and automate as much of your email marketing as possible. Enter autoresponders. Automatically send welcome emails, birthday emails and more.