Email Marketing Mistakes Part II

One comment that readers have made about Part I of "Email Marketing Mistakes" was that the importance of the subject line often gets overlooked. So I will repeat.

Do not use long boring subject lines.
- Keep it concise (45 characters or less)
- Create urgency
- Correctly explain what's in the email
- Explain "what's in it" for the recipient

Now - that being said - I'll move on to additional mistakes good marketing emails avoid.

Issues With The Use Of Images
- Background images can be distracting. Avoid using 1 big image.
- Remember that images don't load 100% of the time.
- If you use an image, make sure it supports your text.

Buying Email Lists
The main issues with most purchased email lists are:
- A poor response rate
- Low quality email addresses
- Deliverability issues and spam traps that can get you blacklisted.

Using excessive punctuation and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
- This is a common spammer practice to grab the reader's attention. However, it also grabs the attention of email spam filters.
- Avoid using multiple instances of punctuation such as !!!!!   $$$   *** in your emails.

Having Cluttered Email Content
- Use simple layout and only one or two images per email.
- Make sure your emails are easy to read, scan and skim
- A good idea is to have an objective outsider read your emails. It's a good way to catch spelling and grammar errors, or confusing text.
 
Not Targeting Your Emails
- Relevancy is key in any email campaign.
- Base email recipients chosen by criteria such as shopping history, customer categories, or buying preferences. The criteria you choose should be dictated by what you want your email to accomplish.

Follow these suggestions and see if you don't improve your marketing success rate. Also, as I've said before, if you're using CounterPoint POS software you already have a headstart. Your data is there - and "Customer Connect" will track your success rate for you.

Talk to you soon.  ~Norma