It is to be expected that some mistakes will be made in email marketing, but some of them should be avoided at all costs.
We call them 'sins', understanding them as a free and deliberate transgression of the rules of email marketing.
Sin, in general, consists of the free and deliberate transgression of a rule, in this case, that of email marketing.
Therefore, some errors in this area, due to their importance and consequences, should be considered sins and avoided at all costs.
Read carefully and make sure you avoid these very serious email marketing mistakes!
1. Customization errors
Beware that your basic personalization is misconfigured and messages are sent showing "Dear (Name)" or similar oversights.
Usually, a mistake as basic as this one can be enough for you to lose all the credibility, trust and engagement of your subscribers that took you so much time and effort to build.
So always test before sending your message. Test with a small group of colleagues or agency, but always internally, to detect this type of errors and correct them.
2. Falling into the I-Self concept
Talking only about your company, products and how good it is in the market does not contribute to the engagement of your audience, much less add value to your messages.
There are countless companies that commit this sin... beware.
To avoid this try, for example, telling a story, so your campaigns could be very powerful (and entertaining); a story that delivers value, that clearly explains what's in it for your email subscribers, why they should read it today (and not tomorrow) and why they should take a specific action.
This story should focus on the benefits derived from what your company offers, rather than what your company offers specifically.
Examples: if you sell televisions, report on programming content and provide ideas on how to best enjoy them; if you sell golf clubs, refer to the different types of courses, levels of difficulty and the like.
3. Sell, sell and sell
The vast majority of the messages we see passing through fall into the category of promotional email because their sole purpose is to sell. While that is a valid objective, their form and substance lack differentiation.
Your messages can and should have different topics and objectives. Help the recipients of your mailings solve a problem; educate them.
Sell by educating. Offer your audience various benefits for buying your product, without expressly saying "buy the product".
4. Image is everything
A message in which images predominate over text, in the belief that the visual impact will capture more attention, may result in precisely the opposite effect: that nothing is seen.
For various reasons, people often have their email readers (Yahoo, Gmail or Outlook) configured with image filtering.
This makes the images invisible and, if there is no accompanying text, the message becomes a blank sheet of paper that is usually deleted.
Texts must play a leading role; they must take precedence over the image, in a 60/40 ratio. In addition, the image should complement and support the text, not the other way around.
5. Always send on the same day and at the same time.
Scheduling all your mailings for the same day and time, or following to the letter the 'expert' advice of "don't send Monday AM or Friday PM", is not keeping in mind how varied your audience can be.
Determining the best time to send your messages should be a decision based on your own experience.
Try different schedules and be original; break schemes and evaluate your results.
Why not send on a Friday PM or a weekend? How will your audience behave? You don't lose anything by testing with a segment of your base and reviewing the metrics it generates.
Would you add another sin to the list?
