Top 8 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid At Any Cost In 2021

This is a guest post by Kevin George.

Among all digital marketing platforms, email marketing generates the maximum ROI, and no matter which size your organization is, you can’t afford to make mistakes with it. This becomes even more applicable in the current scenario as the economies contracted and businesses started shredding off any extra costs, thus adding a little extra pressure on CMOs. Today, I will share the top eight email marketing mistakes that can make your hard-earned results vanish into thin air. 

Almost every brand witnessed a steep decline in its email marketing metrics as it hit new lows in 2021, but you can fix it using the actionable insight I will be sharing in this article. 

Let’s get started.

#1 Not Paying Attention To Subject Line Optimization

The most important factor in getting your emails opened is a catchy subject line that persuades the subscriber to open your message. Generally, a person decides to consume a piece of online content in about 50 milliseconds, leaving little room for error. I recommend staying away from creating hypes as well as revealing too much. You should also include the recipient’s name as it is one of the most appreciated words personally, as described by Dale Carnegie.

#2 Failing To Benefit From Preheader Text

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Your preheader text is the 40-130 characters long description that appears just alongside your subject line. If you aren’t using it already, start taking its full benefit as soon as possible. You can use them to complement your subject line and better understand what your message has inside for your readers. On average, every email user receives a staggering 126 emails a day, so you shouldn’t make the mistake of not presenting your message properly.

#3 Using Spammy Words In Your Subject Lines And Email Copy

Many email marketers try to present their messages in a highly persuasive tone that resembles spammy malpractices. All email clients have a framework to identify and block messages that contain words used by scamsters like ‘lottery’ to improve their user’s online safety. Avoid making such mishaps that limit your ability to enter your subscriber’s inboxes and ultimately damage your sender IP reputation.

#4 Missing On Mobile Optimization

The shift in the consumer demographics, i.e., the arrival of Gen Z and increasing use of smartphones to execute daily tasks, has made mobile optimization a basic necessity. If you are a Mailchimp user like most brands, but you aren’t using responsive Mailchimp templates, it’s going to adversely impact your conversions despite having the right resources. Non-optimized messages render unpleasantly, and they will dent your chances of wooing subscribers by at least 50%. Here’s an example of using a mobile-optimized Mailchimp email template from the brand itself:

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#5 Failing To Use Graphics Properly

Humans are visual creatures, and as an email developer, you should pay attention to the graphics you are using. They should help the recipient understand the purpose of sending the message instead of merely filling your valuable real estate. One of the common mistakes made is making the email dependent on the images, which can backfire in case they fail to render. Keep your messages self-sustaining even without the rich media, and make sure that you are adding the alt text for improving the accessibility of your emails. Here’s another example of a Mailchimp template acing at the use of images:

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#6 Messing Up Your Email Sending Frequency

Sending frequency is one of the aspects that impacts your brand’s long-term engagement rates. If you don’t have any strategy to decide your send times and frequency, you’re heading towards an email marketing disaster. Every sector has a favorable mailing time, and you should gauge the mailing frequency that your subscribers are comfortable with. If you send too many emails, you are likely to drop engagement rates, and on the flip side, none of us would like to reply to an email from a brand from whom we bought a product in 2015. Also, go for ideal send times for your industry, which usually happens to be from 10 AM -12 PM from Tuesday to Thursday in most cases.

#7 Making Mistakes In Personalization And Segmentation Efforts While Setting Up Email Automation

One of the biggest mistakes that drain revenue from your email marketing funnel is wrongly setting up the automation workflows. If you end up setting up wrong triggers and workflows, your subscriber segments may become vastly irrelevant to the user’s expectations and ultimately send wrong messages. It would be best to stay alert while setting up segmentation and personalization rules since many ESPs like Marketo allow you to do this process in multiple layers. 

#8 Not Putting The Unsubscribe Link At Visible Position

Lastly, do not forget to add an unsubscribe link/button on your Mailchimp templates since every subscriber list faces up to a 50% churn rate. Discarding dormant leads is necessary to maintain hygiene and improve overall success since disengaged leads will only sabotage your visibility. Here’s an example of discarding dormant leads using specialized messages:

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Summing Up

Toward the end, I recommend tracking your performance and taking preemptive measures. These mistakes may look too silly to be made, yet they happen to be the most common ones. I hope you find this list useful in making the most out of email marketing in 2021.

Author Bio:Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, that specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.