Avoid these common email marketing mistakes if you’d like to boost your conversion rates
Have you ever heard the phrase “The Money Is In The List”? If you are involved in online marketing for a while you probably will. But, is it really? As a matter of fact the money is in the relationship that you have with your list. Some marketers have a responsive list of 2000 people and they get more sales than their competitors who have lists with 30,000 and more people. How is this even possible? Two words, trust and loyalty! Let’s have a look at the most common email marketing mistakes you should avoid.
When you’re building a list, the people on your list are exactly that – people. They’re not numbers in your auto-responder. If you make this mistake, not only will you burn your list fast, but you’ll lose your subscribers trust.
Yet many marketers still focus on the size of their lists and NOT on the quality of their list. You want to be the type of marketer who provides immense value to his subscribers and blend in promotional offers every now and then to get sales.
Most of your subscribers will understand that you’re running a business, and once you’ve provided them with enough value, they’ll trust you and buy from you.
To achieve this level of success with email marketing is to treat people like people. If there’s no trust, you can forget about making any sales because everything depends on trust.
Here’s what so many marketers are doing wrong…
1.Write misleading email subject lines
A common mistake is to use subject lines like “Re:” or “Your account is closed” or some other bogus subject line that’s designed to grab attention and to get your subscriber to open the mail.
This is a very poor attempt and if you need to resort to such kind of measures, your email marketing skills are poor to say at least. Making them think that you’re replying to them by using the term “Re:” instantly makes them distrust you when they realize you’re just pitching them an offer.
Your subject line should perk their curiosity. Trying to mislead them to open the email, is not going to work well for you in the long term.
2.Change the ‘From’ address in your mails
Many marketers change their from address when they see that their open rates are going down. The reason for this is because their sending only over hyped mails or they are promoting one thing after another.
Subscribers on a list want value. They want to be educated and entertained. They want something in return for being on your list. They don’t want to be on your list only to be marketed to. If that’s all you ever do and your open rates suffer, well changing your from address isn’t going to be the miracle cure.
Honestly, would you trust a marketer with more names and addresses than a telephone book?
3.Write long and boring emails
Your email should only be as long as it needs to be. The goal is to get your point across. Don’t send repetitive emails and avoid the unnecessary hype. If you do write long emails than make sure they are entertaining and engaging.
4.Use poor formatting
Don’t make it a struggle to read your email. Be aware that reading from a computer screen is more demanding on the eye than reading a print on paper. Make sure to avoid the use of small fonts. Your layout must be simple and enjoyable to read. Don’t use busy backgrounds that makes your email look like a Movie poster.
Keep it stupid simple and you’ll get the best results.
5.Not understanding the needs of your list
Some lists, such as those in the make money online niche, you can email daily and in general they’ll be more tolerant. Try the same thing in a niche like photography or golf, and your subscribers will be gone in no time.
You must understand the needs of your list. Look at your unsubscribe rates. Do more people tend to leave your list when you email often? Then it’s time to slow down.
Are your open rates suffering if you mail only once a week? Yes? Then try emailing twice. There is no right or wrong here. You must test and see what works best.
Don’t think that all lists are the same, and just hammer them with emails over and over again. Get to know your list… and you’ll reap the rewards after that.
Now that you know the 5 most common email marketing mistakes, avoid them at all cost. Treat your list like you would treat your friends and family. People are people and they deserve your respect.
Treat them well and you’ll get their respect. It’s really that simple.
If you want more tips on how to increase your opens, clicks and sales, then you might want to check out this post.