Marketing

Top Common Email Marketing Mistakes to You Must Avoid

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By Elise Salazar

6 min read

My family loved watching the old TV series “The Three Stooges”. An icon of slapstick humor, this show demonstrated the worst of human interaction.

No one wanted to be labeled as one of the three stooges. And it was obvious how stupid these men were, which in turn gave us a laugh.

Unfortunately, this can happen in email marketing. The mistakes are there and they are obvious. And you certainly don’t want anyone laughing at your marketing emails. I’ve seen “poke in the eye” impersonal content, “Moe’s bullying” too much content, and the crazy squeals of “Woo-woo-woo” with noisy CTAs. Let’s take a look at these common email mistakes:

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Create content with a human touch.

Savor the content.

Use enticing invitations.

Create personal and catchy subject lines.

Create Content With A Human Touch

Our motto here at Market Veep is “Marketing Made Human”. Why? Because we believe that when it comes down to it we are all human. We need to remember that! Sending off an email that doesn’t remember or acknowledge our humanity is not going to get you anywhere. Be real. Be human. Too stuffy, too formal, and you have lost your audience. Think about what you want to read in an email. Get to the point. Treat them as a friend. Be considerate. And most importantly, utilize personalization tokens offered by HubSpot. In today’s technology, we all just want to feel the warmth of the human connection. Not a poke in the eye!

Savor The Content

You're excited! You love your product! Your offering is the best! And you want to share everything about it. We get it. But giving too much content all at once feels like “bullying”. Less truly is more here. Savor it and allow the reader to do the same. Long emails do not get read. You are much better off keeping your message short and to the point. Utilize workflows to send 2 or 3 emails with small amounts of content spread out. This will be enticing and respectful of the readers. It hearkens back to the recognition that we are all human. We all have finite amounts of time. Be respectful and use their time wisely. Don’t “bully” them into taking in all your information at once.

Use Enticing Invitations

You want your reader to be invited to take action. That is smart. You also want to make it super easy for them to connect, get more information, and head to your website. Enter the “call to action" better known as the CTA. This is a great item to add to any email. However, too many CTAs or CTAs that are too large can be noisy and obtrusive. Some tips:

Ensure that the content and the CTA are somewhat related.
Keep the CTA a reasonable size.
One CTA in the middle and 2 at the end is plenty.
A button, a link, an image - any of these formats work well.

Don’t allow your CTAs to give off those annoying “screams of woo-woo-woo” like Curly. Use your CTAs to be an enticing invitation for more.

“Sending off an email that doesn’t remember or acknowledge our humanity is not going to get you anywhere. Be real. Be human.”

Elise Salazar, HubSpot Admin, Market Veep

Create Personal and Catchy Subject Lines

Remember Uncle Shemp, that fourth stooge who joined the series later? Well here is a fourth bonus tip: Make your subject lines personal and catchy. Use their name in the subject line. Wit and fun wordplay keep it real. Emojis work well, too. Keep it short and to the point. Make sure the subject line and the email content match. You don’t want your email to be the weird, unwanted fourth stooge.

Avoid Being the Next Comedy Act

Sometimes all you need is a quick review. Here’s a handy checklist to help you. Give this list a once over before sending out your next email:

Spellcheck
Inserting tokens but the contact doesn't have them in the database ie. Company Name
No default settings for tokens that are missing
Check footer and navigation links are properly working including social icons
Confirm sending list
Remove non-marketing contacts from the sending lists
Add a list for internal receiving
Making sure all cloned info has been changed out from the template
Set for end user time zones
Data hygiene of the database to ensure accurate list segmentation
Name with internal name respective to month/ type
Confirm from name and email address match
A/B test subject lines
Set A/B test goals: click rate, click-through rate, open rate
Assign A/B winning version %
Set A/B test duration before declaring a winner
Customize preview text
Attach to a campaign for ROI measurement
Confirm there is a web version
Preview on desktop and mobile
Confirm do not send to list
Confirm if used as a one-time use or for automation
Confirm any smart rules have been implemented
Test all links are clickable, and test images where applicable to be clickable
Send a test email to yourself

Email marketing mistakes happen. But they don’t have to be a recurring series like The Three Stooges. With the quality email marketing services, you can ensure your emails effectively deliver product information and elevate your brand name to potential buyers. It’s way better than a poke in the eye!

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