15 Reasons Why Your Email Marketing Is Failing

Digital marketing isn’t a fad. It’s not a trend. And it’s not going to disappear. In fact, it’s growing at an exponential rate. For the foreseeable future, email marketing will remain one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to build customer loyalty and drive sales — if you know how to fully maximize its power. By avoiding these common email marketing mistakes, your campaigns will be more accessible. They will be more targeted. And most of all, they will increase your overall ROI!

1. Rambling and unfocused message—Keep your email as short as possible yet get the intended point across.

2. Multiple and diverse questions arise—Make sure that those questions your customers have are related to your product or service; then deliver the most appropriate response.

3. Incorrect grammar and spelling—Your email is your customer’s first impression; if you don’t impress, someone else will, so be sure your usage is correct.

4. Failure to create templates for each type of email—Your time is valuable, or you wouldn’t be looking for ways to market on the Internet. By creating reusable templates, you can save plenty of time and check your copy for the template that works best.

5. Too many attachments—Most people are concerned with viruses—as they should be—and may not even open the attachment. They may be restricted by their email server on the size or number of attachments allowed.

6. Overuse of high-priority option—People get high-priority mail every day that truly isn’t high priority. This will cause them to ignore high-priority mail when they should be taking care of it.

7. Unproofed and unedited email—Proofread your email before sending it, and, if possible, have someone else proof it. One lost customer can be very costly. Take the time to make sure it is right.

8. Using abbreviations and emoticons—The Internet world has created a language if its own. This language is great for instant messaging but has no place in the world of professional marketing.

9. Inappropriate use of rich text and HTML messages—Remember that a message that can’t be read is a message that is wasted. Most people won’t take the time to try to make it readable on their computer—another lost customer. USE TEXT AND SEND THEM TO A WEB SITE FOR MORE IMPRESSIVE GRAPHICS.

10. Using the return receipt—This only aggravates the reader to have to click on a button to be able to read your message.

11. Not using or incorrectly using the subject line—Be specific. This will give the reader the opportunity to open now or at their leisure. This is a courtesy that should be extended on every email message.

12. Incorrect use of important and urgent messages—This is the same principle as the high-priority flag. Your message is important to you but is just another among the sea of messages received by your customer.

13. Failure to use a virus-scan tool—The last thing you want to do is pass viruses to your customer with an email.

14. Using inappropriate or offensive language—You are trying to earn the respect of your customer, and you certainly don’t want an inappropriate statement to cost you business.

15. Passing another’s written work off as your own—Get permission before using a message or attachment. Copyright laws have been written to protect the work of others. Do not use written material without the proper permission to do so.