6 Biggest Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Part I of II

Email remains the highest ROI marketing activity for the majority of businesses.  According to Forester research, direct mail costs up to 20 times as much as email marketing.  Times are changing though and email marketing can easily lose it’s effectiveness if not done correctly.

In the next two posts we will discuss 6 of the biggest email marketing mistakes that businesses make...and how you can avoid them.  This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns remain effective at driving new referrals and sales during these tough economic times.

Mistake #1 - Not prioritizing email list building

When someone signs up for your email list, they are raising their hand and saying “please start a dialogue with me!”.  This is extremely valuable and therefore your list building efforts should extend beyond the typical “join our newsletter” sign up box on your homepage.  Here are some examples of other ways to build your email lists:

• use drop boxes or sign up sheets in your retail space to sign up for emails
• gather names at tradeshows, conferences or meetings
• run contests for prizes or giveaways
• use a co-registration offer when someone subscribes to email newsletters from partner companies with overlapping customer bases
• give away valuable industry white papers: how-to’s, case studies and best practices

Mistake #2 - Not Segmenting Your Lists

Your customers don’t all exhibit the same behaviours, nor do your prospects.  Segmentation of your email lists helps ensure that the message that your subscriber reads is relevant to their needs and their concerns.
Segmentation by demographic is a great start and better than nothing.  But, as Jim Novo points out so emphatically, it’s far more valuable to measure behaviour over time vs. taking a quick snapshot of what the customer is doing at any given moment.

Mistake #3 - Not Using “Trip Wire” Marketing

Segmentation by customer behaviour is only powerful if you can measure and act on specific behaviour changes that fall outside of your “norm”.  By tracking customer actions over time, you can build “trip wire” email campaigns designed to keep repeat buyers and increase the lifetime value of your customers.

For example:  An office supply store estimates that their local retail clients purchase office supplies like printer paper and ink cartridges every 50 days on average.  By segmenting and emailing accounts that exceed that 50 day average the office supply store can offer timely incentives that keep customer buying patterns “normal” and reduce losses to competition.

Stay tuned for Part II where we will examine mistakes 4-6, all related to your email’s content:

Mistake # 4 - Weak Subject Lines
Mistake # 5- Content that is void of real value
Mistake # 6 - Improper or weak linking