Often, small business users do not know what they are doing wrong or that what they are doing is illegal according to the CAN SPAM Act of 2003.
For small businesses, email still represents a cheap, effective way to establish or maintain a relationship with clients. While the medium is fairly neutral, the content has the power to either attract or repel.
So before you send out your next batch of email newsletters, take heed of these 5 huge email marketing facepalms from 2011 to avoid.
1. Emailing without permission
Getting an email newsletter that you didn’t sign up for feels like an invasion of privacy. Small businesses often start their email marketing campaigns by buying a list and then hitting everyone on that list.
Don’t take shortcuts. Build up your list organically by having an opt-in form on your website or using a sign-up sheet.
2. Having ineffective or irrelevant subject and “from” lines
A subject line should promise short, digestible information that is likely to be of interest. The reader only has to worry about reading two things and, if the email is properly targeted, there’s a good chance they’ll click through to see what it’s about.
The “from” lines are also important. Few people are likely to open an email if they don’t recognize the sender.
Make sure you use an email address that uses your company’s domain. A Gmail or Yahoo address is a tip-off that the company is small-time.
3. Blasting irrelevant content
Make sure your emails are relevant to the audience you’re blasting them to.
Suppose you have a family and you signed up to get email from a travel firm. If you get a few emails with information about singles vacations, it’s not only going to be irrelevant to your needs, but it’s likely to sour you on the company as well.
5. Having no purpose
Many people start using an email marketing software with only a vague notion of what they’re doing. They haven’t really thought about what their true goals are or what’s in it for the subscriber.
So what are your goals? To educate? To start a dialogue? To inform your consumers of news and events in the industry? Having a purpose will dictate your content. Figure it out before you start typing.
6. Providing no entry for dialogue
A good email is like a good tweet or a good blog entry. If people like it, they will pass it around.
Maximize the chances that your message will be shared by writing provocative and interesting content. Don’t be afraid to ask your readers for their own content.
It’s important to state your point of view but also ask readers to share their thoughts.
A good conversation sparked by an email marketing campaign can easily go online and manifest on Twitter and Facebook. Take heed of these five email marketing facepalms for your next email marketing campaign.
Dear Yo,
I enjoyed reading your post on email marketing. These tips are indeed very helpful and are so minute, people tend to forget or skip and that leads to major catastrophe in Email marketing Campaigns. I represent ICS(www.icsportal.in/) as online marketing person, responsible for email marketing here in our company and I appreciate you mentioning the key points every email marketing person should note.
Look forward to new posts from you soon.
With Regards & thanks,
ICS