Email marketing is an invaluable tool for all companies, but especially for eCommerce companies whose dealings are primarily online. Email marketing is a unique opportunity and one that has to be grasped with both hands. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s quite a delicate balance to strike in an arena which can be personal and where you risk losing a customer by annoying them with your content. So, to that point, here are 10 mistakes you can easily make and how to avoid them.
1. Blanket Emailing
It can be tempting to pour all of your promotional emailing efforts into one email, with generalized advertising content for all of your prospective customers. This is an ineffective move in the long run and though it may save you time and effort can actually lose you email subscribers. “Categorizing your email recipients buy their shopping preferences, ages, demographics is called segmentation”, explains Martin Wilson, marketer at StateOfWriting and OxEssays. “By segmenting, you can tailor your email content to what specific individuals will be looking for, making them feel valued”.
2. Neglecting Mobile
In this day and age, so much of people’s business and pleasure is conducted through smartphones and tablets, not least of all communication. Many people will actually have notifications for incoming emails so making sure that your emails are optimized for smartphones is vital, since messy emails with hard to tap links will get you nowhere.
3. Ignore The Seasons
A great way to capture your email audience with content that is relevant and interesting is to connect it to real world events, particularly the seasons and the holidays. It makes the reader feel as if it isn’t just a computer program churning out the content, but other human beings who they want to connect with.
4. Rely On Text Only
Marketing emails can be dry at the best of times, so there’s something of an expectation that commercial email content will be boring. If the recipient is then greeted by a giant block of text with nothing to break it up, you can be almost sure you’ve lost them. Inserting images can be a great way to draw attention and cut down on the number of words you need.
5. Not Relating Your Emails To Their Actual Activity
If you’ve managed to get your hands on a potential customer’s email address, then there is an implication that that person has interacted with your site in the past. Recording that data, of what they purchased, put in their basket, looked at or commented on is a really good tool to help guide your email content.
6. Messing Up Your Writing Style
Writing is the central tool you have to convert email recipients into buyers. Subsequently, every piece of writing that you release has to be flawlessly spelled, grammar-checked and clear or you’ll show your customers that you’re unprofessional and not committed. But it can be hard, so here are a lit of tools to help.
Academ Advisor and Study demic – These are email copywriting guides, with general pointers for approaching the writing.
Academized – An online editing tool, great for polishing your work up before sending it out to users, as mentioned at Revieweal.
MyWritingWay – A grammar checker, with tips for helping you master this subtle but vital art.
PaperFellows and AustralianHelp – Both for generating those optimized subject lines, subheadings and keywords.
ViaWriting – Offers proofreading tools for ensuring you don’t put out any sloppy content.
BigAssignments and EliteAssignmentHelp – Both content formatting tools, for helping with the layout of your email content.
7. Not Experimenting With Media
Text is no the be all and end all of an email, there are a whole host of other factors to consider and lots of ways in which you can experiment and utilize alternate media. Things like GIFs and short film content will really draw your readers into your email.
8. Lacking Consistency
The more consistently you are able to distribute your email content, the better. It may feel like you have to be concerned about bothering your readers too much, but in most cases having a consistent presence in their inboxes is a huge plus.
9. Foregoing Rewards
Treat your email readership to hidden deals and other promotional content by giving them codes and links only available through their email subscription. It motivates them to stay and makes them feel special.
10. Relying On Automation
Automatic sales emails are very helpful, but the email marketing exchange is a good chance to really talk to your audience. So, leave the bots aside for a second and write something heartfelt, by a real human heart.
Conclusion
It’s vital that you grasp this opportunity for your eCommerce marketing. To be able to deliver marketing materials directly into the inbox of a potential or past client is too good an opportunity to be missed. So, get started early, and avoid these classic errors.
