Email Marketing Mistakes – Mostly done by every Email Marketer

Whether you’re new to email newsletter marketing business or a long time (Pro) Email Marketer, here are five common email marketing mistakes which is done by almost every email marketer.  

Even if you’ve made some mistakes, being real and genuine goes a long way. It not only perpetuates great content, but it attracts loyal subscribers.

Now, here are 5 email marketing mistakes:

1. Buying Lists

This is the number one mistake made by email marketers. It never pays to take shortcuts, and it will always cost you.

Buying a list will harm your business. In fact, it could put an end to your email marketing efforts all together!

This is what can happen:

• Become blacklisted by your Internet Service Provider.
• Fired by your email service provider.
• Viewed as a spammer by those who you email on that list.
• Ruin your business reputation.

Even if you try to keep it a “secret,” it will eventually catch up with you: “Where did you get these names from?”

2. Quantity Over Quality

Quality over quantity will always win out.

Just put yourself in the place of the recipient. If a recipient finds you in their inbox too often, you’ll be deleted before opening, and “marked as SPAM” if you’ve really crossed the line.

One email marketer I know shaved off almost 90 percent of his list after cleaning it up… but doubled his conversions! How does a smaller list improve conversion? It’s all about engagement. It’s interesting but when it comes to ISPs, they look at engagement when deciding to put your emails through. ISPs can see your metrics, so if you have a large list that’s pretty much dead, then they’ll suspect it’s a spam list.

3. Not Setting Expectations on Content, Frequency and Design

Don’t drop new subscribers straight into the mix.

Forgetting to setup a new subscriber introduction email is never a good idea.

If a new subscriber receives their first email newsletter, and it happens to be a little out of character, they may drop you straight away.

Give your new subscribers a feel for the content, frequency and a feel for the design of your newsletter. Use of autoresponders wold be great.

4. Focus on Open Rates

As easy as it is to focus on open rates, this should never be a measurement of success.

An open rate is the rate in which an email is opened.

That’s it.

An opened email metric is not a sale, an engaged reader or loyal subscriber.

It’s an opened email. That’s it.

5. Writing Content that is Boring or Re-purposed

Although I think reviewing pieces of popular, re-purposed content isn’t the end of the world, it is certainly not a centerpiece of strategy.

There’s nothing that leads to an unsubscribe than receiving an email full of something you’ve already seen, or long-winded marketing drivel.

Your relationship with your reader is the most important part of your email newsletter. You need their permission to market to them, which is the first step to building a great relationship. Now you need to send them useful content that tells them you care about them.

But that’s not enough… it has to be unique and useful. Bad email newsletter marketers will simply send rehashed blog posts, which is a bad idea. One selling point to entice subscribers is that your email newsletter is a place where you share special reports, information and findings.

For example, here are some good ways to think of the content you provide in your email newsletters:

• Cornerstone content – This is the content that will make up most of what you give your readers… it’s what defines you. If you’re a SEO, then you’ll write about SEO. If you’re a graphic designer, you’ll give content based on graphic design.
• Personal content – Don’t forget to share personal stories. Most of your readers will be around to learn what you have to say about your area of expertise. But sharing personal stories will build a great relationship with them.
• Spicy content – Finally, you should also occasionally write posts. Write about a high-profile figure that you disagree with or something controversial. These email pieces are going to be the ones that probably get forwarded the most.