Email campaigns are a great way to build content, when done right. If done wrong, email campaigns can chew up countless hours with no reward. Life lesson: sometimes learning how to do the right thing, requires you to learn how to avoid all of the wrong things first.
Email Marketing Campaigns Gone Wrong
Users today have spam filters which accidentally forward email into spam for all different reasons. What’s the number one reason you ask? Spammy subject lines. The number two reason? Spammy keywords in the body. Last but not least, the users themselves may take once glance at your email address, and route you into a blacklist.
With so many barriers to get around, it’s easy for your email campaign to be lost in cyberspace forever.
If you’re going to spend countless hours creating, optimizing, and tweaking an email campaign, make sure you do it right the first time. Avoid the mistakes of a beginner by learning the top ten bloopers to avoid in email campaigns.
10 Things You Should Never Do In An Email Campaign
1. Use an Unidentified Email Address
Avoid sending an email campaign through a @gmail @yahoo @hotmail account. Professional email should be sent through the company’s email account (@yourbusinessname). Your email will represent a valid source if it is sent by a business account. For example, for the interview campaign done on Foliage.org I tested two email accounts:
- __@foliage.org
- __@gmail.com
The response rate for @foliage.org was much higher than the @gmail. Testing two email accounts comes into use in tip #9.
If you must use a gmail account, make sure the preceding name of the account is descriptive about your business. Don’t use Jenny@gmail.com if you should be using businessconsultant@gmail.com. Yes, a lot of GMail accounts are taken, but do your best to secure one that tells more than just your name.
2. Write Spam Filled Subject Lines
The subject line is the first message a recipient sees before he or she reads the email. I know you have deleted an email before even opening the message. Why waste a couple extra minutes reading an email if it already seems spammy from the start? My time is valuable, and so is yours. However, the recipient of your email campaign is thinking the same thing.
Tips for Subject Lines:
- Sometimes including the recipients name in the subject line can trigger a spam filter
- Write a subject line that tells the recipient the benefits of opening your email- what’s in it for the reader
- Identify who you are and what your business is about
- Keep it short and sweet (8-10 words max)
- Provide a sense of urgency when applicable
In order write a successful subject line, you need to test a few subject lines first. Ideally, you should test 3-5 subject lines for each marketing campaign. This will help you find out which type of subject lines are most successful in your business. Use this information to tailor future campaigns.
Spam Trigger Words:
- Free!
- 50% off!
- Click Here
- Call now!
- Subscribe
- Earn $
- Discount!
- You’re a Winner!
- Lose weight
3. Forget About Recording Data
This may be one of the most overlooked parts of sending an email campaign. It also is the biggest headache to go back and record this data (trust me, personal experience). The data you receive from your email marketing campaigns can help you structure and improve future email campaigns.
This is an idea of the important data that you should track:
- Name of Business
- Business Website
- Name of Contact
- Job Title of Contact
- Contact’s email address
- Subject Line of your email
- Channels on which you contacted
- Website for business social media account
- Week day, Date you sent email
- Week day, Date you received response
4. Forget about Marketing Analysis
The countless hours you spent customizing your email campaign will be wasted without marketing analysis. The reason you record the data is to eventually analyze it, right? Marketing analysis may be a little time consuming, but it’s worth its weight in gold, especially if you plan on doing future campaigns. Use the data you receive to record which subject lines had the best response rates, which channel was most successful, and what day of the week returned the best response.
5. Not Using The Power of Social Media
Through running email campaigns on several websites, I found that the most successful campaign came from using social media. Since social media occurs in real time, so you are often able to contact your recipients and receive an instant message back.
Don’t use Social Media as your only point of contact. Instead, use social media as a back up for sending your email. Once you send your email campaign, ping the related Social Media account to let the agency know you just sent them a request for an interview. Most agencies will reply within hours if not a few days.
Not all agencies have social media accounts, but most that do will have that account listed on the homepage of their website. Try contacting through Twitter first, and use Facebook as needed.
6. Only Contact the CEO
That’s great, you managed to find the email address of the CEO. Now, you’ve basically guaranteed your email won’t get read. A CEO would love to promote the company name by doing an interview. However, as a CEO, this person is probably much to busy to read your interview, let alone respond to it. If you must email the CEO, then CC this person, don’t make that individual your only contact.
In fact, by forwarding your message to a CEO, you may improve your success rate of your campaign. Have the PR person be your main contact, but copy the CEO in order to hold PR responsible for responding to your message.
7. Only Contact One Person
Going along with the previous tip, it’s best to contact more than one person in a department. This holds each individual responsible for replying to your message. It also builds buzz about your message. If a person sees that they are not the only contact, it’s likely that the multiple contacts will want to discuss your email.
Target your email to contacts in the PR department. Since these employees are the head honchos for promoting the business, they have a higher response rate.
8. Send Email Marketing Campaign Late on Friday
Research shows that office work on Friday consists of Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Shameful, I know, but we’re all victims to the end of the work week drag.
The worst thing you can do is to send your email campaign out on a Friday. Most employees will rarely respond to an email they receive late Friday, since one foot is already out the door by 12:00 pm. Sending an email on Friday increases the likelihood that your message will never get read. If your message does get read on Friday, many people will forget to respond by Monday.
9. Use Only One Email Address to Send a Campaign
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Since there are many variables that could cause an email to get routed into spam, it’s good to test two email accounts. Be wary of coming off as spam mail. Don’t send the same campaign out using two emails in one day. Only use your backup email account if you don’t receive a response within the first two weeks after you sent the message.
10. Use Only One Channel to Send Your Message
If you’re really determined, use more than one channel to send your message. A fully staffed team should call the contact after all other channels have failed.
Author: Kelsey Libert
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