The 7 deadly sins of email marketing

Email marketing, Online marketing5 comments

Whether you are using email marketing already or have only read about it, you will be aware that this form of marketing is now being promoted as a quick and easy way for businesses to communicate with their clients.  It’s not only cost effective but produces quick results, and messages can be personalised so the recipient only receives the information they are interested in.

Before rushing into it though, you need to be aware of the common pitfalls.  In fact, if you don’t set up an email marketing campaign properly then not only will your newsletter never get seen by your contacts but it could also damage your reputation.  So if you want your campaign to promote your business professionally, read on to learn the 7 deadly sins to avoid when using email marketing!

DON’T:

• Use your ordinary email program.  Use an email marketing service to send messages to your contacts.  Your ISP places limits on how many messages you can send out per month and how many people you can send them to, and they may block your account if you exceed this limit.

• Add people to your mailing list without their permission.  Use the double opt-in method so that only people who have signed up and confirmed they want to be added are on your list.  This prevents you from being treated as a “spammer”.

• Send a message without personalising it.  Put your details in the From field and add the recipient’s name to the message – this helps to build a relationship with the contact and prevents the message being treated as spam.

• Forget to put a reminder of why the recipient is receiving your email.  Add some text at the top of the email, such as “You signed up on our website” or “You recently purchased a product”.  Again, this prevents the message being treated as spam or the recipient sending it straight to the delete folder.

• Add “spammy” words in the subject line such as “free”, “discounted”, “£££” or “$$$”.  This is one way of getting your emails automatically sent to the junk folder.

• Hide the unsubscribe link or forget to add it. The link must be clearly visible so that recipients can easily unsubscribe from your list.  Ideally, put the link at both the top and bottom of the message.

• Only send out an HTML version of your email.  Make sure that you do a plain text version too for those who can’t or won’t view images.

If done correctly, email marketing is a very effective way of promoting your services and products directly to your clients.  Therefore, it is essential to make sure that you have done everything necessary for your newsletters and messages to reach your potential audience.