As the former email marketing lead for CWD, it’s has been my job to write great emails for companies. This makes it really easy for me to spot ineffective emails that business owners send out on a regular business. And there are a lot of them. It doesn’t take long to learn effective email marketing skills. However most business owners have no idea that they are damaging their brand with the emails they send.
Here are 3 Email Marketing Pitfalls to avoid:
1) Not addressing your contact personally: Most email marketing software systems use merge fields or merge tags. You can use merge fields to pull a contact’s information out of your database and use it to personalize the email you are sending. Instead of addressing your contact with “Hey Friend,”, which is highly impersonal, use a merge field to insert their name. In your email it will look like “Hey MERGE FIELD,” and when the email comes to them it will have their name in it: “Hey Bob,”. Addressing them with “Hey Friend” is a sure fire way to get them to stop reading your email.
Don’t have their first name? Address them by title. Or, by the group your are speaking to. ie. “Hey Entrepreneurs” , “Hey Singles”, “Hey Foodies”.
2) Talking to much about YOU: Sorry to say it, your contact doesn’t care about you. They care about themselves. They want to know what they are getting from you. How will your product or service help them? How are they going to benefit? The best sales people get into their customer’s world. Find out what they want first. Then sell it to them.
What’s a great way to find out what your audience wants if you aren’t sure? Survey them.
3) Selling too soon: If your contact has never purchased from you asking them to buy right away will be jarring to their system. It may even push them away. You have to build a relationship with them before they feel comfortable buying from you. This takes time. Be patient. Email marketing is foreplay. It’s the appetizer before the main course. If it’s not good, you’ll turn people off. If it’s good you will build a list of faithful followers that will be beneficial to the success of your business. If they love you enough they will share your business with other people.
