DO NOT MAKE THESE THREE EMAIL MARKETING MISTAKES!
Posted by Mitch Tarr on Fri, Dec 16, 2011 @ 08:35 PM
These three mistakes are made too often and since a picture is worth a thousand words, these three pictures are worth 3 thousand words, give or take.
Email Marketing Mistake #1: Personalize your message properly.
This is one of the mistakes I worry about making the most. You send a message intending to make it personal and you scream out "This is a form letter!"
It's an easy one to catch if you send a test message first. ALWAYS send a test message. Because you know, the only time you don't is the one time you'll make this mistake.
That's exactly how the message looked in my inbox.
Email Marketing Mistake #2: Broken Links.
This mistake is also preventable by checking links in a test message. Simply send yourself the message and click on ALL the links in the message. Make sure you do this even if you make one tiny change to your message.
That's the time something will go wrong with your html code and 23,000 people will see this:
Email Marketing Mistake #3: Read Your Message Before You Send It.
This mistake could be caught just as easily when you are doing you link check. I read this message and at the end I was interested enough to click on the link...
...and guess what? I couldn't find it!
The final sentence says I can learn more by 'clicking here.' 'Clicking here' should be a link. Somehow this got past the proofing process and if they reviewed the results they should have noticed their click through rate was zero!
We don't mean to be critical, people make mistakes. But when you're sending an email campaign to thousands of people the impact of making a mistake can be amplified.
So...send your test message, check it twice, and then, and only then, send your message.