Avoid 10 Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 4:36 am

The internet is becoming one of the best money-makers available today. Opportunities abound everywhere the surfer goes. Blanket emails go out constantly to the potential customer with high hopes they will bring in the mother load. Most of these emails and internet marketers are doomed to fail and the company not willing to be persistent can get discouraged quickly. Ten of the most common mistakes will be analyzed and discussed and suggested solutions will be offered. It is possible once these mistakes are revealed, the open-minded reader may think of a few original solutions in addition to those included here.

1. High Expectations
Blanket emails do not usually target specific groups of people for their campaigns and as a result do not receive a very high rate of response. For instance, young people are usually not in need of dentures and sending emails to them advertising dentures will certainly be ignored and deleted.

2. The Wrong Amount of Information
People who receive emails look in two places to see if there could possibly any interest in your email. They first look at the block containing the sender’s identity. If they do not know the sender or the screen name does not appear to be familiar, they will next look at the subject. This is where many emails fail. If it contains too much information or only a one or two word subject, they will not be curious enough to open and read the email. The secret here is a catchy phrase or title to spark the recipient’s curiosity and make them want to learn more. Then a handy list of benefits targeted to their needs will certainly prove to be the key for success and they will click on the email or link to find out more.

3. Unclear Instructions
Most items cannot be sold by email, no matter how well-written the article. Curiosity does sell. Give them something to investigate by providing a link to your website where you can pull them in with solutions to their problems.

4. No Free Stuff
It is human nature to want something for nothing and people would be more willing to purchase something, if you offer something extra to be included in their purchase. People like to brag about the steal they just found and everyone else missed out.

5. No Sense of Urgency
Make your pitch easy to understand and provide instructions on exactly how to get your products or services immediately. Make people want to click on the “Buy Now” link so quickly that the extra second taken to think about your offer will make the link disappear.

6. Not Concentrating on a Target Market
People buy things they need or they know someone who needs what you have to offer. The important thing to remember here is to use lists of the groups of people who can use your products. Young people are not interested in anti-aging cream so don’t try to sell it to them. Concentrated lists can get a 15-35% response rate as opposed to a general list with a 1-3% response rate.

7. Fail to Continue Sending the Offer
Rarely do people purchase something the first time they see it. Statistics show most people have to see an offer seven times before they decide to purchase it. It still must be something they need and must contain a very strong pitch. They were interested enough the first time to click on your link or give you their email address so continue to keep them interested until they give in and buy. Choose your follow-up day as the same day the person signed up for your offer or investigated your link. That is typically the day they are online and it is a known fact that people are creatures of habit.

8. No Contact Information
Make sure you provide your contact information or some way for people to ask for further information. It is possible the product is the exact fit for someone’s needs but he or she may not realize it until you give them more details. This can come in the form of a monitored phone number or instant message site, an email address or some way people can receive a personal touch.

9. Not Keeping Records of Campaigns and Their Results
Each marketing campaign you run should have a way to keep track of its success rate. It should contain at a minimum the number of hits as a result of it, questions and the number of ultimate purchases. A tracking code inserted in the link with an automatic post to a spreadsheet will measure the success of each campaign.

10. No Measured Test Results
Test your marketing campaigns, keep the successful ones and discard those that are not. Continue to test variations of your ads and change colors, graphics and fonts and keep track of the results.

Do you want more tips and strategies? Subscribe to my VIP newsletter and learn how you can get top Google rankings faster than you thought possible.