Email marketing is an online marketing strategy that aims to reach out to a large group of current and potential clients through email. It enables companies to target thousands of online users and if carried out correctly can result in positive image building and excellent conversions overnight.
The Downside to Email Marketing
Many businesses abuse email marketing. They take advantage of the fact that they have access to thousands of email addresses and that they can communicate with those people at the click of the button.
They bombard inboxes in a desperate bid to get their emails opened, leading to apathy towards that company and the likelihood that the user will automatically click ‘delete’ before even opening the email. This is bad for branding and bad for business.
Getting your email opened is not the main goal of an email marketing campaign. The main goal is to get the reader to take action after reading your email.
Bad email marketing habits that you need to avoid
Your subject line is misleading
People usually open an email campaign because it seems interesting or tempting to them. Certain words are known to entice people into opening the email, only to find that they have misled. From here they will simply click on the ‘junk’ button and move on. This spoils the branding of your business and will only contribute towards negative image building.
To avoid this keep your subject lines honest and descriptive. What is the subject of your email? Summarise it in the subject line!
They ‘overdress’ the email
Keep it clean and ensure it encourages the user to click. Avoid over-complicating the user with a complex animation.
It is overloaded with information and endless links
In our information-heavy age people are becoming easily overwhelmed by too much information. For this reason, make sure your email campaign is simple and easy to respond to.
The timing is wrong
Experiment with different times of day or night to establish when the right time for your email to be received. Check conversion rates on a number of emails to establish when the majority of readers are taking action.
To summarise, email marketing should be a holistic activity that appropriately appeals to the user. Your design should be simple, clean, goal-oriented and interesting. Above all else, it should encourage the user to take action.
About 8 Ways Media
8 Ways Media is a leading online media agency offering professional, engaging branding and web design in addition to content marketing, digital marketing and more. To learn more, visit our services page or fill in our contact form and a member of our team will get back to you.
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