Email Marketing: Four Email Errors That Can Cost You Subscribers
The cost of error in email marketing is too high, as it can be seen by thousands of subscribers at once. Luckily, we have outlined the 4 common email errors and we will give you practical tips on how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: unclear subject line
It would seem that it could be simpler - but the lion's share of market players still does not follow this rule. The subject line of your email should clearly match the content. It is very important to avoid ambiguity. Clear and concise topics receive more clicks than long and “clever” topics. Perhaps abstract topics sound prettier, but they work less efficiently.
Remember how many times you saw such letters in your inbox:
"You are not alone...";
"You are finally here!"
"Are you still doing it the same way?"
"My gift to you ..."
How many times are you really interested? That's just it. Although they arouse the user's curiosity, the fact of "clicks" on such messages is very low.
A completely different situation occurs with examples such as:
"Your Win Personalization Strategy"
"8 main mistakes marketers make in e-mail newsletters"
"3 steps towards customer loyalty"
They really encourage customers to click and open the email. So remember: don't write too witty newsletter topics. By clearly showing the connection between topic and content, you increase your open rate.
Advice
- Immediately show the user what to expect when they open the email.
- Use numbers and words like "Tips" and "Steps" in topics.
- Focus on all metrics, not just open-rate.
- Even the best subject line is useless if it doesn't lead to a click.
Mistake 2: unsorted lists with email addresses
Today, it is more difficult not even to interest the user, but to ensure that your letters reach the addressee. In order to get into the inbox folder is not enough to avoid only "spam" words. Many people follow the example of Gmail when it comes to the user experience model. Gmail divides emails into three distinct categories: primary, social, and advertising. Getting into the “primary” category is a real headache for marketers, as Gmail evaluates a whole range of factors:
- Constantly opening emails;
- Scrolling;
- "Clicks" within the email;
- Unique "clicks" within the email;
- Frequency of interaction with content in general (i.e., does the recipient regularly open letters from this sender);
In order to get through the spam filters, the sender's reputation must be kept clean. But too many parameters affect your reputation:
- positive and negative interactions with users;
- blacklisting and spam complaints;
- the frequency of opening and clicks on your emails, etc.
All this makes the path to the user's email inbox even more thorny.
3 steps to a "clean" email database
1) Track soft bounce dynamics
"Soft" bounces, are situations when an e-mail exists, but delivery of your letter to it for some reason is not possible. This can be in the case of a temporary blocking of the address, the mailbox memory is full, or the user simply denied mailing. These errors occur at a fairly low frequency, so they are not considered malicious, but many email marketers do not pay enough attention to them, as a result of which they miss the turning point when too many soft bounces spoil their domain's reputation.
2) Removing role-based addresses
Role-based addresses (e.g. admin @, help @, sales @) are email addresses that are not associated with a specific person, but rather with a company, department, or group of recipients. They are usually not intended for personal use and are kind of a problem:
- it is impossible to prove that everyone who receives the newsletter to such addresses initially agreed to receive them;
- These addresses are usually more susceptible to collecting information from the Internet;
- often role-based addresses are used as spam traps. Any email sent to such addresses is considered spam by default because the address was obtained and used without permission.
3) Launching user re-engagement campaigns
25-50% of all email marketer lists regularly include a number of inactive users. Re-engagement campaigns are a cost-effective way to determine which of these inactive subscribers still want to receive emails from you. This is important for email delivery, as unsubscribing is better than being marked as spam.
Advice
- Automate your database cleanup to reduce errors that negatively impact your domain's reputation;
- The quality of your database significantly affects your reputation in the eyes of postal services. Constantly monitor the purity of subscribers' lists: validate inactive ones, check all "newbies".
Mistake 3: not being able to find out if your email is in the Inbox
Only 79% of sales letters end up in the main mailbox. One in five emails ends up in your spam folder, one in a hard bounce, another in a soft bounce. This is a fairly large percentage of your outgoing emails that go to waste.When your emails are sent to the spam folder, they are still considered delivered. However, few people look at these folders. Your email delivery rate can be 99%, with only 50% of your emails falling into the "primary" email category.
If you, like most marketers, rely on email marketing as an additional revenue-generating tool, we shouldn't ignore the fact that perhaps half of your efforts will be wasted. That is why it is important to pay attention not only to such indicators as dispatch, delivery, delivery speed, hard returns and soft returns. These numbers will not tell you what percentage of messages actually ended up in your Inbox and how much went into your spam folders.
In order to find out what is happening with your letters, you can use special tools for this. For example, you can use a dedicated, integrated platform that will show mailbox placement, sender reputation, spam analysis, and design analysis. By using such platforms to optimize your email list, you can quickly improve your work results.
Advice
- Manage your returns by implementing ad-hoc campaigns among ISPs.
- Measure your inbox to troubleshoot specific addresses.
Mistake 4: no segmentation by interaction
ISPs have high demands on your emails. It is important for them to see that they interact with the email newsletter on a regular level (read, scroll, click). When you have a high level of customer engagement, the likelihood increases that your email will fall into the “primary” category.
Let's say you regularly send emails to 100,000 subscribers through your database. In the last 90 days, 20,000 of those 100,000 (or 20%) interacted with your email campaign. The other 80,000 (or 80%) did not.Accordingly, if you only send emails to those 20,000 subscribers, the open-rate will be 18%, the click-through rate will be 3%, and the cancellation rate will be reduced to zero.If you only send emails to 80,000 subscribers, your open-rate will be 3%, your click-through rate will be 0.2%, and your cancellation rate will be 0.31%.When you send a newsletter to all your subscribers, your open-rate will be 6%, your click-through rate will be 0.76%, and your unsubscribe rate will be 0.25%.
For the best results here, first send emails to high-activity subscribers, wait 30 minutes, then send to others. This way you will get high scores. The ISP will see a high level of engagement, which increases your reputation as a sender. Then, when you send your second email, your ISP will redirect more of those messages to your Inbox.
Advice
- To increase your reputation, send your mails step by step.
- If you are sending a large volume of messages, categorize them by interaction levels.