Stick to what works
If you’re one of the 47% of small business owners who run marketing completely on their own, it’s likely this function is one of the many hats you wear. And chances are unless you’re running a marketing business yourself, you don’t have a professional marketing background. This means there are probably a few things you’re doing — or not doing — in your marketing efforts that could be holding your business back.
Here are some common mistakes to avoid with email marketing.
Sending Too Many Emails
This is probably consumers’ biggest pet peeve when it comes to email marketing and one that should be avoided at all costs. According to Campaign Monitor, 121 business emails are sent and received each day. That’s a lot of traffic to disrupt.
So one might think, the more emails the merrier, right? Wrong.
A YouGov study found that 75 percent of consumers say they resent a brand that sends too many emails, according to Chief Marketer. And resentment does not increase sales. You don’t want people to associate annoyance with your brand. So spare them the feeling by strategically delivering your promotions to a healthy timeline, say once a week.
By doing this, you’ll keep your subscriber list strong and improve loyalty rather than repeal potential customers.
Failure to Segment Your Subscriber List
This is one of the most common mistakes marketers make while crafting their email marketing strategies. If you do not segment your subscriber list based on their preferences, you are losing out. Email marketing is a perfect opportunity to build intimate relationships with your prospects and clients.
Customers love interacting with brands that care about their preferences and share the same values. As a marketer, you should bifurcate your email list based on occasional customers, regular customers, prospects, and brand loyalists.
When you deliver customized emails, it will boost your organic engagement rate. The success of your email campaigns depends on the degree of personalization to some extent
Doing the writing yourself
Considering the cost of professional copywriting services, it’s no wonder why a lot of small business owners try to avoid this step by doing the writing themselves. But when they do, it shows.
“Copywriters don’t just ‘write copy,’ the copywriting professionals at Coopman Creative explain. “Our skills and expertise go well beyond that, encompassing brand management, the art of persuasion, understanding nuanced audiences and channels, a genuine flair for language crafting and creative writing, and borderline-obsessive grammar knowledge.”
Unless you’re a trained copywriter, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. An experienced copywriter can offer an outside perspective to your business, help you shape your value proposition so that you stand out from competitors, and create polished copy that’s certain to sell. If you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business in your space, expertly written copy is the way to do it. And if you invest wisely in a copywriter who really knows their stuff, you’ll likely quickly earn your money back with higher conversion rates and overall marketing ROI.
Forget to Welcome Subscribers
Getting a subscriber is tough work, so why wouldn’t you thank them for requesting your newsletter?
After going to the trouble of finding your site, then signing up to get emails from your brand, first off, it’s just polite to send a thank you (take a cue from Emily Post), but it’s also good business. These purpose-driven welcome emails “generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks” according to Dispatch.
Make them count by providing not only a “thanks for showing up” salutation but by following up with added value. That could be a promo code or a special offer. Or you could use the welcome email to collect more information. Bottom line: Skipping the welcome email is missing a huge marketing opportunity.
Neglecting your website
Your website is the digital face of your business. It reflects your brick-and-mortar experience, if you have one, and sets the tone for what customers should expect when doing business with you. When you neglect your website, you not only run the risk of driving away potential customers who might think your business is no longer open or poorly operated, but you also hurt your SEO, which means you’ll drive less traffic from search engines over time.
According to Search Engine Journal— “Taking proactive steps to keep your site clean and running smoothly can help buffer against external factors, supporting your long-term goals for your site and marketing strategy.” They call this process “SEO hygiene” — essentially, the routine performance of checks and tasks to make sure your website is looking and performing at its best.
Here are some best practices from Search Engine Journal for good SEO hygiene that small businesses can apply:
- Keep your website code clean.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
- Handle any redirect issues.
You’ll also want to make sure your page load time is minimal to keep users on your site and ensure high SEO performance.
If you’re managing your website on your own, make it a point to set aside some time at least every month to check for broken links and update website copy such as your contact information and hours of operation if needed. Hire an SEO professional to help you check for technical SEO issues on a regular basis — at least every six months — and make it a point to update your branding, imagery, and messaging on an annual basis to keep your site feeling fresh.
Loopholes in Workflows
Email marketing automation has picked up a considerable pace in the past few years. Automation has become an integral part of a company’s marketing strategy. However, there are different ways businesses get it wrong.
When there are loopholes in your workflows, it affects the consistency of your campaigns. Your recipients are likely to find most of your messages irrelevant, misleading, and not useful. There is a risk of losing your subscribers.
This is why it is important to chalk out your workflows by taking into account a bunch of factors. It is important to ensure that your personalization is on point, trigger actions are defined properly, delivery times are perfectly tuned according to the recipient’s time zone, and more.
Work smarter, not harder
It’s hard work generating qualified leads and pushing prospects through the conversion funnel, especially when you have the rest of your business to worry about. But it doesn’t have to take a lot of time as long as you’re strategic in your approach.
A great place to start is by avoiding these marketing mistakes above. Even if this requires investing a little more than usual in your marketing upfront, you’ll find these efforts will pay for themselves in the long run.