Are your email newsletters being reverted to the junk folder? Are you sending out a 5 page essay or making yourself clear in a short and sweet paragraph? Maybe you’re not sending updates about your services but instead rambling on about your cat or dog. Before your clients have a chance to read the body, they’re yawning. While you may feel that your point is clearly noted within the email, your viewers aren’t responding as well as you’d hoped. Before you send another email, read these tips and tricks to avoid lengthy and disorganized content.
Accessible, Anywhere
You have a steady following with your business and offer great tips, tricks, and incentives for your customers, especially those who sign up for your newsletters. Every month, your email arrives in their inbox but they are unable to open it and you may never know this unless someone informs you of the mishap. This issue usually indicates that your emails aren’t mobile-friendly. Statistically, more than half of messages sent via email are opened on a mobile device. Most of the time, your clients are going to use their cell phone to retrieve your email and if your newsletter isn’t capable of opening on their phone or tablet, into the trash your newsletter goes.
Readability
Whether they’re on a mobile device or PC, your fonts, links, and call-to-action need to be easy to read as well as noticeable. Fonts need to be large enough to stand out and links should be highlighted in order for you to get your point across. When you enter links or request a specific action, present a clear and concise voice so your readers know what you’re representing. If you find that your links and text run into each other, double check your settings before confidently sending the email.
You don’t offer a newsletter
If you’re a business owner, you know how valuable it is to send newsletters to your clients. If you don’t provide a guestbook, you’re not engaging with your clients as well as you should.
Clients only, No Scrapping
You know you have a great service. And so do your clients. Keep it in your circle of clients without spamming others. While you may think that you’re helping a person that you met along a business trip or chatted with at a local coffee shop, if they didn’t sign up, don’t solicit your emails to them. Believe it or not, some parts of the world consider it a criminal offense to solicit unwanted mail to those who didn’t sign up. Whether you’ve done business with an individual or you’ve met them once before, if they aren’t your direct client requesting your newsletter, don’t waste their time.
Irrelevant Content and No leads
There’s nothing more annoying than getting emails that don’t pertain to what services you offer to your clients. In order for your customers to revert back to you for a specific service, you need to keep up with them while keeping on top of the service that you offer. If you notice unresponsiveness, give them a quick shout-out to find out how they’re doing. This lets them know that you are keeping up with their lives, not just concerned with your business.
Space them out
Your emails and newsletters are very important. A common mistake that most business professionals make is that they send out two to three emails a day. This causes those important newsletters to overlap and get pushed aside. If you have a great deal of information to give your clients but need someone to assist you with sending, a professional marketing team will be sure your clients get them at the exact time they need them.
The Purge
Appropriate email marketing requires a ‘clean-up’ phase of your subscriber list. Every so often, you’ll go through your subscribers to see how they rank in your business. Have they responded to your monthly newsletters or have they signed up with no follow through? If you’re finding yourself asking who some of those subscribers are, just delete. It’s better to assume they just aren’t interested than to send continuous spam. Avoid poor delivery ratings by cleaning up your list every few months. Keep only a handful of engaged clients to increase your ratings.
Empty Inbox – No follow through
So, you’ve gathered quite the following and collected a list of interested participants but you haven’t sent one email. They have signed up to receive special offers that can help them and are interested in the newest happenings within your business but you aren’t taking the time to gather the information. When you don’t follow up with your promises, you lose the interests of those who have signed up. Maybe weekly emails are time consuming for your busy schedule or you aren’t sure what to write. That is when you hire an email marketing professional to take care of the business so you don’t lose the interest of your clients. You can leave the details up to a professional who specializes in networking, social media, website design, and much more.
Don’t spoil your content with a confusing subject line
One of the most common mistakes with failed email marketing is lack of a creative and catchy subject line. There’s an art to crafting the perfect head-line. In order to avoid the trash bin, ditch the overhyped line and get to the point. When a reader clicks on your newsletter, they are expecting to read what the subject line prefaces. Not only is this a form of spam, you could lose the interests of your clients.
Not personal enough
Your clients come to you for a specific offer that pleases them. Ensure they feel like it’s a one-on-one conversation. Seek them out in every email and take their suggestions and concerns into consideration. You can be professional and share stories of relevance while letting your own personality come out in each email. People that seek you out want to hear about personal and company stories, not just a ‘quick tip’ or ‘fast fact’ that spews ingenuity.
Login to Unsubscribe
Your user will send you directly into the spam folder if you require a specific code or log in to unsubscribe from your email alerts. This will hurt your ratings in the long run so be sure to add a savvy way to unsubscribe.
Lengthy=Fluff
Your clients signed up to hear about the “latest and greatest” within your business, but they didn’t sign up for long-winded chatter. Get to your point by inviting them to clink on a link that may tell them more about the subject. This gives them the choice to read on or stop there.
Don’t fill it with images
Images are a beneficial way to keep the attention of a subscriber but don’t overdo it; an email filled with more images than text can get spammy, especially if their email isn’t ‘mobile friendly’ or the links break. If the image settings are off, your pictures will be as well, leaving your subscriber confused. Use brief wording to relate to at least 4-5 images to ensure your point and keep their interest.
Maybe it’s time you hire a marketing agency to get rid of unwanted spam, spice up your newsletters, and send clients to your door. To find a sure-fire approach to email marketing, get in touch with a marketing specialist today.
