83% of B2B companies use newsletters as part of their content marketing program (imaginepub.com) and 86% of professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes (hubspot.com).
As these statistics show, email marketing is an important part of B2B marketing strategies.
Are you happy with your email marketing results?
Is it possible your efforts are not paying off as expected because there are mistakes in your email marketing strategy?
5 email marketing mistakes you need to stop making now:
1. Not using responsive design:
[bctt tweet=”80% of users delete emails that are not optimised for mobile devices via @Mapp_Digital” username=”brand_mins”]
It’s 2018. Your clients spend 4 hours on average connected to their smartphones searching the internet, posting on social media, sending Whatsapp messages and reading their emails.
Yes, 55% of all emails are opened on smartphones (source: litmus).
The days of pinch and zoom are long gone: if your website is responsive, your email should be too.
2. Not segmenting your email list
[bctt tweet=”Segmented campaigns had 14% higher open rate and 100% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns via @mailchimp” username=”brand_minds”]
Your clients are not created equal. They have different reasons for signing-up to your newsletter, which means you cannot send the same message to all of them.
Your audience expects personalised messages and we are not talking about addressing them by name. They want to receive email messages that show your company is aware of their interests. So break your email list into various segments and send your recipients messages that illustrate your company is thinking of them.
Here is how you can segment your audience:
- by Zip code;
- by job title;
- by Signup date;
- by interests;
- by subscriber activity.
Segmented email campaigns are more relevant to your audience and relevant campaigns get better results.
3. Sending too much promotional content
No one likes a show-off. Your audience opens your email message expecting to find an answer to the question What’s in it for me? So build your email marketing strategy by highlighting how your products or services help your recipients achieve their goals.
Offer valuable content (ebooks, industry insights, statistics report, how-to videos etc.) and develop a trust-based relationship with your prospects or clients.
[bctt tweet=”86% of consumers would like to receive monthly promotional emails from companies they do business with via @HubSpot” username=”brand_minds”]
Of course they expect to receive promotional content, but not on a daily basis. You need to find the right balance between company-centred content and customer-centred content. Start by using the Pareto law: 80% non-promotional content + 20% promotional content.
Expert’s recommendation
Do you want to turn your leads into paying customers?
Here’s what Cosmin Daraban, marketing expert says you must do:
Follow up immediately with the same offer that made them subscribe to your newsletter. People tend to forget quickly – don’t let them. Match the timing of your message with your qualified lead intention, using auto-responders, segmenting and advanced rules.
Experiment and find out what works for your company.
4. Not using attracting subject lines
[bctt tweet=”68% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line via @invesp” username=”brand_minds”]
Some entrepreneurs or professionals receive up to 50 email messages a day. They are not going to open all of them because it is time consuming and most are not even relevant. So they decide which emails to open by scanning the subject line. Don’t use:
- Generic subject lines: {your company’s name} Newsletter, Weekly Newsletter, Daily News etc.;
- All caps and punctuation abuse: !!!!
- Words that show exaggerations: Urgent, Exclusive, Revolutionary etc.
When writing your email’s subject line follow these guidelines:
- include the topic of what you’re going to talk about;
- use a human voice;
- use emojis (maximum 2);
- include relevant details.
5. Sending too many email messages
[bctt tweet=”78% of consumers unsubscribe from emails because brands were sending too many emails via @HubSpot” username=”brand_minds”]
Too many entrepreneurs spend their working hours reacting to an overflowing email inbox. In our article 5 time management tips & tricks for entrepreneurs we talk about how checking your email inbox should be a task like any other.
Respect your clients’ time and don’t send them too many email messages.
Allow them to choose how often they want to receive your emails.
