In one of our previous posts Why your email marketing campaign is not working we said that when used correctly email marketing can deliver one of the highest returns on investment of any online marketing methods. We also discussed why your current campaign might not be working. Today I’m going to discuss a couple of things you should definitely not do when setting up an email campaign.

• Don’t buy mailing lists: One of the most important things is to have an opted in mailing list. If someone doesn’t give you permission to send them mail and you do in a newsletter you are sending spam, and that may be illegal. By buying mailing lists or gathering addresses in unethical matters you can scar your business’ name. You also will not yield positive results as most of your recipients will not open your newsletter or it will just be deleted. You must also ensure that you give recipients the option to unsubscribe on your newsletter.
• Don’t have errors in your content: Make sure that you have good error free content. Nobody wants to read boring content so it is important to give information to people that has value. Make sure you quadruple check your newsletter copy for errors. Spelling mistakes and grammar errors are annoying and can also negatively affect the image of your brand and professionalism.
• Don’t be vague when choosing a subject line: Your subject line is very  important when it comes to grabbing the recipient’s attention. Avoid using subject lines such as October newsletter, or Christmas newsletter. Choose catchy lines, maybe ask a question that will encourage the recipient to read further. I receive newsletters from a cycling website, the newsletter I received this week had a subject line that read: Are you on the wrong size bike? Now I am not sure whether my bike is the right size so it immediately sparked my interest and I wanted to read further  to figure out how to determine the right size of  bike, I clicked through and read the article on their website. In my opinion that was an apt  subject line.
• Don’t send out a newsletter without testing it first: One important thing that you should do every time before you send out your newsletter is test it in different email clients. If you send out an HTML email to a mailing list where the HTML breaks and images are displayed incorrectly in outlook or a web based mail client like Gmail you will definitely not get the response that you want on your newsletter. Make sure you test the newsletter in multiple mail clients before sending out to the mailing list.
• Don’t forget a call to action and focused landing pages: Make sure you have clear call to action phrases on your newsletter and the correct landing pages. If you don’t give the recipient a clear indication what they are supposed to do  like the phrase  “Buy this CD now”, they won’t know what to do or where to go. Once they click on the button, please don’t take them to the home page, you might not have the content that they were interested in on your home page and they will ultimately leave our website,  rather take them to a landing page that is relevant to the content they have searched for on your newsletter.

These are just some of the mistakes that you can make when sending out a newsletter, if you have made some in the past let us know.

When email marketing is used correctly it can deliver one of the highest returns on investment of any online marketing method. Email marketing has a couple of advantages, firstly  it is very cost effective , it is highly targeted if you use an opted in mailing list, it is also highly measurable if the right tools are used. This all sounds very promising but your email marketing campaign can also go horribly wrong.

I have seen a lot of clients run email campaigns and from all the mails sent out the number of people that actually opened the email is around 10% in some cases it went to 20%. Now with stats like that you must ask yourself what am I doing wrong?

The first thing that is very important is to have an opted in mailing list. If people went on your website and said that they would like more information on your specials or future services and/or products they are highly targeted possible clients in the future. I receive a lot of newsletter each day that I did not subscribe to, and I either delete them straight away or I don’t open them at all. On the other hand Newsletters that I have subscribed to I recognize and take time to read through it, because I know I will be interested in it. So if you buy a list somewhere and are planning to send that out, know that the response on that will not be very good.

The Subject of your email is the most important part of your email. Make sure that the subject is clear and informative and that it also attract the reader to open the email. Avoid using words like “buy”, “win” and “free” in your subject as some spam filters might see your email as spam, and the client won’t even get a chance to see your email.

Once you get the reader to open your email you might lose them on your email if your content is not up to scratch. The success of your email marketing campaign will depend a lot on your content. You must ensure that it is informative and of value to the reader and that it address their problems and needs. Add value to your email by offering humour, interesting information or promotions.

If you plan your email marketing strategy well, do good research on your market and make use of the tips above, you can be sure that you will see good results from your email marketing campaign.