Troubleshooting — My email marketing isn’t working

Running a business and standing out from the crowd is tough. Chances are you’ve hit a few roadblocks along the way when it comes to showcasing your brand in a positive light and increasing awareness. With this in mind, our all-new Contentworks Medium series is all about troubleshooting issues.

Today’s topic: Help! My email marketing isn’t working! But why? Here’s a rundown of potential issues:

#1 Your Subject Line isn’t Engaging

First of all, email marketing is important. 77% of consumers choose email over other types of online communication, so it shouldn’t be ignored or side-lined. If you’re putting it on the backburner, then you really need to take note of the stats and crack on with some awesome content.

The purpose of email marketing is to engage consumers and boost your click-through rate. You want to attract and entice new customers while retaining loyal followers. Sounds good right? But if your subject line is as dull as dishwasher, your email content is likely to be ignored. Or even worse, deleted!

Think about it, professionals receive hundreds of emails a day — many of which are trashed or labelled as spam. So why should they take notice of you if you’re going with a mundane header? These few words create an instant impression and if they’re off the mark and sending people to sleep from the word go, it’s really essential to up your game.

Top tips:

Don’t worry, we won’t leave you high and dry. Email marketing is not always straightforward, so here are some useful tips to help you out!

· Keep the subject line short and sweet, ideally between 30 and 50 characters.

· Include key information. What is the message you’re trying to convey?

· If you’re giving away a freebie or have a special offer — say it. Don’t hide the goodies.

· Ask questions that will entice your audience.

#2 Your Content Waffles On And On And On

We’re not here to sugar-coat the facts. If the body of your email is boring and waffles on, no-one will want to read it. In this case, you should really leave things to the professionals. And this is far more than a shameless plug for the awesome work we do as a content marketing agency. It’s a fact. Your email content represents your brand, but it doesn’t need to include in-depth topics or all the information on your website. Indeed, content of this kind should be:

· Broken down into easily readable sections

· Include plenty of headers for those who like to scan read

· Get straight to the point

· Include an obvious call-to-action

· Link through to any necessary content

· Be well presented on an eye-catching template

#3 You’re Not Testing Success Rates

If you know your email marketing campaigns are falling flat, hopefully you’re analysing click through rates and keeping a close eye on data. If so, this is an excellent start as it can help you to refocus and try something a little different rather than simply continuing something that wastes time and money.

One of the best ways to find out what works is to test email content. If you plan to send 2000 emails, try sending one version to 1000 people and another to a different 1000 people. Monitor which one performs better to see which content you should run with on a mass scale. This is a great thing to do before a product launch, special event, rebrand or a significant company move of any kind.

#4 You’ve Not Got a Segmented Email List

89% of email marketers do not segment their database. So, if you’re guilty of this, you’re not alone! The problem is if you send an email that’s not relevant to the consumer, 60% will most likely delete the email, 27% may unsubscribe from the brand and 23% are likely to mark the email as spam. These figures should be worrying to companies who haven’t nailed their email strategy just yet.

In this day and age of modern marketing, expectations are high. People expect a personalised, streamlined consumer experience that doesn’t waste their precious time. In other words, mass email blasts with a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t cut the mustard. Indeed, according to a Jupiter Research Study, marketers who segment their email lists can improve conversion rates up to 355% and increase revenues by an amazing 781%. But what does this entail?

Well essentially, email segmentation helps to target consumers based on their wants, needs and where they are in the sales funnel. If they have already made a purchase in the past, the last thing you want to do is sent them an email with a ‘hey new customer’ type of feel as this is likely to ruffle feathers. Similarly, if they’re pursuing a specific purchase and have paid numerous visits to a specific landing page, you don’t want to distract by bombarding them with different content. Instead, it would be much better to provide a discount code or something similar that might encourage them to take the plunge and spend money with your company.

Using the right email segmentation tools and software can also help to save time and sidestep human error as much as possible. Examples of such tools include: AWeber, MailChimp and HubSpot.

#5 Your Emails Aren’t Mobile Friendly

According to an Email Analytics report by Litmus, the number of emails opened on mobile devices has risen and now accounts for 56% of all emails sent. Therefore, your emails need to be optimised for better readability, especially if the majority of your emails are being opened on portable devices. This will require research but it’s well-worth doing so that you don’t isolate an entire market. Mobile usage is not going to fade away. It’s here to stay with technological developments taking place every day, so you really must move with the times.

Contact the Contentworks team today for content marketing campaigns that work.