Avoid These Email Marketing Blunders

Email marketing campaigns can be extremely successful if executed properly. However, newcomers and rookies do tend to make mistakes. Before you let yourself get carried away and start blasting emails at anyone and everyone, take a look at this list. Study it and avoid these common blunders.

No Permission: If you don't have a permission-based mailing list you could be breaking spam laws. Many business owners buy mailing lists or compile them using devious methods, which more often than not are not only unethical, but also illegal. No one wants to be bombarded with spam. Spam will hurt your business's reputation. Get permission.

Poor Content or Pitching Like A Mattress Salesman: Many first time email marketing attempts come across weakly because they have no valuable content and the copy is written by the business owner, who more often than not is not an expert when it comes to good writing. Instead of filling up your emails with ads and all caps messages like PRICE MARKDOWN or CRAZY SALE, tone it down. Keep your content topical and interesting; leave out the bravado. You should want to read your email.

Impersonal Emails: Many rookie email marketers make the mistake of trying to cover too much ground. They send out impersonal mass emails to 100,000 people. In so doing, they don't make their customers feel special or valued. You want to keep things tight. Don't go overboard-make your customers feel like they are unique. Add personal touches.

Not Testing Your Campaign First: Many marketers unfortunately learn this lesson the hard way. It is imperative that you try out different email approaches. Test out designs, layout and content with different email programs. Each webmail service will display your email differently which means you have to test it first. Set up different accounts with Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. Try out different operating systems and different computers.

Making Your Readers Jump Through Hoops: Don't make it extremely difficult for readers to sign up for a newsletter or for product updates. Customers do not want to fill out endless forms.

Similarly, make it easy for customers to unsubscribe if they want to. Don't force your emails on them. Keep things simple.

Assuming People Care: Make sure to send emails to people who have requested them. Don't just send out emails to a list of prospects or to your sales contacts. If you have a list of people who know you, but haven't specifically requested emails from you, first send them a personal invitation to opt in; otherwise, your email marketing campaign could fall flat on its face.

Sending Out Too Many Emails: Keep timing in mind. If you send out an email every day, people will get tired of your company fast. You want to send out messages at opportune times-when do you think your audience will actually read and respond to your emails. Don't assail their email inboxes.

Ignore Campaign Reports: There's lots of email marketing software out there that will help you analyze your results. These can be extremely helpful; however, if you simply ignore the results, you might not realize that your client list is slowing shrinking, or that your current strategy isn't working. Always check your stats!

Consider iContact for your email marketing campaigns. It's a powerful platform that generates sophisticated results with the simplicity of a point-and-click interface. iContact is your best choice for email marketing software.