7 Common email marketing mistakes and how to fix them

By now we’ve all accepted that yes, we really do need an email list. And that email marketing has the best ROI out of all the marketing channels. 

So you’ve signed up to an email service provider (ESP) and you’re steadily building your list. You send regular newsletters out. And you’ve even run a few carefully crafted automated sequences. But you’re not seeing any results yet. 

You get that it’s a long game. But you’re keenly aware that your open and click rates are falling well below industry averages. 

So what’s going wrong?

Well it could be a combination of things. Let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes businesses are making with their email marketing. And what you should do to fix it.

Mistake #1 - Not segmenting your list

Do you regularly send the same emails out to everyone on your list? Then you’re probably guilty of list blasting. 

This is when you send out the exact same content to every subscriber with no personalisation.

Why is this a problem?

List blasting is a problem because email marketing works best when it’s personalised. This means sending people relevant content. 

For example, let’s say you’re a copywriter. And you’ve got four freebies for people to sign up for your email list. One freebie is an email marketing audit checklist. Another is a case study template. The third is a social ad strategy guide. And the fourth is a web copy messaging checklist. 

You wouldn't just blast your entire list with emails about all of these subjects. Instead, a good strategy would be to personalise. You’d send those who downloaded your email audit checklist content about email marketing. And you wouldn’t send them emails about social ad strategy. And so on. 

How can I fix it?

Make sure you’ve got a strategy for segmentation. You can segment your list based on all sorts of things, like:

• Location

• Gender

• Business size

• Industry

• Freebie downloads

• Buying history

• Engagement

You can start with one or two segments and test the results. This way you’re getting the right messages into the right inboxes. And you’re reducing the likelihood of unnecessary unsubscribes. 

Most email marketing platforms make segmenting and tagging really easy. Plus it’s even more powerful when paired with automations.

Mistake #2 - Rubbish subject lines 

There are almost 350 billion emails sent every single day across the globe. Think of that. So making sure your email stands out in inboxes stuffed to the gills with newsletters is a tall order.

Not putting effort into your subject lines is a surefire way to blend into the blandness.

Why is this a problem?

Well, if your emails don’t get opened, then you don’t get clicks. This not only harms your engagement rate with your ESP.

But it could see you getting marked as spam or blocked from sending altogether. 

How can I fix it? 

Your subject line. That’s how. Your from name gets people to look at your subject line and your subject line gets them to open your email. 

There are three main types of subject line:

• Curiosity

• Urgency

• Clarity

With curiosity, you want to open up a loop they can only close by reading your email. For example you might write this subject line: “This completely changed how I write subject lines…”. Then in the email, they find out some useful information about what “This” was.

A word of warning though: Don’t confuse curiosity with click bait. Click bait subject lines often have zero to do with the content of your email. And they just annoy and frustrate your readers.

You must ALWAYS close the loop you open with your subject line. Or it’s a sleigh ride into Unsubscribeville. 

Urgency based subject lines tell them that they need to act now. Maybe a sale is about to finish or a fast action bonus is disappearing. 

Finally, clarity based subject lines give important information they need to know. For example, you might use them when they first buy a product from you. Or you’ll use them as part of your onboarding process for new students on your course. 

Getting subject lines right takes time and practice. And must be linked to the goal of your email. 

You’ll want to keep a keen eye on your open rates. Learn what a good baseline is for your list, and pay attention to any unusual dips. You’ll want to look at those subject lines and work out what went wrong.  

Mistake #3 - Ignoring mobile optimisation

Not everyone opens email on desktop. In fact, some studies estimate that around 77% of people view their emails on mobile. 

Why is this a problem?

If you’re designing and formatting your emails for desktop users alone, you’re missing a trick. Because you're ignoring what is likely to be a sizeable chunk of your list. 

You need your user experience to be the best it can be, no matter what device they use to read emails.

How can I fix it?

So when you’re about to send your email, you’ll want to check that it also works for mobile. If the formatting is all wrong for mobile, you’ll want to fix this. You don’t want to alienate a large portion of your mailing list. 

Most platforms allow you to preview your email in both desktop and mobile mode. So you can make sure you’ve tweaked the layout and spacing so it works for everyone. Some providers let you hide certain elements from mobile users which can be useful too. 

Experiment with it until you’re happy with how it looks.  

Mistake #4 - Messing up your CTAs

Calls to action - or CTAs - are hyperlinks or buttons you put in your emails to get people to click and take the next step. 

You might currently put in lots of links to each email. You're maybe thinking it’s best to offer lots of opportunities. For people to work with you, buy your stuff, follow you on socials. 

If you don't tell them about it, they won't know, right?

Why is this a problem? 

Emails convert best when they are simple. That means sticking to the rule of one:

• One job for each element

• One goal

• One reader

• One CTA

Now, one CTA doesn’t mean you should only have one link in each email. In fact, it is often good to have more than one as people read differently and make decisions in different ways. 

Some people are more likely to click on buttons. And some prefer hyperlinked text. You’ll want to experiment with a few different types in your emails to see which work best for your audience.

How do I fix this?

So if we have more than one link in an email, what do we mean by “one CTA”? What this means is that you are only asking them to do one thing per email. That might be to:

• listen to your latest podcast episode

• follow you on Instagram

• book a call. 

But whatever it is, don’t confuse them by asking more than one thing of them at a time. You can have more than one link to ask them to do that one thing. But the links shouldn’t be asking them to do several different things. 

So, you might have a button at the end for them to book a call with you. But then you might also drop the same link destination in hyperlinked text elsewhere in the email. 

There's a problem with trying to get them to do more than one thing per email. People find it harder to make a decision and end up doing nothing. 

If you stick to the rule of one in your emails, you’ll find they convert much better.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule - during the onboarding sequence for example, and in P.S. sections. But largely speaking, stick to just one CTA.

Mistake #5 - Neglecting your list hygiene

Do you find yourself getting wound up by unsubscribes? Does it cut you deep every time you get an unsubscribe notification? Well, it shouldn’t. Instead it should fill your heart with joy. 

And why’s that? Because, unsubscribes are good. They mean you’re not wasting your time - and money - on people who aren’t right for you. If they want to go, set them free with love. 

Now, obviously if you’re getting a shedload of unsubscribes to the point of your ESP flagging it up, it's a problem. You might want to take a look at what is going wrong. 

But - depending on your list size - a small amount of unsubscribes per campaign is normal. And a good thing.

If you’ve been thinking that all unsubscribes are bad, that's a natural response. But I’d be willing to bet that you haven't been paying attention to your list hygiene.

Why is this a problem?

First, you need to understand what list hygiene means. List hygiene means keeping an eye on your cold subscribers. And having a strategy in place to clean your list of persistent cold subscribers.

Why? Because cold subscribers can ruin your sender reputation. They can lead to you getting flagged, or marked as spam. Or worse - getting blocked from sending altogether. 

How do I fix this?

Create a strategy to deal with cold subscribers. 

In fact, you should have sequences in place to actively encourage unsubscribes.

You can run re-engagement sequences for subscribers who have gone cold. Plus, you should schedule regular list scrubbing sequences. So you can clean your list of those who don’t respond to your attempts to re-engage them. 

Cold subscribers harm your engagement rates. And that's no good thing. Especially since Gmail and Yahoo brought in much tougher rules for email deliverability. 

Plus, you don’t want them on your list because they simply aren’t interested. They’re not a good fit and they’re never going to buy from you. So set them free and make room for better fit subscribers. 

Mistake #6 - Falling down on formatting

Most email marketing platforms have a stunning range of fancy email templates. Some are really beautiful and impressive. And - depending on your industry - they might be a good choice for your brand. 

But some businesses make the mistake equating styled and ‘designed’ with professionalism. They end up with emails that look more like flyers.

Why is this a problem?

It isn’t necessarily. For some e-commerce brands - for example - more ‘designed’ emails work well. 

But on the whole, simple formatting works a lot better. Take a look at the format of your emails. Are they overly designed? Do readers switch off because they look like an advert rather than valuable content?

How do I fix this?

Where possible, keep your emails looking like the kind of emails you’d send to a friend or colleague. Keep an eye on:

• Brand consistency (fonts, logos, colours) - Keep logos small if you have to have them. But don’t feel like you need a full-width branded header. 

  It’s better to have no header at all. But it is a nice touch to keep to your brand colours for things like subheads, if you want to. And sticking to your brand fonts doesn’t hurt either.

• Your email margins - Don’t have your email margins so wide that your content is hard to read. 

  If you have it on a wide setting, your readers’ eyes have to do a lot of work tracking back and forth. Make it easier for them. Narrow your margins a little. 

• Paragraph and line spacing - Adjust the spacing between your lines and paragraphs so they're not too similar. 

  It should be easy for your reader to distinguish between a new paragraph and a new line. Some default settings are way too close which makes your emails harder to read. 

• Accessibility - Making sure your line spacing is sorted will help with accessibility for sure. 

  But so will the font size. Keep it big - at least 14-16px for body text and 18-20px for headlines. 

  And make sure your images all have alt text for those using screen readers. 

Mistake #7 - Forgetting to analyse and learn. 

Email marketing is a beast that needs constant attention and nurturing for it to grow and thrive. Carefully segmenting your list and crafting well-written emails is all well and good. But too often this is where it ends. 

Why is this a problem?

If you don’t regularly check your metrics, how do you know what's working for you?

Take subject lines, for example. If you don't spend time looking at which ones worked best for your sequences and campaigns, you’re not learning anything. 

How do I fix this?

In addition to analysing your subject lines, you should keep an eye on the following metrics:

• Open rate

• Deliverability rate

• Bounce rate

• Click to open rate

• Conversion rate

You’ll also want to do an in-depth audit of your email marketing efforts every quarter. You can choose a specialist to do this for you.

But you can start this yourself using my free email marketing audit checklist. It’s not as in-depth as you get if you hire me to do the audit for you. But it’s a good place to start if you’re new to email marketing, or if you don’t have the budget to work with an expert yet. 

How to get the best results from your email marketing

Email marketing can work very well for you if you get it right and avoid these common mistakes. I also can do a full email audit for you, a deep dive to find out why things are going wrong. I’ll dig into a campaign or sequence and analyse your metrics. And you’ll get:

• A full email conversion report - so you’ll find out exactly what’s working and what isn’t. Plus details of opportunities and my recommendations. 

• A walkthrough video - a full over-the-shoulder explanation of my findings and recommendations.

• A 45-minute audit follow-up call - so I can answer any questions you might have about the report. This will happen within two weeks of you getting the report. So you can get stuck into making any changes without delay. 

Find out more information about what’s included and how to book your email audit here. 

Want to start this yourself? No problem. Use my free email marketing audit checklist to guide you.