10 E-Mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Many consultants and small businesses use e-mail marketing successfully.  If you’re planning an e-mail marketing campaign, make sure you avoid these 10 common mistakes:

1.     Using the Names You Already Have. You may have hundreds of names in your e-mail address book, but it’s not okay to simply start sending out regular marketing messages to everyone on your list.  To be effective (not to mention ethical and legal), e-mail marketing must be permission-based—that is, people have to agree to get your messages.  So use your address book to send an introductory mailing announcing your new newsletter and inviting people to sign up to receive it.

2.     Not Making it Easy to Sign Up.  It’s easy to add code to your website or blog that invites visitors to sign up for your newsletter. If you don’t know how to do it, ask your webmaster for help.  Then make sure the sign up form is right up front and easy to find on your website.  Also include a link in the signature portion of your email so that people who receive everyday messages from you can also subscribe to your newsletter.

3.     Using E-Mail Like an Amateur. Never, ever send a marketing message where the e-mail addresses of all of the recipients are visible to everyone.  Besides being a potential violation of the CAN-SPAN law, it opens recipients to unwanted emails and creates tons of badwill for your business. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission clearly spells out the requirements of the CAN-SPAM law here.

4.     Not Offering a Way to Unsubscribe. This also violates CAN-SPAM.  Make sure recipients who don’t want to receive your messages can opt out at any time.

5.     Overlooking the Obvious. The people you encounter in real life are an obvious source of e-mail addresses for your marketing campaign.  If you present at a conference or speak before a group, always offer to send a follow-up report or some other freebie to audience members who give you their e-mail address.  When you meet people at networking events, send a follow-up message after the event letting the other person know you enjoyed their lunch time conversation and inviting them to sign up for your newsletter.

6.     Sending Too Many Messages. Use e-mail marketing in moderation.  If recipients start to feel like they’re getting too many messages too often, they’ll unsubscribe, or—worse—they’ll mark your messages as spam.

7.     Sending Too Few Messages. Don’t let too much time elapse between messages.  You don’t want people to forget who you are or that they gave you permission to e-mail them.

8.     Sending Useless Messages. Your marketing communication should be of value to recipients.  It shouldn’t be just ads and it shouldn’t be generic marketing fluff.  It should include information people what to know.  It needs to engage or entertain or inform otherwise readers will stop reading it.

9.     Including Images Readers Can’t See.  By default, most e-mail programs withhold graphic images until the reader clicks and accepts them.  As a result, a message that communicates mostly with images misses the mark.  Also, multiple images and fancy graphics can slow the load time.  Therefore, it’s best to keep images to a minimum.

10. Not Respecting Contacts’ Privacy.  Always guarantee the privacy of the e-mail addresses you collect and never use them for a purpose other than stated.