Email Marketing: This is Why Your Email Marketing Sucks

I have intentional gotten myself in the email marketing list of a lot of people, and you know what? A lot of the email broadcasts suck. And what makes it so sad is that their subscribers will never tell them so. It’s either they unsubscribe from the list or redirect the emails to the junk mails where they never get read again.

If you do not give your subscribers what they want, and make it easy to grasp what you want for them, you will not reap the rewards of email marketing.

If you do not take your email list serious by taking a careful look at the pointers I will be giving o you in this post, you are doing your email marketing campaigns a lot of disservice.

Don’t ever treat your opt-in list as just a list of email addresses that have given you permission to send them emails. Understand that your opt-in list is NOT a list of email addresses. It is a list of real people. You are not marketing to a list, you are marketing to people and it is all about THEM. If you ever treat your list as a group of leads or numbers, you will be shocked at the failure you will record, because it will influence your actions.

The Five Responses to ANY Email Marketing Letter

Believe it or not, anytime you send out an email marketing letter, it WILL always elicit five responses from your list. Look through the following and see what it is as can be observed from your Autoresponder tracking.

1. They open it, read it and act upon it.
2. They open it, scan it and act upon it.
3. They open it, scan it and hit the delete button.
4. They see that it’s from you and hurriedly hit the delete button without opening it at all.
5. They open it and consciously scroll down to the bottom of the letter to search for the ‘unsubscribe’ link.

If, according to your observation, your subscribers chose option 1 or 2 or 3, you are on the right track. And you should definitely keep it up. Also read the rest of this post to see where you can improve on what you are doing well.

However If most of your subscribers chose option 4 or 5, then most likely you should opt out of email marketing altogether and get a ‘real’ job like your mother told you, or pay careful attention to the various reasons that is happening to you.

You see most people opt into your Autoresponder campaign because they were convinced that the information you will be giving they will be very useful to them, or they really wanted to get a hold of the gift or incentive you were offering. Either way it is a good reason to get on your mailing list.

Now they are on your list and you want to do everything possible to keep them there and not just there but satisfied and do everything you can to prevent them from taking the options 5 and 6.

10 Reasons Your Email Marketing Campaigns Suck

1. Your Emails Are Too Long: A marketing email should be kept brief. Remember that it is not a blog post. It is not an eBook. Say what you have to say and move on. People have become used to short emails that your long emails are simply pissing.Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Know that no one is grading you for correct paragraphing. If you notice that a paragraph is longer than 4 lines, break it down. Your English teacher will not notice. Whatever you want to say, 300-400 words should be enough.
2. They Could not Read Your Email: Formatting your email is vital to getting your emails read. The good thing is that all Autoresponders I know provide guidelines that would ensure that the recipients of your marketing emails can read them no matter what email program they are using. It’s advisable not to use word wrapped links. Not all email programs send clickable links. If you do use a word wrapped link, include the whole web address with it so that it can be copied and pasted into the address bars of users.
3. You Fill Up Their Inboxes: A lot of subscribers like the feeling of having emails from different people. They don’t like when you are the only name they see when they open their email accounts. Don’t email your list too often! How often is too often? Many times a day is too often. Don’t send marketing email because you can. Send them when you really have something to offer. They gave you permission to send them emails. They didn’t give you the permission to harass them with your enthusiasm.
4. Your Subject Lines are Boring: How many times have subscribers been forced to open an email without thinking, even from spammers, because the subject line was simply catchy. Many times! Subject lines are the first thing an email recipient sees. If it doesn’t get their attention, they will hit the delete button. Give at least as much time and thought to your subject line as you do the body of your email.
5. Stop Yelling at Them: Stop using the exclamation points all the time. Go easy on them. Also minimize the use of CAPITALS. Using ten exclamation points is plain unnecessary. Stop it! All capital letters are the internet version of yelling. And the last I heard, nobody likes to be yelled at.
6. You Sell Too Much: I have unsubscribed from many lists because the only time I hear from them is when they have something to sell. I know you can also relate with that. Don’t try to sell every product you have in your custody in every marketing email you send to your list. I advocate a ratio 10:1, meaning a give them some very valuable info ten times in my letters and then one sales page.
7. They don’t like the Way You Speak: Emails are conversation in print. As you construct your marketing email, picture yourself speaking to the person who will receive it. There are times to use formal language; marketing email is not one of them. Speak as though you were speaking to a close friend or a co-worker. Be courteous and be business-like but do not be too formal or too familiar.
8. According to Them, You Were Just Too Dumb: When they read your letters and it’s full of misspelled words and poor grammar, it forces them to go search for that hidden ‘unsubscribe’ link. A great percentage of people opt-out of email marketing list because you just did not display your literacy. Writing “you’re” instead of “your” is not appropriate. Don’t bet on your writing skills. Proofread again and again!
9. They Thought You are a SPAMMER: Yeah I said that! You see, how do people recognize spammers? Simple! They send emails that start with ‘Dear Friend’, ‘Dear Customer’. Use personalization features provided by your Auto responder provider. Take the time and make the effort to learn about all of the special personalization features they have on offer.
10. They Never Heard of You: This usually happens when you bought an opt-in list from a list building service. The recipients do not care what you have to offer. They are already bombarded with plenty emails, why should they add you to the list?

Make corrections to your email marketing letters by taking notes of these points and your improvement in your subscriber’s response will be more than evident.

There you have the top ten reasons why your email marketing sucks and the right ways to correct them. What do you think? Any other tips for me? Or suggestions? Or you don’t even agree with me? Let’s settle it in my comment section. I want to hear from you.

To your Online Success,

Tosin Adeoti

Tagged as: autoresponder, campaign, ebook, email, marketing, marketing email, sucks