Many business owners who opt to try email marketing make the
mistake of believing any type of email marketing is beneficial. This is
simply not true; there are a number of mistakes business owners can
make when they organize an email marketing campaign. Examples of
these types of mistakes may include allowing promotional materials to
be tagged as spam, not following up with promotional emails, not
being prepared for an influx of customers after an email marketing
effort and not marketing specifically to the target audience.
We will begin our discussion on email marketing mistakes with spam.
Spam is a problem which is reaching endemic proportions. Each day
Internet users are bombarded with spam from around the world. This
may include a host of unsolicited emails which are promoting products
or services the recipients may or may not be interested in purchasing.
A critical mistake business owners can make in email marketing is to
issue emails which are likely to be construed to be spam. This may
result in the emails never reaching the recipient or the emails being
deleted, without being read, by the recipient. Avoiding the potential of
falling into the spam category is not very difficult. It basically involves
ensuring your promotional emails contain more useful copy than
blatant advertising. This will make it more likely for your emails to be
taken seriously.
Another email marketing mistake often made is failure to follow up on
promotional emails. Sending out emails to interested parties can be
very beneficial but it is even more beneficial to contact these email
recipients by other methods such as mail or telephone to answer any
questions they may have and offer any additional information they
may require. This type of follow up can be much more effective than
simply sending an email and allowing it to fall into the abyss of an
overcrowded email inbox.
Business owners may also run into the mistake of not preparing
themselves for an influx of customers after an email marketing effort.
The express purpose of email marketing is to generate increased
interest in your products or services. Therefore it is critical for business
owners to anticipate an increase in business and be prepared to
accommodate this increased demand for products and services. This is
important because potential customers who have to wait for products or services may seek out your competitors who are better prepared to provide them with products or services immediately.
Finally a critical mistake made by business owners is to not tailor an
email marketing campaign to their specific target audience. This can
be a problem because it may result in the email marketing being less
effective. Business owners typically make this mistake because they
fall into the trap of believing that it is more important to reach a large
audience than it is to reach a target audience. You may blindly send
your email marketing materials to millions of recipients and only
generate a few leads. However, you could send the same email
marketing materials to a smaller group of only a thousand recipients
who all have an interest in your products and services and will likely
generate more leads from this smaller email distribution list. It is not
only important to send your message to members of your target
audience but to also tailor your message to suit this audience. Creating
an email message which will appeal to a variety of individuals is not as
important as creating a message which will appeal to members of your
target audience.