Email marketing is an incredibly powerful and cost-effective channel for marketers, generating up to $42 for every $1 spent and playing a crucial role in building your community relationships. However, you’ll need a better content strategy than “Open Now <First Name>! Your Opportunity Awaits.” to drive recipient engagement and unlock meaningful results from your email marketing.
In this #ContentChat recap, we’re joined by Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer), writing and marketing book author, to discuss how to improve your email marketing and business emails. In the below chat recap, you’ll learn:
- Common email marketing mistakes
- Ways to avoid making those common mistakes
- How to improve your email subject lines and body content
If you’re looking for more advice to improve your emails, grab a copy of Anne’s book 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Emails, and check out this past #ContentChat recap on email marketing hacks that drive results.
Q1: We’ve all made or seen a mistake with email marketing or business emails. What is an example that you can share?
Email marketing mistakes are common—especially broken links.
A1a
Marketing emails: broken links are the biggies. Apologize and fix it. People are remarkably forgiving when you acknowledge mistakes.Research shows that a mistake can make you more likable. The Pratfall Effect.#ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
Raise your hand if you’ve had your name misspelled in an email or misspelled your recipient’s name…
A1: I’ve sent out emails to people I know and have worked with for a good long while, with a typo in their name. It’s always horrifyingly embarrassing! Doubly-so, because strangers constantly misspell my name, which annoys the heck out of me.#ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 14, 2022
Ah that’s always so embarrassing! Particularly when you know what their correct name is but you end up failing to correct the autocorrect version 🤷♀️#ContentChat
— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) March 14, 2022
A1: I’ve received emails with my name spelled as “Julia” WAY too many times!! Does the name “Julie” just not exist to some people? 😅 ~Julie #ContentChat
— Nimble (@Nimble) March 14, 2022
A1
Wrong spelling
My name is Amna but I received emails with name Anna or Amnah#contentchat— Amna Aslam (@amnaaslam20) March 14, 2022
Or if the personalization settings failed so your email was addressed to <First-Name>.
A1 The ever-popular auto-fill fail, where the personalization ends up being addressed to <First-Name> instead of my actual name. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) March 14, 2022
A1 Oh yes, “Firstname,” I know how you feel! #ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
Many of us have received an email template without the full content.
A1 I have received a few emails where the sender forgot to fill in parts of the template they were using…and a couple addressed to the wrong name…
-Alyx#ContentChat— Charlie & Alyx – Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) March 14, 2022
I received an email yesterday and all it was was the template. They forgot the content! #contentchat pic.twitter.com/XR74DysgSx
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) March 14, 2022
Or emails not meant for us.
A1b
Business emails: Someone sent an off-color joke to a friend at work. It was accidentally corrected to a company-wide email address. Ouch! #ContentChat— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
I’ve received influencer outreach emails with someone else’s name and website in them…it really doesn’t make you feel special! ;p #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 14, 2022
Same! I normally just laugh and delete them at that point
If you can’t do the research to make sure you have the right person, then I don’t trust you’re going to take a partnership seriously
-Alyx#ContentChat— Charlie & Alyx – Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) March 14, 2022
Image-only emails often get caught in spam filters.
Another good/bad one is an email that’s just an image, and then it gets caught in a filter so when you open it, nothing displays. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) March 14, 2022
And typos are all-too-common (and avoidable!).
A typo in an email headline: “Your Invited” instead of “You’re Invited.” Though it was avoidable, I felt bad for the person who made it. We’re all human, after all. #ContentChat
— Classy Writing (@Classy_Writing) March 14, 2022
I’ve only recently started newsletter-ing the last quarter of last year and am 23 editions in (it’s a weekly letter).
So not very many mistakes to share except to keep my 👀 open and proofread the letter number — I ended up naming two letter as 22 🤦♀️#ContentChat
— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) March 14, 2022
A1. Typos and minor grammar errors have occasionally made it into marketing emails, but it’s become rare (thanks @grammarly!). Luckily good process has helped pretty much avoid errors like wrong links and selecting wrong segments. #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) March 14, 2022
Emails often throw too many CTAs at the reader.
A1: No clear CTA.
Do they want you to view a blog post, buy something, sign up for an offer? You have no idea.
Stick to 1 CTA per email.#ContentChat
— Sweepsify (@Sweepsify_) March 14, 2022
Great one. 1 CTA, not 5! Even in non-marketing emails—what do you want the recipient to do? #ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
And if you don’t have an objective and a next step, you should really not be sending the email. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 14, 2022
I agree – 1 CTA per email for automated drip marketing emails. Multiple CTAs might be appropriate for newsletters, but…
Someone I work with changed her newsletter to have one link to a landing page rather than to individual content pages and click rate doubled! #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) March 14, 2022
And it’s easy to forget to update your email banner.
A1. I have sent one with the wrong banner oops…as in email banner! The body of the email said one thing the banner said something else! #ContentChat
— Shruti Deshpande (@shruti12d) March 14, 2022
Remember: mistakes happen and self-compassion is essential.
A1c
We all make #email mistakes — even after writing a book about them! 😬
Last, I sent an email with the number 11,440 instead of 1,144.Self-compassion is always important!#ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
If you make a mistake you can share an apology email. But don’t use this as a tricky way to increase your opens (your recipients can tell if you’re not being authentic).
And let’s be honest—when you receive that “oops” email correction, you always read it, even if the initial email didn’t merit an open. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 14, 2022
A1 Yes, you may get better open rates on an apology! Best not to abuse that. #ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
On a few occasions I’ve felt a mistake was on purpose. Same with typos from automated emails that look like they are from a real person.
These are not email marketing tactics I’d ever use, though. #ContentChat
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) March 14, 2022
One of the worst things is sending an apology email when there wasn’t even a mistake made, but you know it’ll make the person want to open it anyway. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) March 14, 2022
Yeah, I have been seeing fake apology emails as of late.
/dislike#ContentChat pic.twitter.com/APm64ozicA
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 14, 2022
Ooh, that’s just manipulative! I would hit “Spam” on that one. #ContentChat
— Anne Janzer (@AnneJanzer) March 14, 2022
