Email marketing can be a highly effective tool in nurturing leads, staying in touch with clients, and promoting your business. But it’s only effective if it’s done properly. In this article, we’ll discuss the top five “email marketing felonies” and what you can do to improve your email campaigns.

Me, me, me!

Don’t make your emails all about you and your business. Make sure that you’re not writing and sending out all of your emails simply to “sell.”  A great acronym to keep in mind when writing your marketing emails is WIFM, which stands for “what’s in it for me?”  Think about your emails in terms of the people receiving them and ask “What do my recipients have to gain by reading this email? What’s in it for them?”

Zzzzzzzzz

Don’t put your recipients to sleep. You don’t want them to read the first line of your email and hit the delete button, or worse, flag it as junk. Your email content should be interesting, useful, and compelling. You need to earn the attention of your recipients.

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This is done by providing them with emails that will help them in some way or that they’ll enjoy. When you focus on providing compelling and useful email content, you’re staying top of mind with people and positioning yourself as an authority in your field. Don’t view yourself as a salesperson, but rather as an industry expert.

Unknown sender

Only email people you’ve had some sort of contact with and who have provided you with their email address. If you buy a list and email people who have no idea who you are, they’ll likely be taken back, probably see your email as junk, and delete it as soon as possible. When your recipients flag your emails as junk, your overall email deliverability rate can gradually decline because email providers like Gmail and Yahoo can quickly flag all emails sent from you. Essentially, you’re branding yourself as a “junk mail sender.” Tip: if you haven’t made contact with people for a long time, it’s a good idea to personally reach out to them before you put them on your email list so it’s not a shock when they all of a sudden receive an email from you.

Cold and impersonal

You should personalize emails as much as possible. This includes addressing your contacts by their name rather than taking the “dear valued client” approach. A good CRM will let you personalize your marketing emails in this way. You want recipients to think your email was written just for them and not potentially blasted to hundreds of people. You should also make sure the “From” field in your emails has your name and not the name of a company.

Spam words

Avoid using words that are commonly flagged by email providers as junk. Common words that trigger spam filters are “buy,” “cheap,” and “bargain.” For other common spam trigger words, take a look at HubSpot’s, The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words. It doesn’t hurt to run your emails through a “spam checker” to minimize the chances of your emails being sent to spam.

Now that you know these common email mistakes, it’s up to you to take the tips you’ve learned in this article and put them to good use. Start now!

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