Email marketing, while a critical component of successful marketing campaigns, can also be extremely tricky. More than ever people have subscribed to so many different business email lists that they either scroll through and delete or unsubscribe in mass, and they do so daily. The key to being a successful email marketer is to keep your audience engaged with your brand, and ultimately, prove time and time again that your emails offer something of value that other sites do not. In order to be successful with email marketing, you often have to troubleshoot your campaigns and figure out where exactly you are going wrong.

If you are at the point of desperately wanting to figure out why your email marketing campaigns are not working, then this is the article for you. Think of this like a troubleshooting checklist that will allow you to make sure that you are in tip-top shape when launching future campaigns. Your primary goal is to make sure that your audience opens your email, takes the action you want them to take, and stays on your list for future emails.

Optimize for Mobile

This almost goes without saying now, but 66% of email is actually opened on mobile phones in the U.S. This means that if your mailers are not reaching your mobile-viewing prospective customers, then you are doing something very wrong! Make sure every time you send out a mailer that it is both functional and aesthetically pleasing on mobile. Learn more about how to identify KPIs for mobile here.

Don’t Land Up in Spam—Write Creatively

It is incredibly important that you avoid making your emails headline OFFERS WAY TOO GOOD TO RESIST IN ALL CAPS!!!! This is quickly marked as spam and has no chance of grabbing the attention of your audience. Instead, write creatively and use copy that is natural to attract the attention of your mailing list. According to Search Engine Journal, 84% of emails are marked as spam, and this is one feature that can drastically improve your open and subscriber rates.

Improve Relevance

You need to make sure that your emails are relevant to your audience. Keep in mind this may mean segmenting lists or doing what you can to consider the demographics and interests of your subscribers. Learn about other ways to increase and improve relevance here.

Personalize

One of the best things you can do if you have not had successful marketing campaigns is to enhance personalization for your subscribers. This could be as simple as using a name or as complex as segmenting your list based on very specific demographic characters that more closely align with your campaigns.

Include A CTA (Call to Action)

We have seen so many emails that have been designed well but have lacked a CTA. The entire point of an email marketing campaign is to make sure that people are taking actions that you want them to take, whether that is visiting your website or checking out a new product. Without a clear CTA, you cannot expect people are going to get where you want them to go.

Use an Email Service Provider

If you have been trying to send out your monthly newsletters and advertisement campaigns using your standard Outlook business mail, think again! This is one factor that contributes to emails landing in spam folders, and thus, never even having the chance to be open. While services like MailChimp or Emma do cost money (depending on the number of subscribers you have), it is worth every penny if these emails that you spend time on actually make it in front of the people you want them to!

Consider Sending In Early Afternoon

There has been a lot of debate about when to send out email marketing campaigns (time, day of the week, time of the month, etc.). While a lot of the issues surrounding timing are very business and industry-dependent, Search Engine Journal recommends sending in the early afternoon. Ben Oren, from SEJ, states the following:

“Many marketers believe sending emails early in the morning guarantees them a top spot in the recipients’ inbox. However, they’re setting themselves up for failure by trying to dance on an already crowded dance floor. Aim to send communication emails in the early afternoon hours, when they’re more likely to be opened by someone checking their email for the second or third time during the day.” We tend to agree!

Create a Sense of Urgency

While you don’t want to come across as cheap (and yes, spammy), there is something to be said for creating a sense of urgency, and basically making the email “valid” for a certain amount of time. The ideal goal is to get subscribers to click through and take action as soon as they get the email, so if you can get them on your page within 48 hours, you are going to have much better conversion success.

Make Sure Your Emails are Readable

People are busy. With how many emails we all receive in one day, the ones we can read quicker are going to be favorable. There are a few things you will want to consider here: (1) make sure your subject line can be read and that it doesn’t cut off, (2) make sure your content is easily read and can be scrolled through quickly, (3) make sure your images look clean and clear on both desktop and mobile views, (4) consider load times, and know that people are not going to wait to read your content. You only have a few seconds to draw them in.

Write a Better Subject Line and Pre-Header

The subject line and pre-header are really your key features. People will just delete emails that they know are for marketing if they do not feel instantly connected to the subject line and the initial summary of content that is visible If you want to improve your open rate you need to write a better subject line and make your pre-header pop!

Check Your Deliverability

You should have a Delivery Rate of 98-100%, and if you don’t you will definitely want to look into your contact list a little deeper. Do not buy email contacts and make sure that you are building an organic list. This is going to help ensure that your emails are actually making it to people interested in your brand.

Powerful Copy and Interesting Content

We realize this isn’t something that everyone is a natural at, but successful email marketers use powerful copy and interesting content in order to make sure that their subscribers stay engaged (and remain subscribed) on their email list. Entrepreneur points out that one way to do this effectively is to use “single-focus messaging”, or basically to have one clear (single) message for each email marketing campaign that you send out. If you are trying to send out too much information, too often, you are going to lose the attention of your audience. Contact us today for more information.

The Takeaway

It is really easy to feel like email marketing just isn’t working for your business and to give up, especially when it becomes challenging to cut through the noise. However, email marketing is a powerful tool when used well and sometimes all you really need to do is a little troubleshooting. If you’re in this position definitely walk through this checklist to make sure you are putting your best foot forward.

What would you add to this list? Are there any experiences you have had that you found successful? Let us know your thoughts and your story in the comment section below.

Image Credit: HubSpot.com