Email marketing, like all forms of marketing, is complex. All these different layers and elements working together to create something more than the sum of its parts, at you or your team at the centre of this environment.
Naturally, mistakes are going to happen, it’s unavoidable. This is a fairly contradictory statement, considering the title of this blog. Sadly, no one blog (no matter how incredibly well written) is going to be a bulletproof (mistake-proof?) vest.
Sure, our goal is definitely to make sure you can avoid some of the common mistakes encountered, but more than that, rather learn from some of these mistakes when they inevitably happen.
Crossing I’s & Dotting T’s
Some of the most common mistakes you’re going to encounter are simple little checks and balances that are often overlooked when working with email.
Sure, you’re going to make sure your spelling and grammar are on point, but you’d be surprised how often people forget to check their links. If you have multiple links across multiple campaigns, you’d be surprised how easy it is to miss a broken one.
How much attention are you paying to your sending schedule? While we do have industry recommended days and times that historically work better for email, every audience is different to some degree. This is one of those scenarios where mistakes can help you improve. Monitor your own sending times and schedules, as well as your opens & clicks over time. You’ll learn exactly when the best days and times to launch campaigns are, based on your audience’s level of engagement.
Communication is key. Develop a strong internal approval process, and try to make sure that more than a single person gets to see the campaign. Sometimes a second pair of eyes can highlight issues that a system can’t, from a design & aesthetic standpoint.
Adapt, Improvise, Overcome
The hard truth is that sadly, mistakes are going to happen. Let’s discuss some of the ways in which you’re going to be learning from these mistakes.
Email marketing is very results-driven and due to the analytics available, you can very easily tell when things are going well and when they’re falling apart. The good news is that not only will you know when things are going wrong, but you’ll be able to tell which elements are causing the issues. This means you can fix things!
If your open rates are taking a dip, consider what your audience is experiencing. Monitor their reactions and adjust your approach. If you’ve upped your sending frequency and you start to see a decline in engagement, take a step back and lower your activity. Sure, you’ve made a mistake but you can learn from it.
This same principle is going to apply to almost everything you do with email. From subject lines and preheader text to content, value adds and sending frequency, you’re inevitably going to try new things. And when you do, you may stumble, fall and make your fair share of mistakes. The most important thing is learning from them.
By being a combination of proactive and reactive, not only will you get ahead of most mistakes, you’ll be able to navigate the inevitable pitfalls as well.
Accountability FTW
At the end of the day, you need to address problems and mistakes head-on. You need to hold both yourself and individual elements of your process accountable if you’re ever going to improve these areas moving forward.
Mistakes are quite simply, human. You’re a company built of people doing their absolute best, and your audience wants to know that because they make mistakes too. Sending an apology campaign where needed is a great way to show your audience that you’re just people too.
In the same way that you as a business owns up to your mistakes, make sure that you’re holding each element of your email environment to the same standard. By identifying specific problem areas and improving them in an almost surgical like fashion, any email environment (no matter how humble) has the potential to become something truly special and unique.
Conclusion
Sadly, there’s no one size fits all solution, process or even blog that will prevent you from making mistakes in your email environment.
However, by being as proactive and reactive as possible, it’s our experience that you can get pretty damn close.
We’d love to help you get there by upskilling your team with dedicated systems training or being your second pair of eyes with our VIP support offering. Give us a call and let TouchBasePro help you.