Email Marketing Campaign

8 Ways You Can Sabotage Your Email Marketing Campaign

There are many compelling data-driven findings on why brands choose email marketing. Some of them include 4400% return on investment (ROI), and click-through rates (CTR) worldwide averages 3.2%. Then, why aren’t you getting the same results for your email campaigns? Before parking your efforts and moving on to another marketing strategy, consider asking yourself these questions:

Did you have a clear and actionable plan?

It’s not enough to have a newsletter sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. Like other marketing channels, you need a concise and realistic marketing plan to make your emails effective. Planning is a crucial step because it can keep you on the right path of achieving your goals, whether it’s generating new business leads or increasing sales. Think of it this way you wouldn’t join a 12-kilometer marathon if you didn’t prepare for it, right? You should apply this line of thinking to email marketing too.

It would be best if you determined your email campaign goal first. Don’t settle for generic and vague goals like increase sales or establish brand awareness. Make it more specific like 50 sales per week or 100 new subscribers in a month so you can track and measure your strategy.

Email Marketing Campaign
Email Marketing Campaign

Did you have a high-quality email list?

Building your email list requires time, effort and patience, and because of these, many choose to acquire email addresses illegally. Sure, you’ll have an extensive list, but at the end of the day, you’ll want subscribers that are genuinely interested in your products and service so that you can generate sales and engagement.

To grow your list organically and legally, you can start by adding an undisruptive pop-up sign-up form to your highly viewed or popular website content. When someone visits, you can offer more valuable or upgraded content, accessible only to subscribers, or you can provide a digital download to entice them.

Did you use catchy subject lines and email copy? 

It’s more important than ever to write catchy and compelling email subject lines. If your subject line is not appealing enough, it will be left unnoticed. You can hook people in opening your email by keeping your subject lines short and straightforward and personalized while being valuable.  

Besides the subject line, you should set time and effort in writing your email’s copy. Generic and overused phrases, spelling mistakes, and using an overly promotional tone won’t cut it anymore. An excellent email copy should recognize subscriber pain points, and address a solution.

Did your emails look unprofessional?

Pixelated images, cluttered content format, and confusing call-to-action (CTA) buttons are not enticing for subscribers. Think about it, will you open and click an email if it looks unprofessional? Probably not. You may even think that it’s phishing for information and mark it as spam.

To make a clean and simple email, you can use templates provided by your email marketing service provider. Alternatively, you can hire a designer and programmer to transform dull, spam-like emails to eye-catching and interesting emails that your subscribers will love.

Did you segment your subscribers?

Every subscriber has different needs and preferences. Sending one generic email will not please them. Segmenting your email list is an effective way to provide subscribers with content that it is useful while being personal.

Let’s say you sell clothing for men and women. Your total number of subscribers is 2,678. You can break down or segment them into different categories like gender. When you have an on-going promotion on women’s lingerie, you can send it to your segmented list based on gender.

Did you track and measure the results?

Tracking and measuring email metrics show how your subscribers interact with your email. Are they opening your email, clicking the CTA button, making a purchase or ignoring it? For businesses, these data are relevant because it determines the success of a campaign. You can even use the information to identify problems. For example, if your click-through rates are high yet conversion rates are too low, there might be a problem with the landing page or the payment purchase may be too complicated.

Did you know what made your subscribers click, open, and purchase?  


You’ll also need to conduct A/B testing regularly. A/B testing gives you the opportunity to determine your subscriber’s preferences. For instance, what will they likely to open – email subject lines with question type or urgent, actionable and short sentence? By conducting A/B testing, you can have a more concrete answer to this question.

All you have to do is send two subject line versions of one email – one question type and the other in short phrase. Then, analyze the data of each campaign. If the question type performs better than the actionable copy, then it makes sense to use it for future campaigns. Keep in mind that A/B testing is not limited to subject lines. You can also experiment and test other email elements like CTA button and color, font size, image placement, email copy and more. You can also test email frequency rates and time.

Did you use too many CTAs?

Too many CTAs can compete for your subscribers’ attention. As much as possible, your email should have one and clear CTA. Your CTA should align with your email marketing objective. Let’s say your goal is to increase sales. You wouldn’t add a CTA button linking back to your about us page. You’ll want it to direct subscribers to your online store or a specific product page.  

Wrap Up

Email marketing is a cost-effect strategy that allows direct communication to customers and prospects while delivering effective results like high ROI. If previous campaigns failed, it doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause. With a finely-tuned email marketing plan based on the best email marketing practices, your brand, like many other companies, can reap the rewards of using email marketing to build brand awareness, improve sales and other marketing goals you want to achieve.  

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