It’s impossible for anyone--any brand, or any marketer--to completely avoid making mistakes in marketing efforts; but while it’s a guarantee that at some point, there will be some mistake made, it’s not impossible to avoid making one of a few of the key mistakes that cause the most damage to campaigns. Of course, the easiest way to avoid these kinds of mistakes is to work with an email marketing company with experts from Site Impact that have the experience to side-step the errors, but it is also important to know that can further impact your email marketing campaign or promotion.
One of the first places where marketing campaign efforts can go awry is in A/B testing: making the wrong decisions in crafting that test can set your campaign up for failure before it even begins. The most common ways that A/B testing can go wrong are in choosing too small a sample size and testing too many variables. As any statistician can tell you: sample size may not be everything, but it is a huge factor in accuracy of information. If you have multiple email campaigns behind you, then you can gauge what a normal open rate for your campaigns is, and create your sample size guideline based on that; but the ideal is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 impressions--which gives you a rich cross-section to see what is generating interest and what isn’t. According to Site Impact, too many variables in your A/B test will also throw results off; your test should be between a small number of basic differences--one or two is ideal before making decisions. If you change too many things between version A and version B, you don’t know which specific elements are making the difference.
The second major place where email marketing can go awry is in the list maintenance. Improperly maintained email lists lead to diminishing returns, and can lead to lower visibility of your campaigns overall. This includes making sure the setup for the campaign weeds out obviously fake emails and automatically removes “role” emails (for example info@, abuse@, and other such email addresses), as well as regularly auditing lists to make sure no “deadbeat” emails remain on it. Incorporating list maintenance and using a company like Site Impact that keeps their data cleaned and hygienic from the very beginning ensures that your brand doesn’t hit a drag over time.
Finally, unclear subject lines are a major--major--contributing factor to an unsuccessful campaign. While it may seem easy to craft an email marketing subject line, it’s important to keep in mind that your subscribers are receiving dozens of emails a day; standing out is important, especially as email has moved to mobile and consumers can easily “swipe left” to delete your email without even really looking at the subject line. While the temptation may be to create the most clever subject line possible, clarity is just as important in catching attention; a subscriber is less likely to open an email and spend the time to read it when they aren’t sure what kind of reward they will get for their effort.
While it’s impossible for marketers to avoid every single possible mistake that can be made in conducting email campaigns, it is absolutely possible--through a little bit of effort and forethought--to avoid some of the most common mistakes that can cause a campaign to flounder. By maintaining email list hygiene, focusing on clear subject lines, and conducting tests as efficiently as possible, brands can maximize their campaigns’ potentials, and avoid throwing money down the metaphorical hole.
Partnering with the email marketing experts at Site Impact to deploy your next email promotion or campaign, you can rest assure, your message will be strong and so will the targeted recipients you are sending to. Contact us today 954-982-7900.
It’s impossible for anyone--any brand, or any marketer--to completely avoid making mistakes in marketing efforts; but while it’s a guarantee that at some point, there will be some mistake made, it’s not impossible to avoid making one of a few of the key mistakes that cause the most damage to campaigns. Of course, the easiest way to avoid these kinds of mistakes is to work with an email marketing company with experts from Site Impact that have the experience to side-step the errors, but it is also important to know that can further impact your email marketing campaign or promotion.
One of the first places where marketing campaign efforts can go awry is in A/B testing: making the wrong decisions in crafting that test can set your campaign up for failure before it even begins. The most common ways that A/B testing can go wrong are in choosing too small a sample size and testing too many variables. As any statistician can tell you: sample size may not be everything, but it is a huge factor in accuracy of information. If you have multiple email campaigns behind you, then you can gauge what a normal open rate for your campaigns is, and create your sample size guideline based on that; but the ideal is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 impressions--which gives you a rich cross-section to see what is generating interest and what isn’t. According to Site Impact, too many variables in your A/B test will also throw results off; your test should be between a small number of basic differences--one or two is ideal before making decisions. If you change too many things between version A and version B, you don’t know which specific elements are making the difference.
The second major place where email marketing can go awry is in the list maintenance. Improperly maintained email lists lead to diminishing returns, and can lead to lower visibility of your campaigns overall. This includes making sure the setup for the campaign weeds out obviously fake emails and automatically removes “role” emails (for example info@, abuse@, and other such email addresses), as well as regularly auditing lists to make sure no “deadbeat” emails remain on it. Incorporating list maintenance and using a company like Site Impact that keeps their data cleaned and hygienic from the very beginning ensures that your brand doesn’t hit a drag over time.
Finally, unclear subject lines are a major--major--contributing factor to an unsuccessful campaign. While it may seem easy to craft an email marketing subject line, it’s important to keep in mind that your subscribers are receiving dozens of emails a day; standing out is important, especially as email has moved to mobile and consumers can easily “swipe left” to delete your email without even really looking at the subject line. While the temptation may be to create the most clever subject line possible, clarity is just as important in catching attention; a subscriber is less likely to open an email and spend the time to read it when they aren’t sure what kind of reward they will get for their effort.
While it’s impossible for marketers to avoid every single possible mistake that can be made in conducting email campaigns, it is absolutely possible--through a little bit of effort and forethought--to avoid some of the most common mistakes that can cause a campaign to flounder. By maintaining email list hygiene, focusing on clear subject lines, and conducting tests as efficiently as possible, brands can maximize their campaigns’ potentials, and avoid throwing money down the metaphorical hole.
Partnering with the email marketing experts at Site Impact to deploy your next email promotion or campaign, you can rest assure, your message will be strong and so will the targeted recipients you are sending to. Contact us today 954-982-7900.
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