Despite the growing use of social media by Internet marketers, one form of marketing that continues to dominate most businesses’ marketing plan is email. In fact, in many ways email marketing is superior to social media marketing. With email marketing you only communicate with people who have expressed a desire to be informed about your product/program and you communicate with that person when and how you choose. This increases the likelihood of respondents doing the action you want them to. However, despite the many advantages, there are several pitfalls to email marketing. Here are some common issues with email marketing and some solutions.
1. Getting Permission to Email
Emailing people without their permission is not only bad netiquette; it is also against the CAN SPAM Act of 2003. The solution to not having permission is to allow visitors to your site to opt-in your mailing campaign. Sending mail to customers who have opted in to receive your mails only increases the chances that your conversion rate will grow.
2. Recipients who don’t respond
This one can cause some marketers to give up all together. The solution is to re-evaluate the campaign and change it if necessary. How clear is your call to action in your email? Is the email attractive? Is your offer attractive and enticing enough? Use this opportunity to learn and adapt.
3. Low Sales
Again, this may be the result of a weak, confusing or non-existent call to action. You can also choose this opportunity to view your email campaign as a chance to gather leads without immediately making sales.
4. Difficulty Growing an Email List
This is another challenge that is very dispiriting. Solutions include running promotions such as online contests to gather addresses, giving away free products such as e-books and using social media.
5. Purchasing Contact Lists
There are many services that claim to have contact list full of promising leads regardless of the industry OR your company’s niche. However, buying a list is a bad idea for several reasons: (1) People on email list don’t actually know you so they aren’t inclined to do business with you, (2) Your IP reputation may be damaged by spamming people (3) A company would never risk sending you a “good” list thereby damaging its reputation.
6. Not generating the desired Click through and Open Rates to Conversion Visitors
It does no good if someone visits your site but does not complete the desired action. The solution is to segment your messages. For example, according to the site Experian, including the word exclusive in email promotional campaigns boosts unique open rates by 14%.
7. Running Simultaneous Email Campaigns
It can be confusing to run several campaigns at the same time but may be necessary in many cases. The solution is to use email marketing management software. There are many email marketing platforms available in the market to handle this task.
8. Improving Deliverability
Sending emails to active addresses will increase your response rate and decrease your bounce rate; sending emails to inactive addresses will do the reverse. The keys to improving your email deliverability are to purge your lists of inactive addresses and to have visitor’s double opt-in to join your mailing list.
9. Retaining subscribers
One way to retain subscribers is to start a customer loyalty or reward program. Hopefully, this will keep your subscribers engaged and encourage them to stay and make further purchase.
In short, by using a bit of ingenuity and resourcefulness in your email marketing campaign(s), you can overcome its difficulties and put your business way ahead of others who have not conquered these same challenges.
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