For beginners running an online business, it’s likely that you are looking into email marketing to get your brand out there. Building an email list is probably on the mind and you’re probably wondering the best ways to go about it.
Sometimes the best way to learn something is to learn the common mistakes that people have done before you and to avoid them yourself. Take a look at these seven mistakes that are all too common when email marketing and try to avoid them for yourself!
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Not starting your email list soon enough
One of the most common mistakes that happens with email marketing is that small businesses and bloggers don’t start their email list right away. Rather than just adding new content regularly, it’s important to be building your email list. With email marketing being one of the most cost effective tools that you could be using, why wait?
It’s great to provide new content and reach out on social media, but without email marketing, you aren’t going to be able to build your subscribers. You’ll find that most of your visitors are coming from search engines and never returning again since they aren’t apart of any email list that would entice them to return again. Email lists are a great way to keep your users loyal and boost your sales.
Using WordPress as an email list
Another common mistake with email marketing is that many will use WordPress to run their email list or newsletter. It’s not meant to be a source for emailing your newsletter. It does work well for sending email notifications and it offers plenty of plugins to help you send out your newsletter without the need for an email marketing service.
Just don’t try to use a plugin to build your email list because it’s a misuse of their terms, they aren’t configured well for it, and you won’t be able to send all of your emails at one time. Instead, get a reputable email service provider like AWeber or Constant Contact to make sure your emails make it to your users.
Neglecting to get lead generation software
How are you supposed to get your leads without lead generation software? Check out OptinMonster as one option for this. Users often find that their email list doesn’t grow fast enough and users aren’t signing up many times, but that is likely because you don’t have the software to convert your website visitors into email subscribers.
Ruining the experience for your users
Sometimes we offer multiple optins to make it easier than ever to increase email signups. The problem is we can have too many and it ruins the user experience. Ruining the good experience for your users will cause you to lose users. Typically having just two options is best, such as a sidebar and inline together or a slide-in or popup. Be reasonable with your optins to avoid deterring visitors.
Not improving with research and testing
Sometimes the best way to improve your lead generation is to test and research what you’re doing now. Another common mistake is to neglect to strategize this part of things. After turning on a sign up form, many people just leave it be to do its job without checking in again. Your growth may not improve if you don’t test it and make sure it’s working well for your visitors. Run tests to see where you can be improving it.
Other mistakes
In addition to these common mistakes, you’ll find some of the other most common errors made in email marketing include trying to buy your email list and sending too many emails. It’s important to remember that buying your email list will end up risking your brand from sending unsolicited emails and getting placed into spam filters.
You also want to make sure that you aren’t sending too many emails because users will find it annoying, they will delete them after a while, and eventually you’ll lose subscribers. Be sure to have a consistent amount of emails sent out each week that users can start to expect a certain frequency that is frequent enough to be memorable but not too often annoying users.
These are some of the most common mistakes that are made with email marketing. Avoid these mistakes and you can be successful with your marketing strategy!
