Email Marketing Mistakes Happen.

From spelling mistakes, unintentional broadcasts, missing information, and more … Email marketing mistakes happen to us all.

After all of that time and effort … you hit “send” …  no more tweaks, no more alterations. And then you spot a mistake. Or one of your readers points it out to you. Or a co-worker asks, “Did you mean to send that out like that?” Sure it can be an anxious and somewhat disheartening moment. But it’s really a pretty simple matter to send out a corrected email.

As awesome as we email marketers are, we are all human. And mistakes will absolutely happen. It’s how you respond to them that counts. Consider this “oops” from HBO Max:

There’s no real “blame” to it. And HBO doesn’t seem to be overly concerned over potential damage. They just owned it, apologized, made a little fun of themselves, and got back to business.

Our very own CEO, Brian Rooney, recently sent out an email to our Top Affiliate Producers with a subject line that simply read “test”. When the email marketing mistake was pointed out, he simply created a new message using the appropriate subject line and admitted the mistake. During the live webinar that evening, he used it as an example. He said, “I’ve been doing this over 20 years and I STILL make mistakes!”. The leaders on the meeting laughed and admitted to making similar mistakes in their own campaigns.

Some companies even make fun of themselves. American Eagle sent out a broadcast email that had an image that didn’t load correctly. It was “glitchy” and flashed back and forth. Not only did they company send out a new email, they added a discount code: NOGLITCH.

It was smart. It was funny. It probably resulted in even more sales.

The decision to apply humor or a little humility (or both) will be a choice you make in the moment and will depend on your readers.

The primary thing to remember is that email marketing mistakes do happen. And, thanks to technology, the mistakes can usually be corrected very quickly.

Email marketing mistakes don’t have to be devastating.

The really good new is that you can actually avoid the most common email marketing mistakes very easily. Let’s take a look at some of the easies to manage:

Common Email Marketing Mistakes:

Personalization. 

Either skipping personalization all together or getting the codes wrong. With TrafficWave, personalizing your messages is a matter of just selecting the proper token. A big mistake we see users make is when they try to manually type the code. The result can be something like: Hello, %%NAME%% instead of actually putting the subscriber’s name in the subject line. Not only does this subject line miss the mark, but the reader will feel “dismissed” or “minimized”.

The solution: Use the pulldown option to select the correct code to personalize your messages and subject lines.

Subject Lines and Preview Text

First impressions matter. Once your email makes it to the inbox, the first things your subscriber sees will be your sender name, subject line, and preview text. These can encourage opens and prompt your subscribers to read your email. Without an open, there are no clicks. Without clicks, there are no conversions. So getting your subject line and preview text right is the first crucial step toward email success.

We recommend sending a Proofread message to yourself to verify what is shown in the preview pane. Avoid emojis and images in the preview pane. Use words that initiate interest and draw your reader in.

Images Not Loading

There are many reasons your email images might not appear in the inbox.

Your subscriber may have images set to “off” by default.

A corporate filter may be blocking images.

Your images might just be too large and not load.

Subscribers could have weak cell service and not be able to load your images.

The list goes on. And, you can’t actually control any of the above possibilities.

These issues are why you should never send an email that’s made up entirely of images. If your email message is just one large image with all of your content… and that image doesn’t load… your email just shows up as a  blank space. No sales will be made. Be sure to combine any images with text. If the image adds to the message, be sure to add alternative text (“or alt text”) that will provide value to someone who can’t see that image otherwise.

Images should add to and reinforce your message … not “be” the message.

Spelling Errors

This one is easy to do. Our fingers move too fast. We’re in a hurry. We just type, save, and go. Spelling errors can hurt your credibility and make your message difficult to interpret.

The solution: Slow down just a bit. Proofread your messages.

Incorrect or Broken Links

Like spelling errors, this can be a matter of a typing error or just a link that is no longer valid. You crafted your message to get the reader to click. If they click and don’t get to your page, the sales is lost.

When you send your Proofread message to yourself, click the links to make sure they go where you want them to go. The time you take now can prevent lost sales in your next broadcast.

Hopefully, you can recognize and see the value of avoiding these common email marketing mistakes. Take a moment to review your content. Your credibility will grow and your readers will be more likely to engage.

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