Two hundred ten billion emails are sent daily. And according to Constant Contact, the reason people invest so much time and effort in email list building is in its potential: for every $1 spent on emails, you can get some $45 in return. Let’s learn how to avoid the top mistakes employers make when building an email list.
>Sure thing, we all know how important it is to build an email list right. We realize the importance of a well-crafted message sent to the right audience at the right time. However, sadly enough both employers and recruiters make the same rookie mistakes times and again.
You might be wondering what those mistakes are and how you can prevent them from happening. If so, read on, as we will introduce you to them in just a few seconds.
And even if you believe that you are a real pro in this area and need no guidance, we strongly recommend you checking our list out: you might be surprised to see things you do and find absolutely normal while in reality they undermine your image and harm your business and hiring process.
7 Mistakes When Crafting An Email List
1 Giving No Motivation To Join Or Subscribe on Your Email List
We all receive dozens of emails that invite us all to join something or to subscribe to an email campaign.
It is getting kind of all. Subscribers are already immune to this type of message. And the only way you can get them subscribe or join is by offering them something for free in return or by giving them unique content of great value.
In other words, if you want your email list campaigns to be effective, you have to offer an incentive. Or they will delete it before ever doing what you invite them to do. So, if you want them to do what you ask them to do, follow our advice and offer them real value in exchange for their actions. So, follow this to avoid one of the top mistakes on an email list.
2. Crafting A Mediocre Subject Line.
The subject line is what defines whether the readers will want to read your emails or not. If it is catchy and relevant to their interests, they will open the letter. If not, they will consider it spam and delete it before ever opening it.
Moreover, the subject line should explain what pain points of the reader this particular mail can solve. It has to sound appealing and interesting. Otherwise, you are merely wasting your and your users’ time. We would also like to mention that we recommend to use numbers in the subject line, Active Voice, and power words: these tricks do wonders to your email list campaign success rates.
3. Too Many Questions mistakes on Email List
You probably know how important it is to ask questions to engage a user in a conversation. However, while starting a discussion and striking up a conversation is generally a good thing, asking too many questions is kind of annoying. It repels the audience, so don’t do that and try to stick to the magical number of three questions per email. Place them well and spread them evenly throughout the text.
think of your email as a conversation: if you ask too many questions not giving people a chance to stop and think about the answers, they will probably view you as a nosy and annoying type of fellow. The same applies here: everything is good in moderation.
4. Adding Broken Links
If you don’t pay enough attention to the email, you might send out letters that lead… well, nowhere, mistakes on an email list. That is why make sure that every link you insert into the email is working and valid not spend hours of writing, polishing and targeting in vain.
Besides, it is essential to make links visible in your text. Depending on your email marketing service, you can stylize your links and insert them into special buttons. In this case, they will be more visible and vivid. And that is a key to successful email campaigns.
5. Not Upgrading Your Website
Your website, the core of your business, has to look flawless. Its main goal is to provide visitors with all the necessary information. If you send people back to your site from the email, you have to be 100% sure that it is nothing short of perfect.
It might need a redesign or some work is done on it if it is old, but it has to have all the essential information on the surface. No need to go through the documentation to find answers to your questions. So, aim for such standards!
6. Hiding Forms mistakes on Email List
If there is a form in your email, it has to be visible. Whenever possible, add it directly into the email. Do not ask people to take extra actions to fill out a form. We are saying that redirecting them to a third-party site is not a good idea. You will lose half of the people along the way. But as long as customers have access to the forms without having to leave the email, you will get all the responses you wanted to get.
7. Choosing An Improper Style
Last but not least comes this mistake: employers tend to sound too official and bossy. However, that is not the style or attitude the recipients expect from them. People hate being taught. They want to be treated equally. So, if your emails sound too distant and odd, you are most likely not getting the responses you were hoping for. Choose a friendly tone!
8. Check your email list occasionally
Time is the enemy of email databases. Email list databases can shrink by more than 20% yearly as people change their personal or work emails, drop old email addresses they no longer use or unsubscribe from your email communications. Since email lists can be very volatile, it’s important to maintain email hygiene.
Email addresses may work in some cases, but other hygiene mistakes in your email list can jeopardize your activity. It is also common for your database to build up with incorrect or incomplete information over time. When entering information into the database, there may be typographical errors or incomplete fields.
If a customer receives an email with a wrong birthday listed, misspelled name, or malformed address, it can affect their experience. Since customers value personalized emails, these inaccuracies can affect the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
9. Don’t split your email list
It’s an expensive assumption to assume that all of your customers are likely to be interested in the same news, even in a niche industry. The mistake many email marketers make is not segmenting their email database based on characteristics learned from customers, such as interests, demographics, or industry.
Not only does a segmented list help you create more personalized and relevant messages for your customers, but it can lead to big wins when done right. The most common benefits of listing segmentation are higher open rates, lower exit or unsubscribe rates, and better deliverability.
Getting started with email list segmentation can be overwhelming, but these are the top three points to help you get started to avoid mistakes while building the email list.
- Define your data points – Segmentation is impossible without customer data, and the data required varies from company to company. For example, if you’re a B2B company, job role, industry, location, and company size may be important questions to ask your customers.
- Create personas for your clients – use buyer personas to identify your best clients, whether they are families with young children, young professionals, or sports fanatics, and what information is needed to help you define which segments are important.
- Choose your niche – once you know your best customers, you can start crafting emails to target them. Please pay attention to the voice and language you use in your emails. For example, older demographics, and younger demographics may respond better to informal language.
- Test and measure results – Make sure you’re measuring how people interact with your emails. Test with different subject lines.
Email List Final Words
All in all, email campaigns are extremely important to the overall success of your business. And they are known to bring in great ROI. If they do not work for you, then chances are you are doing something wrong. Take a closer look at our list and check whether you are not making these mistakes. And if you are, then you are welcome to try and fix them right away!
With well-structured and high-quality emails, you can join thousands of successful employers that learned how to do email campaigns right and are now reaping the results of their hard work! I hope this article helps you to avoid the mistakes while building the email list.
About the Author:
Richard Nolan is a professional educator and team building coach, sharing his experience in spheres of writing, blogging, entrepreneurship, and psychology. Currently, Richard works as an editor-in-chief for essaywritersite.com. Follow him on Facebook.
