Are You Making These Email Marketing Mistakes? Here’s How To Fix Them

Bryan Scott(Amarjit), August 24, 2022

Even in the world of social media, video marketing, and SEO, email is a vital component in every B2B marketer’s overall marketing mix. After all, it has the highest ROI of all B2B marketing channels. Besides, 50.7% of B2B customers say that emails designed for marketing and advertising influence their buying decisions.

However, many times, your email campaigns may end up delivering results that are less than satisfactory. You may be plagued with low open rates and high unsubscription rates. Underperforming email campaigns cause distress and prevent you from taking advantage of this highly effective B2B marketing channel. So, what can you do to improve this situation?

The first step is to identify where you are falling short. And once you learn where you are going wrong, the next step is to take action and fill these gaps. In this article, we have listed common email mistakes that you might be making and how you can fix them.

#1 You Are Writing Ineffective Subject Lines

To run a successful email campaign, you must first get an email recipient to open your email!  And an interesting subject line is what gets the recipient’s attention. In fact, 47% of people open emails based on the subject alone. So, if your subject lines do not stand out, your email will surely be buried or ignored.

How to fix it:

• Always keep your subject lines crisp, clear, and catchy. The best practice is to keep it under seven words and 60 characters because lengthy subject lines tend to get truncated. Some mobile interfaces cut off the subject lines over 32 characters, so it is better to use the shortest version possible.
• Depending on your audience, the content of your email, and your industry, you may use emojis or casual language in your subject lines.
• Always personalize your subject lines, especially for promotional emails and welcome emails. According to research, emails with a personalized subject line have a higher open rate.

#2 Your Emails Are, Well, Boring

Yes, it is that simple. Boring content cannot engage customers, especially B2B customers who seek value from every piece of content they read. If you find that your open rates are low and more people are unsubscribing each day, the chances are that your emails are not engaging enough.

How to fix it:

While devising an email campaign, understand why you are emailing them. Now, you may think your overall marketing objective, i.e., more sales, is the reason for emailing. But, here is where you are wrong. If you try to sell your products too hard, your customers will get bored.  So, the key is to find a balance between valuable content and product offerings.

For example, if you are offering a software product, try to engage your customers by:

• Offering them helpful tips and ideas
• Sharing success stories of other customers
• Educating them on how to make the best of your product
• Sharing thought-leadership content as an industry expert

#3 You Aren’t Including Clear CTAs

Whether you want your customers to visit your website, sign up for a trial, or subscribe to your newsletter, you won’t achieve your objective unless:

• You include a CTA
• You direct the readers’ attention to it

How to fix it:

First, decide what you want your recipient to do. Then, draw their attention to it. You can include your CTA as a button with a link and enable the user to take action. Make sure they can follow it in as few clicks as possible.

Here is another important thing to remember while including CTAs: Do not overdo it. Too many CTAs may confuse or overwhelm the reader.

#4 You Are Ignoring Customer Segmentation and Personalization

In the competitive B2B landscape, marketing messages land well when they are targeted. Customers respond better when they feel like they matter and are not reduced to ‘just another subscriber’ on your email list. But, if you send out generic messages and treat all your email subscribers the same, you will miss out on several opportunities.

How to fix it:

To best engage your audience, it is crucial to relay personalized messages. These can range from sending tailored welcome messages to including the recipient’s name in each email’s subject line.

Always remember that you must focus on catering to the needs of each customer. You can achieve this through customer segmentation. Segmentation for email marketing involves sorting your customers into smaller groups with similar features like demographics, buying habits, or industries. So, when you send marketing emails directed to appeal to these groups, they are more likely to engage with your content – and convert to paying customers.

To achieve effective segmentation, consider investing in high-quality customer data. With accurate customer data, you can identify and segregate user groups based on demographic, firmographic, technographic, and intent data. This process will allow you to gain a much deeper understanding of your customer base, learn what they want, and deliver value through your marketing and promotional emails.

Additional Read: How to Use Email Marketing to Grow Your Small Business in 2022

#5 You Are Not Optimizing For Mobile

Most of your consumers use smartphones to check their emails. According to a survey, 42.3% of people delete emails if they are not optimized for mobiles. Meanwhile, 32.2% of people check their inboxes on their phones and then read the email later on their desktops. So, if you are not optimizing your email content for mobile devices, you can face the following issues:

• Low open rates on mobile devices
• Failing to capture the readers’ attention with truncated subject lines
• Disappointing your subscribers by delivering hard-to-read emails

How to fix it:

Through analytics and report tools, you can see what percentage of people read your marketing emails through mobile devices and desktops. However, it is better to preview the mail and send yourself a ‘test copy’ to check how it renders across devices. For example, you can check if the font is legible enough, the graphics are not pixelated, the embedded videos look good, the email retains its structure, and if the email is too long to scroll through on the phone.

Thus, to craft high-performing promotional emails, you must give your customers a seamless experience both on mobile and desktop. It might take some additional time to fine-tune your email’s formatting, but it is worth the effort.

The Bottom Line

Effective email marketing is crucial to standing out in the competitive B2B market and keeping your customer base engaged. Identifying and rectifying these mistakes can help you lay a solid foundation for all your email marketing strategies. So, make sure you use these tips to elevate your email campaigns and offer your customers valuable and engaging content every time you hit send!