Emailing: 5 mistakes to avoid

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Emailing: 5 mistakes to avoid

Nowadays, it is essential for companies to have an online presence and emailing has become essential in order to keep in regular contact with your prospects and customers. Thanks to the numerous tools available on the Internet, it will be very easy for you to target them at a reasonable cost and to inform them of your new products and services. Emailing is the most cost-effective marketing channel because it has many advantages. For example, it will allow you to create an essential relationship of trust with your prospects. However, it is important to remember that you will not be the only one to send advertisements by email to your customers! Each day, we are bombarded with e-mails. It is thus very important to offer content that will stand out from the crowd and that will arouse the curiosity of your consumers!

In a previous article, we had the opportunity to share tips and tricks to improve your website. Here, we want to continue this momentum and teach you more about the different mistakes to avoid when launching your emailing campaign. This approach is a real advantage in order to keep in constant contact with your customers.

“For every 1€ spent, email marketing brings in an average of 35€.” (source: oberlo.fr)

Statistics show us that a good strategy and the use of right marketing tools will bring many benefits to your business. In our opinion, emailing is a core element in your communication strategy! That’s why, in this article, we’re going to give you a series of mistakes to avoid when launching your emailing campaign. Let’s take a look at the ones you should not make in order to achieve your goals and achieve the most read newsletter or unavoidable emails.

Table of content

1st mistake: not using a newsletter sending tool

When you disregard the sending tools and use your email system such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, you are constrained to a sending limit. In fact, these mailboxes limit the number of emails to be sent per day in order to protect you from abuse by spam senders. For example, Gmail limits you to 500 emails per day. While an email marketing tool allows you to send mass mailings. In addition, if you use your mailbox, errors may occur. You risk inserting the addresses of your recipients in the “To” field or in “Cc” (Carbon copy) instead of the “Bcc” field (Invisible carbon copy). In this case, you would not comply with the GDPR rules.

The use of a specialized tool is ideal for sending professional newsletters. Indeed, these marketing tools offer newsletter templates that are easy to use and responsive: your email will be readable on all types of devices such as smartphone, tablet, pc, etc. Not to forget, you can save the chosen template so that you only have to change the content of the email and keep the same design for future campaigns so that your brand image remains coherent. The law demands that every subscriber to your newsletter can unsubscribe from it. Cancelling subscriptions is easier thanks to the “unsubscribe” button offered by the newsletter sending tools. They also save you time, as you will no longer have to manually remove all unsubscribers from your contact list.

Furthermore, the newsletter sending software gives you the possibility to analyze some statistical data such as the opening rate, the click rate and the unsubscribe rate, whereas if you choose your personal mailbox, you won’t be able to see the performance of your emailing campaign. In this article, we will detail the 3 most popular tools: MailChimp, Sendinblue and HubSpot.

  • MailChimp

This tool is THE world leader in emailing. It is very well suited for companies starting their business because it has an intuitive and easy to configure interface. Indeed, the platform has been designed and developed to allow non-technical profiles to use it. A negative point that could scare many people is the fact that the platform is entirely in English. However, don’t panic, it is possible to send emails in all languages. 

The platform is also very interesting because it is free as long as you don’t have a list of more than 2000 email addresses. In addition, you can send 10.000 emails for free every month. Once you have more than 2000 contacts or you want to send more than 10.000 emails per month, a paying subscription is available.

  • Sendinblue

This software is the French equivalent of Mailchimp with an easy-to-use interface and 24/7 customer support. You can use the platform free of charge if you have no more than 1,000 contacts and if you do not exceed the sending limit of 9,000 emails per month or 300 per day. Sendinblue is therefore ideal for start-ups and SMEs who want to start an emailing strategy. Larger companies can also benefit from this software as it offers the most affordable emailing solution on the market. Sendinblue offers several different subscriptions. Depending on the functionalities you need you can choose the offer that suits you best.

  • HubSpot

This platform, unlike MailChimp and Sendinblue, has been created to help medium and large companies in analyzing and attracting prospects in order to convert them into customers. This tool is a customer relationship management software. This means that it has many more functionalities in addition to its emailing option. There is a “basic” version of HubSpot for free. However, paid versions offer more functionality. Here, the price of the subscription is calculated according to the number of employees using the tool.

2nd mistake: forgetting to analyze the performances of the campaigns that have been set up

Not analyzing the results of your campaign would be a big mistake! Indeed, this evaluation is essential in order to improve your service. Similarly, knowing and understanding the elements that make your campaign a success is very important.

In order to determine whether the strategy you have implemented meets your expectations, certain key indicators need to be studied. First of all, analyzing the opening rate is relevant. This corresponds to the percentage of recipients who open the email you sent them.

Second, it is also interesting to look at the click rate. This represents the percentage of recipients who respond to a call to action (CTA) in the email. The delivery rate is also interesting. This tells you how many emails have not been delivered to the recipient’s mailbox. Finally, it is interesting to know the number of people who have unsubscribed to your newsletter. To do so, the unsubscription rate is an excellent indicator.

Thanks to these 4 indicators, you will have the opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your emailing campaigns and to set up a whole series of actions in order to improve yourself.

  • How can you collect those data?

Remember that if you set up a newsletter tool then it will provide you with a report indicating the different indicators listed above.

Adobe Analytics or Google Analytics are 2 software programs that allow you to study your rates. In addition, you can easily split your statistical analysis using tracking codes. For example, you can compare emails by their subject lines (i.e., you keep the same structure, design and content of the email and only change the subject line) and see which one has received the most clicks and had a higher opening rate. This will allow you to determine the best version of your mail.

To find out if your emailing campaign has been successful, you can compare your results with the average rates of companies in the same branch of industry as yours. Indeed, rates vary greatly from one industry sector to another. If your result is higher than the average, your newsletter has been successful.

3rd mistake: neglecting your database

An up-to-date and high-quality database is essential for the success of your marketing campaign. In fact, when you neglect it, not interested readers may send your email in their spam and this will have an impact on the delivery of your emails.

Find, here below, our tips for an efficient contact database:

  • Ask your blog readers and potential customers to fill in your registration form, which will be on your website, ideally on the landing pages or in the contact tab.

Landing pages are the least popular type of application form and have the highest conversion rate (24%). On the contrary, pop-ups are the most popular type of registration form and have the second highest conversion rate (4%)” (Omnisend, 2018)

  • You can also earn relevant new subscriptions when you provide your prospects with premium content such as e-books, webinars and free training courses for which they must fill in a form to get access. This allows you to switch from anonymous visitors to qualified leads and, at the same time, allows you to keep their email addresses in your database.
  • Do not hesitate to suppress from your database all inactive customers who have not opened your newsletter for a long time and all suspicious email addresses.
  • You can use an email validation service to analyze your database.

“On a worldwide scale, mailing campaigns that are segmented have 14.31% higher opening rates than non-segmented ones.” (Mailchimp, 2017)

Once you have updated your database, it is absolutely necessary to segment it in order to adapt your emails to make them more appropriate. A good segmentation allows you to improve opening and click rates and to improve customer relations. After having established your contact lists, according to different criteria, you will be able to send customized emails for each of your targets. Concerning behavioral criteria, you can use marketing automation which will facilitate the sending of customized emails. Indeed, it allows you to create dynamic lists that change according to the attitude of your contacts.  

Here is an example that shows you the importance of segmenting your database: a textile company is offering a 10% discount on its party dresses. You can be sure that this promotion will be more interesting for a 23-year-old woman than a 62-year-old woman.

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4th mistake: choosing the wrong time to send the newsletter

The moment you send your newsletter will have an impact on your emailing campaign and therefore on the opening rate of your emails. Actually, the frequency, the choice of the day of the week and the time you send your email will have an influence on the results you will see.

In order to determine the best time to send your newsletter, there are 2 possibilities. You can carry out tests during the week to determine the day and time that best suits your audience. Another solution is to let the MailChimp tool determine the best time to send your content. When you launch your newsletter, it will be a challenge for you to determine the best time to send it. MailChimp collects a large amount of data in order to determine when recipients are most likely to engage. Their research has shown that the return on investment is best when newsletters are sent during the week. 

However, not a single day stood out in particular. They also found out that it is recommended to send your newsletters in the morning preferably before 10am. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are many variables involved such as the type of content your company offers and the age and occupation of your prospects. To best meet their expectations, put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and ask yourself the right questions: “What time do they wake up in the morning”, “What is their typical day? “When do they read their emails?” … Once you have answered all these questions, carry out tests to determine the moments that work best.

Having regular communication will allow you to establish a more solid relationship with your recipients. So, you need to consider the commitment you have to your community and send them a newsletter at the same frequency. Above all, you should not set up your emailing campaign according to your free time and your desires.

5th mistake: neglecting the email subject

Finding a striking email subject is very important because it’s the first thing your recipient will see when they open their mailbox. Therefore, even if the content of the newsletter is of a very high quality, a low impact item will destroy all your efforts. The subject of an email is one of the triggering elements for opening an email. It will thus have a negative effect on your opening rate.

The average email opening rate is 22%”(Source: oberlo.fr)

In order to make the subjects of your emails more attractive, here is a set of small tips:

  • Play on feelings and inclusiveness: show your recipients that they are not alone, and that other people are making the same choices as they do. This will create a sense of belonging.
  • Explain a personal anecdote: remind your customers that you have a unique relationship with them. Reminding them that they are the core of your business will always have a small effect.
  • Ask a question: attract the curiosity of your customers. The aim here is to give a taste of the content of the email without revealing too much. This way, the curious ones will want to continue reading and will open your email.
  • Show interest: remind your recipients that you care about them. Building a real relationship will help you achieve better results in the long term.
  • Personalized monitoring: attract the recipient’s curiosity by boosting their ego.

Emails with a personalized subject have a 50% higher opening rate on average” (Source: Oberlo.fr)

According to a 2020 study by Statista, the total number of email users will reach 4.48 trillion by 2024. So, you can see that using emailing as part of your marketing strategy is essential. We’ll help you to improve your email campaigns or use our tips to enhance your newsletters. These 5 mistakes to avoid will help you to create an outstanding newsletter and set yourself apart from the competition.

In conclusion, you should privilege the use of a newsletter sending tool in order to be more professional and reduce your work tasks, update your database regularly, select the best time to send your newsletter, determine a mail subject that will be striking and finally, do not hesitate to study the statistical figures of each mailing campaign in order to identify the factors that have improved the performance of your strategy.

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