By now, I’m SURE you are doing email marketing in some form or another.  That being the case, I thought you might benefit from the list of the “Top Ten Word Email Content BLunders” as written by John Arnold in the book “E-mail Marketing for Dummies”.  I didn’t include all 10 – you should buy the book – and I added one of my own but they are good rules.

1.  Excessive punctuation.  This mistake screams SPAM.  You will note that spammers always put all sorts of punctuation in the subject line of their email and in the body of the email.  Just don’t do it.  Even though you think that your company, product or service is the best thing since sliced bread, don’t push the fact with lots of exclamation points.

2.  Too long.  I am notorious for not reading all the way to the bottom of the emails that are sent to me.  I realize completely that often I miss very important information but let’s face it – all of us are busy with something.  Those people who spend hours on blogs and in chat rooms just have a bunch of extra time that I don’t have.  If you have a long article or newsletter that you want to send out, save it to a website – preferably yours, send out your email with the first paragraph and a link to “read more”.  That way the people who really WANT to hear what you have to say will do so and those that don’t won’t but those that don’t also won’t get frustrated with your long emails and just send you to their junk box.

3.  Make sure that when you send your emails they are coming from a recognizable source.  If your communication is about your mortgage product, probably best to have the email come from the mortgage company you work for, rather than Joe Jones.  I have yet to buy ANYTHING from Joe Jones.

4.  Make sure that the links you put in your email are those that call to action and will land the person on a page on your website where they can take that next step towards becoming a customer.

5.  Distracting images.  Make sure that you test your email and ask various people to read it before you send it out broadly.  I know that I fall in love with what I’ve created and therefore sometimes can’t take a dispassionate view of how it will be received at the other end.  If it’s hard to read, people won’t read it – duh.

6.   Boring subject lines.  While you don’t want to pepper your subject lines with ALL CAPS or large amounts of !!!!!!!, don’t err on the other side and make them boring so that the recipient won’t open them up.  You need to tell people why they should open your email in the subject line.  You can personalize your subject line using an email service provider such as Constant Contact.  For example, you could say “Here’s Our Monthly Promotion that you Won’t Want to Miss, Joe”.  If I’m Joe, that will catch my interest.

7.  Avoid misspelled words – especially in your subject line.  This is a hallmark of spam.  I’m amazed that people ever open such emails and maybe they don’t.  Spammer just don’t give up.  Also, your email is a reflection of your company.  Always spell check and get someone to proof read your work.  I have made this mistake so many times, it just isn’t even amusing anymore.

8.  Don’t cram too much into your email with a cluttered layout.  If your email is confusing, people won’t read it or click through to your website.

Above all, DON”T STOP email marketing.  I have realized of late that if you persist at anything, you will be successful, so keep it up and if we can help, give us a call or email me at joanie@sjsassoc.com.

Meantime, click here for a holiday message.

Best wishes,

Steve & Joanie Sigal