3 Common Email Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Email isn’t dead, but we should still work to improve it

To quote a recent post on email engagement from ASAE’s Associations Now: “The good news is that email isn’t dead. Far from it, really.” According to a recent study by Adobe, people check their email often, perhaps even too often. Almost 40% of survey respondents reported reading every single one of their work emails. However, although most people are highly engaged with their inboxes, email still leaves them wanting more. In fact, most emails aren’t even satisfying.

So, how do you ensure your organization avoids the most common email mistakes that can frustrate your readers? Here are three common email mistakes and how to avoid making them in the first place. 

1. Focusing too much on promotion and not enough on information

According to the same Adobe study mentioned above, 39% of people say the emails they receive from outside organizations should focus more on information and less on promotion. This is consistent with the trend that, in this day in age, consumers don’t want to feel like they are being marketed to.

How do you avoid this pitfall?

Ensure that the content you send via email offers nutritious information that makes reading the email worthwhile to the consumer. If you can’t create enough of your own original, information-rich content, because original content creation can be tough and time-consuming, include articles and blogs from outside, trusted sources. Are you still finding it tough to devote the time to compile a rich content-dense newsletter? Let us help you out with automating the process.

2. Not optimizing your emails for mobile devices

According to a study by MarketingCharts, consumers open over 50% of their emails on their mobile devices. So, it’s hard to believe that many people continue to make the mistake of not optimizing their email templates to ensure they are mobile-friendly.

How do you avoid this pitfall?

Ensure that your email templates are simple and sleek so your readers can easily consume them on a variety of email platforms. Include relevant and engaging imagery. Also, make sure that your images are not too abundant and are reasonably-sized. Even if you have a sleek email template that, in theory, displays well for mobile viewers, if you have too many images and/or they are too large to load quickly, you run the risk of distorting the entire look and feel of your template.

3. Sending one-size-fits-all emails

One size fits all equals one size fits none. According to a report by Campaign Monitor, while the vast majority of people understand the importance of personalized messaging, few are actually acting on that knowledge. So, why aren’t people more actively segmenting their audiences and personalizing, particularly when it comes to their newsletters? The main reason is that it takes time to learn how to segment effectively and implement that knowledge into their processes.

How do you avoid this pitfall?

You can realize the power or personalization without spending considerably more time putting together your emails. The power of artificial intelligence is here right now, to not only personalize your email content but also to automate that personalization. You now have the ability to leverage sophisticated tools to deliver people the content they want to read. Create a compilation of your internally published pieces along with authoritative external publications on an individual basis.

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