(Post by Meera Kothand)

There are plenty of tiny holes you can slip into or mistakes you can make when it comes to email marketing. How much time have I got to depress you?

Never mind.

But here are some lesser known ones that aren’t discussed as often… (and shouldn’t cause you too much stress)

1. You apologise for sending emails

These usually show up in 2 ways:

a.You promise not to send them too many emails in your welcome email
b. You’re selling something and you apologise for sending another reminder email on the sale

You want to be nice and you want your subscribers to know that you’re not one of those people who hard sells…and that you respect their inbox.

But that respect doesn’t have to be at the expense of your frequency.

Sure, maybe some subscribers may feel that way…

But if you do have something to say and you consider that as value, don’t stop yourself from sending an email. You don’t have to apologize for sending emails.

That’s what your subscribers signed up for.

Your audience will self-select if they’re not comfortable with your frequency.

If you’re doing a sale and feel this need to apologize for sending out a second email, stop and think about your options.

Don’t send it at all or just send it to those who have already seen your sales page.

2. You worry about things that don’t have to matter (yet)

Maybe you’ve heard about segmentation….

Or advanced email marketing and list building techniques where you a/b test opt-in forms by type and site placement…

…where you can show targeted opt-in forms to specific groups of people and not to others…

All of these are great and yes they can make a difference…but you don’t have to worry about these when you’re still trying to get your footing.

So leave these aside for now and focus on the basics.

3. You think your symptoms are the real problem

In email marketing, there are several symptoms that distract you from considering the real problem.

If your clicks are low…are you setting up the click…or are you giving everything away in your email, leaving no reason for them to click in the first place?

If your list isn’t growing…think about how relevant your opt-in is. Is it getting enough eyeballs? Are you ‘selling your opt-in’?

If you have no sales…are you priming subscribers for the sale before sending them to the sales page?

If you have no email ideas…no you don’t have writer’s block…maybe you don’t have a larger content strategy?

Get what I mean…

You can’t get rid of the symptoms if you don’t tackle the larger issues.

4. You take huge breaks from emailing your list (when you don’t don’t have a system)

So it’s not the perfect term, but in ‘internet years’ a month or two is a pretty long period of time.

I’m not suggesting bombarding your list with an email every week when you don’t have something to say…

I still do take a week, sometime even two where I don’t send emails…

But I have a system in place where new people are taken care of…there’s a nurture sequence that’s going out…and for everyone else on my list, I’ve been in their inbox frequent enough that they are familiar with my brand and name.

But if your brand hasn’t established presence as yet, you need to put those systems in place first.

5. There’s no thread of relevance

From content, to opt-in, thank you page, welcome email and then your welcome email sequence…all of these pieces have to sync with one another.

There has to be a thread of relevance through them. You can’t waft from one topic to another. Have a plan.

Because when there’s one, you’re closer to a sale. Yay and won’t that be good.

The post Email Marketing Mistakes That Even Mother Teresa Would Not Admit Too appeared first on EmailEdgar.