1) Write a Generic Subject Line
According to a survey by Blue Kangaroo, 43% of adults in the U.S. said more than half of their emails are from marketers. With half of your recipient's emails promising deals, coupons, sales, and updates, why should they open yours? Subject lines like the one in the email above don't tell your recipient anything -- I mean, 40% off what
product? And settle down with the exclamation points, why don't ya?
Your subject line should invite the recipient to do something, to
experience something, to enjoy some kind of benefit. To totally nail
your email subject line, reference this blog post that will show you the secret sauce for sexy subject lines.
2) Don't Let Recipients Send a Reply Email
No one wants to get an email from their good friend 'Do Not Reply.'
It's kind of like forcing someone into a one-way conversation. You know,
the exact opposite of what a marketer should be encouraging. Take the
robot out of the equation, and provide an email address that actually
accepts emails as your reply-to address.
3) Use Unsophisticated Design
The layout and design of your email message is one of the first
things that will hit a recipient's eye. Anyone who opens the email above
is, however, going to be quite disappointed. The amateur WordArt header
gives the impression the sender is old-school at best, and a spammer at
worst. Keep your emails clean, and use a simple layout devoid of frills
and images that take forever, and ever, and ever to load. If you're not
blessed with an in-house designer quite yet, take advantage of these free design tools to strengthen your email design. And remember, less is more when it comes to design!
4) Don't Check for Broken Dynamic Content
Aw look, they tried to personalize my email. How sweet. We know
setting dynamic content tags can be tricky, and sometimes the darn
internet doesn't do its job. But if seeing 'Dear Sir' in an email is
scary, seeing brackets that say {INSERTFIRSTNAME} is a downright
nightmare. Bad personalization comes across as insincere, and makes your
email message lose credibility. Make sure your ESP helps you avoid
mishaps like these by providing default content where customer
information is MIA.
5) Write Disingenuously
A business is made up of people. Selling to other people. Sound like it. In other words, your emails should sound like a person wrote them, for another person to
read. Language like "valued customer" is, frankly, kind of overused and
impersonal. And more exclamation points doesn't make your copy sound
exciting, either. Write the way you'd want someone to write to you --
clearly, naturally, and genuinely.
6) Include Your Least Remarkable Content
The number one reason that people unsubscribe from business or non-profit email subscriptions is the frequency of emails is too high (Chadwick Martin Bailey).
Don't risk another unsubscribe by sending unremarkable content. If you
don't have anything valuable to say, don't say anything at all.
Reminding the reader in our fake promo email that Hannah's Monkey
Wrenches also sells lawn mowers kiiiind of muddles the message. Every
message should have a point; if your content isn't making it, delete and
start again.
7) Use Generic Images
A picture says a thousand words. Stock photos say two words: amateur
hour. Like unsophisticated design and layout, generic stock photos and
clip art images make your business look unprofessional and spammy. Don't
let a bad image jeopardize your credibility -- and an email inbox is a bad place
to jeopardize credibility. Select images that have a logical tie-in to
your email's message, and enhance your message's meaning, instead of
detracting from it.
8) Use Images That Don't Display Correctly
The only thing worse than a corny email image is a poorly displayed
email image. Many recipients only receive emails in plain text, meaning
they can't see any of the visual elements in your message. So don't
design your entire email as an image, and when you do use
images, make sure you're using ALT text that's descriptive enough to
fill in any blanks for readers that don't see your images displayed in
all their glory.
9) Don't Include a Call-to-Action
So, my recipient knows that monkey wrenches are 40% off. I've done my
part, and they'll take it from here, right? Wrong. You still need to
invite your recipient to do something with the information you've just
provided. Put a call-to-action in your email to get the recipient to
sign up for a discount, to view the monkey wrenches for sale on your
website, or to sign up for updates on new sale items. Email tools like HubSpot's makes it easy for you to include a call-to-action in your email message to get your reader to take the next conversion step.
10) Don't Permit Recipients to Unsubscribe
No matter how awesome your emails may be, the second most common reason that people unsubscribe from email lists is because the content isn't relevant to them anymore (Chadwick Martin Bailey).
Maybe you're a Boston apartment rental service and someone from your
email list just moved to Texas. No hard feelings but, they don't need
you anymore. No matter what the reason, a customer shouldn't be tricked
into getting your emails. If they want to unsubscribe, give them that
option clearly. And once they've unsubscribed, for the love of
marketing, stop emailing them, and stop emailing them fast!
Image credit: NotionsCapital.com
Read the original article on Hubspot: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34099/The-Anatomy-of-an-Awful-Marketing-Email.aspx#ixzz2JPhvtqvB
