5 Email Marketing Mistakes That Will Turn Away Subscribers (And How To Avoid Them)
I wasn’t expecting this.
A well-known brand made a big email marketing mistake that caused me to instantly hit the unsubscribe button. That got me thinking, what other big email marketing mistakes have brands made?
So, I reached out to a Twitter community and got a few interesting responses. You’ll see them as you read this article. I’ve also added some of my experiences.
I was surprised that there were so many avoidable mistakes, especially since every $1 spent on email marketing can create a $42 ROI. Email marketing mistakes can flush money down the drain!
Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect in this article:
Five email marketing mistakes and tips for helping you avoid them
Three tips for helping you create a better email marketing experience for your subscribers.
Examples of good email marketing practices
Let’s start by looking at the five email marketing mistakes.
5 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
Not Providing The Lead Magnet You Promised
I recently saw a popular course creation platform offering an interesting lead magnet. I was curious so I filled out the email subscriber form and waited for the lead magnet to hit my inbox.
I waited. And waited. And waited.
It’s been a few weeks and the lead magnet still hasn’t hit my inbox.
You’d think that this rarely happens. But I had the same experience with a brand I found on Twitter. I was really excited about getting this lead magnet and I was really disappointed when it wasn’t in my inbox. Guess what? It’s been a month and it still isn’t in my inbox. 😒
What Should You Do?
Double. Triple. Quadruple check your email automations! I’ve been working with a client to help her set up a ConvertKit email sequence and best believe that I’ve been on top of checking that everything is working!
Ensuring that the lead magnet gets sent is one thing. But you should also have specially crafted (and attractive) messages that strategically pop up when someone is subscribing.
First, you need an attractive message during the double opt-in process that reminds people to check their Junk mail folders. No matter how hard we try, some emails just won’t go where they should 😫. So, dropping this hint is really helpful.
Here’s an example from Mira Anamae, a copywriter I discovered on LinkedIn.
This page popped up after I completed an email subscription form she had in one of her LInkedIn posts. Sure, she’s selling her services but what I like is that she has reminded me to check my Spam folder for a confirmation email. I would have done that anyway because I know I should do that as a marketer. But there are many email subscribers who don’t know this and will leave thinking they never got an email.
So, that’s attractive message number one. Attractive message number two is for the Thank You page. This page appears after the subscription has been confirmed. It’s a very important page because it provides you with more opportunities to direct subscribers to blog articles and other content or experiences you want to promote.
Here’s an example again from Mira Anamae.
The Thank You page is often neglected by brands during the sign-up process. Some don’t even have Thank You pages at all! But creating an attractive Thank You page will help you:
Provide your subscribers with more ways to connect with you
Promote special offers
Make subscribers aware of other resources you have on your website
In other words, it keeps your new subscribers engaged. You’re providing more opportunities for them to spend time on your website. I won’t get into the anatomy of a good Thank You page right now, but I hope this example provided some clarity.
There are many ways to create these attractive pages. I discovered a great website while setting up my client’s ConvertKit automation sequence. It’s called Carrd.co and it helps with creating these attractive messages. ConvertKit doesn’t have landing pages without email subscription CTAs. Carrd.co solves this problem.
So, ensure your lead magnet is sent to your subscribers, create strategic messages during your subscriber sign-up process, and test everything multiple times before it goes live.
The lead magnet mistake is still fresh in my mind because I recently experienced it. But the responses from the Twitter community about email marketing mistakes opened a can of worms! The email marketing mistakes that follow are based on these responses. The first is the ever-present challenge of too many emails.
2. Sending Too Many Automatic Emails To New Leads
Hands up if you’ve ever experienced this. You subscribe to an email list because you’re either looking for a discount or you’re interested in a lead magnet. You get what you asked for and it’s all roses and daffodils.
But then you get another email a few hours later. Then another the next day. And the next day. And it keeps happening for an entire week until you get so frustrated that you unsubscribe.
🙋🏾♀️🙋🏾♀️🙋🏾♀️Me! I’ve experienced this many times.
As Connor states, this could be happening because you never realized new leads fall into multiple categories. So, they’re pulled into multiple email automations simultaneously.
But it could also be happening because you haven’t set up your email automation sequence correctly from the get-go. For instance, you haven’t put appropriate time delays in the sequence. So, the emails are being sent too frequently.
What Should You Do?
Use this checklist to correctly tag subscribers and put together strong automation sequences.
Here’s a brief explanation of two items on the checklist. You’ll see explanations of others throughout this article.
No unnecessary subscriber overlap & no unnecessary tags
Think carefully about the segments you want to create for your email list. What does each segment have in common? If two segments have several things in common, there’s no need to create separate tags. Generally, there will be some subscriber overlap between your general subscriber list and your segments but, otherwise from that, don’t create segments that share too many commonalities.
Use Other options instead of tags where appropriate
There tend to be two issues with tags. First, tags don’t really help you get a good sense of the content your audience cares about. Ashley Guttuso published a LinkedIn post a few days ago that brings clarity to this point.
I left this comment on the post, “Love this! Do you also use clicks on sections within your newsletter to segment your audience? I know on ConvertKit, those clicks can be used to add tags to email subscribers.”
Here’s a screenshot of her response.
She uses link clicks within emails to determine topic performance insted of adding tags to subscribers. These insights let her know the topics people care about the most so that she can include them in future newsletters.
Also, if you’re using tags as a way to send an entirely differently newsletter to a specific group of subscribers, think again. It’s always best to get your subscriber’s permission by using an opt-in form before sending completely new material.
Here’s an example from Justin Welsh. I’ve been a subscriber to his email list for awhile and he sent an email earlier this week with the title “Removal”.
I immediately started to panic! I thought he was going to remove me from his email list because of my lack of engagement. If I’m completely transparent, I rarely open newsletter emails; I just mark all emails in my inbox as read after I’ve gone through work emails 🤦🏾♀️.
Anyhoo, I opened the email and this is what I saw.
Justin decided to remove everyone from his current email subscriber list and ask us to subscribe to his brand new newsletter. He could have just tagged us, sent us this revamped newsletter regardless, and allowed us to unsubscribe on our own. But that would give him a bad email marketing reputation. He did the right thing.
So, the next time you consider using a tag, carefully consider whether a form is more appropriate.
3. Making The Unsubscribe Experience Difficult
I’ve never experienced this, but Eluis mentioned brands deliberately hiding their unsubscribe buttons. Here’s the truth. Unsubscribes can be good for your email list. They help you clean up your email list so that you keep people who like and want to engage with your content.
The issue occurs when there are too many people unsubscribing from your email list. Here, you need to dive a bit deeper to figure out why so many people are unsubscribing. Ask yourself these questions:
Am I sending emails too frequently?
Are my emails actually helping my subscribers solve problems or are they coming across as sales pitches?
Have I adequately segmented my email subscriber list so that people get content relevant to them?
What Should You Do?
Be transparent by making your unsubscribe link clear. Your email subscribers deserve the freedom to unsubscribe from your email list if they so choose. Hiding that option from them is deceptive.
4. Adding People to Your Email List Without Consent
This is a big one! Let’s say you got an email list from a trade show or some online event you hosted. Did you ask those people whether they wanted to subscribe to your email list? Or did you just start sending them emails because it’s so obvious they want to get your weekly newsletter?
What Should You Do?
Always request consent before adding people to your email list. Whether that’s through double opt-in or having them tick a box on a form, get it done!
Here’s an example from The Predictive Index.
Notice that sentence after the last form field? “I would like to receive updates from The Predictive Index.” You can then read the Privacy Policy to understand what they’ll be doing with your data before clicking “yes” to receiving updates.
You’re signing up to download their full report, but you’re opting in to receive their full email marketing experience. I don’t see many email opt-in forms with these requests.
Also, make it clear to email subscribers what they’re signing up for. I recently subscribed to one of Mailchimp’s newsletters. I don’t even remember what they call it right now. But it wasn’t clear to me that this newsletter would be coming from one of their subsidiaries, Courier. So, when I got the email below, I was ready to click the unsubscribe button.
Email from Courier, a Mailchimp subsidiary
Who the heck is Courier and why do they have my email address? That was the first question that came to my head. As I mentioned, I was about to promptly click the unsubscribe button but then I decided to research the company. I changed my mind when I made the connection with Mailchimp.
So, don’t add people to your email list without their consent. Use your opt-in form and subscription messaging to make it very clear what people are signing up for.
5. Not Capitalizing On Abandoned Cart Emails
Pixlee's tweet about email marketing mistakes
I don’t know whether to think of these emails as annoying or as missed opportunities. Sometimes, I abandon my cart because I don’t have the money just yet. So, sending me an abandoned cart email won’t work. In fact, it’ll make me less likely to buy (depending on how annoying the subsequent emails are). Can you relate?
With that said, abandoned cart emails can be useful for increasing customer retention. Klaviyo reports that abandoned cart emails “earn back 3%–14% of lost sales, with an average revenue per recipient of $5.81.”
What Should You Do?
As Pixlee suggests, include social proof and user-generated content (UGC) in your abandoned cart emails. A study conducted by Bizrate Insights shows that “91% of their survey respondents read at least one review before making a purchase decision on a product, business, or service.” Social proof and UGC act as reviews potential customers can trust.
But don’t send abandoned cart emails too often. Optin Monster suggests no more than two to four emails. I’d say stick to two because they can really become annoying. That’s just my suggestion though.
Now that we’ve gotten these email marketing mistakes out of the way, here are some general tips for creating a better email marketing experience for your subscribers.
How To Create A Better Email Marketing Experience for Subscribers
Keep your subscribers’ goals at the forefront of your mind.
It’s easy to get caught up in using email to push products and services. In fact, “64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers.” But reaching customers doesn’t mean you should force your agenda down their throats.
People subscribe to your email list because they want to achieve something meaningful. Something about your brand caught their attention and made them think that you could help them become better at something.
Sure, you don’t want to give away all of that knowledge for free. But you can give your subscribers bite-size pieces along the way that help them achieve something. They should learn things they can apply to their lives within the short-term before they can begin to trust you in the long-term.
Email marketing quote
This leads to the next point. Your emails should focus on building relationships rather than selling a product.
2. Focus more on building a relationship than selling a product.
Let me be clear. I’m not saying you can’t use emails to sell. What I am saying is that your emails should focus more on building relationships than selling products. Here’s an example from Jennifer Welsh.
Email from Jennifer Welsh part 1
Email from Jennifer Welsh part 2
Email from Jennifer Welsh part 3
Email from Jennifer Welsh part 4
I love finance. I even have an Msc in Corporate Finance. So, I was naturally drawn to Jennifer’s simple, yet powerful, finance-related posts on LinkedIn. After engaging with her posts for awhile, I signed up for her email list.
What I love most about her emails is that she shares great insights that make me think of better ways to manage my money. Take the email above for example. Jennifer provides a clear 3-step process I can instantly use to create better financial plans.
Her writing style is also laid back and makes me feel like I’m chatting with a friend over tea (I’m not a coffee fan). She makes me feel comfortable. Sure, she has her pitch at the end of the email but I’m grateful for those three steps she provided that I can use to take immediate action.
Now, I’m not saying all your emails should be like this with a direct sale CTA at the end. You can write emails that have no sale focus at all. The CTA could simply be starting a conversation with subscribers by asking them a question. What I want you to understand is that your emails should nurture relationships and provide actionable takeaways. That’s how you get people to trust and pay attention to you.
3. Develop a consistent email schedule you can keep up with.
Short-term email sequences that are used for product launches are quite different from nurture emails you send regularly to your email subscriber list. Your regularly scheduled emails should be based on a schedule you can keep up with.
Weekly emails take a lot of work and consistent dedication. Lisa Gale, Owner of Lisa Gale Marketing, says…
“Brands should prioritize sending at least one email per month to their list. This way, the list stays nurtured and people have at least one proactive touch-base with you monthly.”
— Lisa Gale
She also has an email marketing essentials workshop that will help you better leverage email marketing for your business.
So, like most (if not all) things in marketing, consistently doing the right thing is key. But the consistency of your email schedule depends on what you can realistically manage. At the very least, you should send an email once per month to your list.
Final Words: Avoid These Email Marketing Mistakes And Create An Email Marketing Strategy That Works
Email marketing will continue to be one of the most popular B2B marketing strategies. But you want to keep as many of your engaged subscribers as possible. The tips mentioned in this article can help you do exactly that.
I’d love to hear from you. Have you seen any major email marketing mistakes? What are some of your tips for overcoming them?