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Email marketing—when done right—can feel like a superpower for businesses. But let’s be honest, sometimes our campaigns don’t perform how we expect, and diagnosing the issue can be hard because of how complex flows, campaigns, and budgets interact with eachother. Maybe your open rates are plummeting, or perhaps those clicks aren’t translating into sales, and CVR is dropping. If you’ve been scratching your head wondering why your email marketing isn’t delivering the desired results, you might be making one (or more) of the most common email marketing mistakes.
The good news? These mistakes are fixable. In this article, we’ll cover the top blunders that could be hurting your campaigns and, more importantly, how to turn things around.
1. Failing to Segment Your Email List
Let’s start with one of the biggest culprits: not segmenting your email list. Imagine receiving an email for a winter coat sale when you live in a tropical climate. That’s what happens when you don’t segment your list—you send irrelevant content to the wrong people, and the consequences are dire. For example, we worked with TA3 to segment their email list by the time of last engagement and filter out people who hadn’t engaged in emails—such as those who added items to their cart but showed no further brand interest. Blasting emails to disengaged users is a waste of resources and risks damaging your sender reputation.
Why it’s a problem: Not segmenting leads to disengaged subscribers, which can lower your email deliverability. If you don’t regularly clean your list and remove unengaged subscribers, your emails are more likely to end up in the dreaded spam folder.
How to fix it: Start segmenting your list based on demographics, purchase behavior, engagement level, and other key data points. Identify unengaged segments and create a process to review and remove inactive subscribers. You’ll see better open rates, engagement, and, ultimately, better results.
Pro Tip: Use engagement-based segmentation to send reactivation campaigns before removing unengaged subscribers. You might win some of them back with a well-timed offer!
2. Not Measuring Your Emails by Theme
Are you sending out emails blindly without knowing which type of emails perform best? If you’re not measuring your campaigns by theme, you’re making it difficult to understand which types of emails resonate with your audience.
Why it’s a problem: Without measuring themes—like product announcements, promotional offers, or educational content—it’s impossible to determine which emails you should be sending and which you should send less of or how many times per month to hit your revenue goals.
How to fix it: Start categorizing your emails by theme and analyze their performance by creating an organized tagging system. Did your last promotional email drive more conversions than your product update? This approach helps you figure out which content types drive the most value, allowing you to fine-tune your email frequency and hit those all-important revenue goals.
3. Ignoring Year-Over-Year (YoY) Performance
It’s easy to get caught up in month-to-month data, but failing to look at year-over-year (YoY) performance can leave you blind to long-term trends.
Why it’s a problem: You might be focusing on small fluctuations while missing the bigger picture. Are your engagement rates significantly lower than they were last year? Without comparing YoY data, you might not notice until it’s too late. For seasonality-based businesses, it’s even more critical to compare high-season over high-season rather than MoM data, as month-to-month fluctuations might not provide an accurate picture of performance trends.
How to fix it: Regularly review your YoY email campaign performance. Are your open rates, click-through rates, and conversions improving or declining? Use this data to adjust your strategy, ensuring you stay on track and continue to grow. You can supplement your YoY analysis with MoM insights, but always apply specific business context to determine the best time frame for your needs.
Pro Tip: Start tracking YoY email and SMS capture rates, too. A decrease in new subscribers could hurt your ability to generate new revenue. By analyzing this metric, you’ll know when to double down on your list-building efforts.
4. Overloading Your Emails with Content
We’ve all heard the phrase "don’t bury the lead," but this rings especially true in email marketing. If you’re cramming too much content into the top of your emails, forcing readers to scroll endlessly, you’re likely losing them before they even get to your call-to-action (CTA).
Why it’s a problem: People don’t want to work hard to figure out what your email is about. If you’re not putting the most important information (your “lead”) above the fold, you’re making your audience hunt for it—and many won’t bother.
How to fix it: Keep your email content short, sweet, and to the point. Lead with the most important message or offer, and use clear CTAs to guide readers on what to do next. Tying the subject line and preview text together helps maintain the hook and capture attention right from the inbox. If you have a lot to say, consider breaking up your message into multiple emails instead of trying to say it all at once.
5. Not Using A/B Testing on Landing Pages
Here’s the thing: even the best email can fall flat if the landing page it directs to isn’t optimized. If you’re not A/B testing your landing pages, you could be losing out on conversions—and you might not even know why.
Why it’s a problem: Your email might be doing its job by getting clicks, but if the landing page isn’t converting, you’re missing a key part of the puzzle. Not testing variations means you’re relying on assumptions instead of data to figure out what works best.
How to fix it: Start A/B testing your landing pages, experimenting with different layouts, CTAs, images, and copy. Use Klaviyo to A/B test which pages work best for different content themes, and experiment with testing different landing page variations for specific elements. Track the results and make data-driven decisions to optimize your landing pages for conversions.
Pro Tip: Align your content tagging with landing page themes to create consistency across campaigns. Identify overarching themes that can be applied to landing pages across multiple emails, making it easier to compare and optimize performance.
6. Reusing the Same Popup for Email and SMS
Popups are an excellent tool for capturing leads, but if you’re using the same popup for both email and SMS, you’re likely overwhelming your visitors. It’s like designing a house with two doors that lead to the same room—confusing and unnecessary. Visitors don’t want to figure out which door to use; they just want a straightforward path. Tailor your popups to focus on one clear call-to-action at a time, ensuring a smoother and less frustrating experience.
Why it’s a problem: When your popup asks for both an email and an SMS opt-in, it can hurt your conversion rates (CVR). Visitors are more likely to skip providing any information if they feel overwhelmed by the request.
How to fix it: Separate your email and SMS popups, keeping the requests simple and specific. Test different messaging and designs to see what works best, and you’ll likely see an uptick in conversions.
7. Forgetting Testimonials and User-Generated Content
If you’re not including testimonials or user-generated content (UGC) in your emails, you’re missing out on a powerful opportunity to provide social proof and build trust with your audience.
Why it’s a problem: Emails that lack social proof don’t perform as well because they miss the chance to reassure potential customers that your products or services are worth it. People trust other people’s experiences—if they don’t see any evidence that others love your brand, they might hesitate to buy. A good outcome of incorporating social proof is that it provides a more objective and unbiased review of your product—not just from the brand but from real users—fostering trust and credibility.
How to fix it: Incorporate testimonials, product reviews, and user-generated content in your emails. A simple review quote or UGC photo can make a huge difference in boosting credibility and conversions.
Don’t Lose Out on Email Sales
Email marketing is a critical tool for driving revenue, but it’s all too easy to make mistakes that kill your campaigns. By avoiding these common email marketing mistakes—like not segmenting your list, failing to measure themes, or burying your lead—you can turn your email marketing around and start seeing better results. Remember, it’s all about sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
Ready to fix your email campaigns and boost your revenue? Reach out to us today to get started!
FAQs:
- What are the most common email marketing mistakes?some text
- Common mistakes include not segmenting your list, overloading emails with content, ignoring year-over-year performance, and failing to A/B test landing pages.
- How can I improve my email campaign results?some text
- You can improve results by segmenting your list, testing email themes, incorporating social proof, and optimizing your landing pages through A/B testing.
- Why should I avoid using the same popup for email and SMS?some text
- Asking for both email and SMS information in the same popup can overwhelm visitors and hurt conversion rates. Separate the requests to keep it simple.
- Why is it important to measure YoY performance in email marketing?some text
- Year-over-year performance analysis helps you track long-term trends and ensures you’re consistently improving your email marketing efforts.
- How do testimonials and user-generated content help email campaigns?some text
- Including testimonials and UGC builds trust and adds credibility, making it more likely that recipients will engage with and convert through your emails.
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