Email marketing is a powerful tool that can drive significant results for businesses, non-profits, and community organizations. In this article, we explore 22 common email marketing mistakes and provide actionable tips to help you avoid them and maximize your email marketing success.

Everyone Should Be Using It!

Email marketing is such a powerful tool that everyone in business, community development, non-profits, and beyond should be exploring how to use it effectively. Got a tight budget? Perfect! Email marketing is your new best friend. It’s cheap and, in some cases, even free until you grow your subscriber list.

Imagine reaching your audience directly in their inbox, delivering messages that hit the mark without breaking the bank. Let’s dive into why email marketing is a must-have in your marketing mix and how to avoid common mistakes.

Why Should You Bother with Email Marketing?

Email marketing is such a powerful tool that everyone in business, community development, non-profits, and beyond should be exploring how to use it effectively. Got a tight budget? Perfect! Email marketing is your new best friend. It’s cheap and, in some cases, even free until you grow your subscriber list.

Imagine reaching your audience directly in their inbox, delivering messages that hit the mark without breaking the bank. Let’s dive into why email marketing is a must-have in your marketing mix and how to avoid common mistakes.

Here are a few compelling reasons:

To fully capitalize on the benefits of email marketing, you need to do a lot more than just slapping a “Sign up for free updates” popup on your site and sending out automated messages whenever you publish something new.

Use your email marketing to drive meaningful connections with your audience. Think about the conversations that can be had, the information that can be shared, and the insights you can provide.

What can you give your audience that will make their lives better? Keep them informed about what’s happening in the community. Showcase the fantastic new ways your non-profit is changing the world.

And Tips on How to Do Things Right.

Whether you’re just considering implementing email marketing tactics, just getting started, or have been using email marketing for years, there’s always something new to learn. Here are some common email marketing pitfalls to avoid, along with tips to help you get on the right path to email marketing success.

Not Making Sign-Up Boxes Obvious

One sign-up box on your sidebar or in your footer just isn’t enough.

If you’re wondering why your subscriber numbers aren’t climbing, this could be a major reason. Maximize your sign-up opportunities by placing your subscription box everywhere: on your homepage, on the About Us page, on the sidebar, on the footer, at the bottom of each blog post, and even in an announcement bar at the top of every page.

You can also create a dedicated landing page just for your newsletter. Just remember, while you want your sign-up box to be everywhere, be mindful of the user experience. Striking a balance between being visible and not overwhelming your visitors.

Not Having an Opt-In Offer

“Subscribe for Free Updates”—who cares?

If you want people to hand over their email addresses, you need to tell them what they’ll receive in return and provide an opt-in offer.

An opt-in offer is a free gift that entices readers to subscribe. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive; it could be a worksheet, an eBook, a free mini-course, or a community events guide that highlights all the upcoming happenings. Consider offering a discount to your attraction or an invitation to members-only events. Get creative and change up your opt-in offers regularly.

Only Having One Opt-In Offer

Variety is the spice of life, right? Sticking with one opt-in offer can make it stale over time. Plus, different offers will appeal to different target audiences.

To maximize this tool, develop multiple opt-in offers that can address various interests and needs. Often, the best opt-in offers are quick to create and provide simple solutions to everyday problems. Think back to the last opt-in offer that made you hand over your email address. A great checklist can go a long way in boosting your email marketing opt-ins.

If you don’t know what your target audience may be interested in receiving, then we suggest starting by developing your Customer Persona. It will tell you everything you need to know about your customers. Check out our article, Customer Personas: Your Guide to Marketing Success, where we walk you through building your customer persona and defining your target audience.

Attracting the Wrong Subscribers

Just like any marketing strategy, attracting the right audience is crucial. One of the worst pieces of advice I’ve ever heard is, “Collect every email possible.” Oh. My. Goodness! This approach is like leaving the door wide open for bots.

Sure, your subscriber numbers may increase, but are these new subscribers even interested in your content? It’s not just about having a huge subscriber base—it’s about connecting with your target market, be it your customers, potential residents, visitors, or community members.

Quality over quantity, people!

Forgetting to Enable Double Opt-In

Double opt-in requires subscribers to confirm their email addresses before you can start sending them emails. It is the two-step verification process used when someone subscribes to your email list. Here’s how it works:

• First Step: A potential subscriber fills out a sign-up form on your website and submits their email address.
• Second Step: The subscriber receives a confirmation email containing a link they must click to verify their subscription.

This process ensures that the person who signed up is genuinely interested in receiving your emails and has given explicit consent to be on your mailing list.

Not enabling this option can lead to legal issues in many countries (yes, Canada included!) and may result in hefty fines.

Additionally, skipping double opt-in opens the door to bots—automated programs designed to scrape the web for email addresses. Bots won’t read your newsletters, which negatively impacts your open and click-through rates. This could also damage your deliverability rates. If you’re paying for an email marketing service, bots are just costing you money.

So, do yourself a favour: click the box to enable double opt-in. Trust me, your readers expect it.

Ignoring the Welcome Message or Sequence

How many times have you signed up for a newsletter and received nothing until the next scheduled email blast? When that email finally hits your inbox, you’re left scratching your head, wondering where it came from. So, you unsubscribe. Don’t put your readers through this.

Make sure to develop a welcome email or, even better, a welcome sequence of three to five emails. These don’t have to be long; aside from occasional tweaks, you can set them and forget them.

A welcome message thanks the reader for subscribing, provides useful information, and maybe shares a bit of your backstory. Imagine creating a sequence that delivers three messages with valuable info over three consecutive days—your readers definitely won’t forget who you are by the time your next scheduled newsletter goes out.

Waiting Until You Have Enough Subscribers

Only you, and perhaps your boss, know how many subscribers you have.

Waiting until you have “enough” subscribers is a losing game. By the time your first subscriber receives an email from you, they’ve probably lost interest. Regardless of how many subscribers you have, start sending emails at your promoted pace.

It might feel weird knowing only a handful of people are reading your newsletter, but your subscribers don’t know that. This is a great time to work out the kinks, grow, and learn how to deliver amazing newsletters. By the time you have a large audience, you’ll be a pro!

Emailing at Irregular Intervals

Consistency is key—it’s true for all your marketing efforts, and email marketing is no different.

If you show up in your subscribers’ inboxes on the same day, at approximately the same time every week, they will come to expect it, look forward to it, build routines around it, and miss it when it’s not there. If your goal is to send a weekly email newsletter, do it.

Creating an email schedule helps you stay on top of its creation and delivery, so it benefits you too.

Sending emails sporadically just doesn’t work. As we discussed in the welcome email section, your subscribers are more likely to forget who you are and unsubscribe if you don’t consistently give them a reason to look forward to your newsletters.

Not Subscribing to Your Own Emails

Yes, you can preview your email newsletter, but it’s not the same experience. Be a subscriber of your own emails and get the full experience. More importantly, you can use this as a final check to ensure everything is delivered as intended. Did the email newsletter not send on schedule? You can quickly see where the problem was. Did a link not work? You can send an apology email with the corrected link. Subscribing to your own emails helps you catch errors and understand the subscriber experience better.

Not Delivering Something of Value Every Time

Your emails need to deliver something of value every time—no exceptions.

While you are writing your email newsletter, you need to think about the message or information you want to deliver, but your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. Frankly, they don’t care about your needs.

Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and think about how you can best cover your needs while delivering what your reader wants. This means that copying and pasting a paragraph from your latest blog that talks all about you and your services isn’t going to cut it.

Provide useful, interesting, and engaging content that your readers will appreciate and find helpful. Share tips, resources, or insights that can make their lives easier or more enjoyable. Remember, if your emails are all about you and your business, your readers will quickly lose interest.

Not Including a CTA

We are using email marketing to connect with our audience, and if we’ve gotten them this far into the sales cycle, then chances are your subscribers are primed to take another action with you—all you have to do is ask.

That’s where the CTA or Call to Action comes into play. Your subscribers can’t read your mind, so provide them with the next step: reading your blog, signing up for something, buying something, etc. Always include a CTA to guide your reader to the next step—the action you want them to take.

Limit yourself to one CTA per email, although each email you send can have a different CTA.

Worrying About Unsubscribers

There’s only one reason you need to worry about unsubscribers, and that’s if you’ve been committing a litany of mistakes with your email marketing efforts. If you haven’t been, then there’s nothing to worry about.

People who unsubscribe are not the people you want to attract anyway. Actually, if you are running a healthy email campaign, unsubscribes are a good thing. They narrow and focus your subscriber list to potential customers and your desired target audience.

Hiding the Unsubscribe Link

This faux pas isn’t committed by many people, but it’s worth mentioning just the same. Because we know that unsubscribes are not a bad thing, there is no need to hide the unsubscribe button.

Make it easy for people to leave—you can ask a quick feedback question like, “What is your reason for unsubscribing?” but keep it to one question. This will help you see that unsubscribes are a good thing OR alert you to a mistake you are making with your email marketing efforts so that you can make changes.

Oh yeah, and hiding the unsubscribe button is also illegal, so just don’t do it.

Not Including Your Mailing Address

You wouldn’t think it’s important because, honestly, how many people are going to start sending you mail?

Again, this is another requirement of email marketing. By law, you are required to include a full, proper mailing address at the bottom of every email. This shows that you are a legitimate business and helps build trust with your subscribers.

Not Designing for Mobile

Remember, in most cases, people will be reading your email newsletter on their phones. If you are not putting a priority on designing for mobile first, then your emails are, quite honestly, going to look like a hot mess that will get closed out before your reader can get to all the wonderful information.

This will then lead to unsubscribes, and not the good kind either.

Make sure the design elements you use flow seamlessly between screen sizes. Keep the graphics and images to a minimum, and keep paragraphs short (remember, what looks like a reasonable length on a desktop is the beginning of a novel on mobile).

Not Emailing Often Enough

If you are going to commit to using email marketing as a tool, then you have to commit.

We’ve talked about a few mistakes that lead to subscribers forgetting about you, and not emailing often enough is another one. At a minimum, you should be emailing your subscribers once a week. This will help you stay top of mind so your subscribers don’t forget about you.

I can already hear the groans from those of you who email newsletters monthly. Just stop and think about the content you are sending out already—instead of one large monthly email, can you break that up into four separate ones? Most of the monthly newsletters I subscribe to could be easily!

Think smaller, digestible pieces of information going out on a weekly schedule.

Sending Too Many Emails

Of course, the flip side to not sending enough emails is sending too many. Larger retailers are particularly bad at this. My goodness, how many times do I need to be alerted about a sale item—if I didn’t bite the first time or two, what makes you think I am going to change my mind with email #20?

As a general rule, email once a week at minimum and twice a week at most.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Your welcome sequence is one of those exceptions, or delivering the opt-in to the new subscriber, or a hot topic item that can’t wait until the next scheduled email (you can do this sparingly, but not everything can be a hot topic).

Not Selling to Your Subscribers

This is a missed opportunity.

Your subscribers are your hot leads. They take time out of their lives to open and explore the information you send them weekly—they are primed and ready to buy from you; you just have to ask.

Everyone has something to sell—even community development corporations—perhaps it’s a call to have your subscribers complete your latest community survey, or maybe you’re selling tickets for a community fundraiser.

The point is we all have something to sell. If we don’t, then why the heck do we need email marketing? Figure out what you have to sell or what your subscribers want to buy from you, and then make that happen.

Waiting Until Your Next Big Event to Send an Email

If the only time your subscribers hear from you is when you’re promoting your next big event, you’ve got a problem.

Email marketing is about building a relationship, not just broadcasting announcements. Regularly send out valuable content that isn’t solely focused on promotions. Share updates, stories, tips, and other engaging content.

This keeps your audience interested and engaged, so when you do have an event or promotion, they’re more likely to respond positively.

Not Segmenting Your Email List

Treating all your subscribers the same is a big no-no. Different segments of your audience have different needs and interests.

By segmenting your list—such as by demographics, past behaviour, or interests—you can tailor your messages to be more relevant and engaging. For example:

A community development organization might have one list of subscribers interested in economic and business information about the community while another list focuses on fun events happening locally.

Tourism or Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) might have a list of business subscribers interested in business news and information about tourism, while visitors are eager to know about the best places to visit next.

Businesses can segment their subscribers into numerous categories based on consumer type, purchasing habits, and more. For a more in-depth look at how you can segment your list, check out our article Customer Retention: The Cycle Doesn’t End at the Purchase Stage, where we explore the many ways you can segment your customer base.

Segmenting your list ensures that your emails connect with the right people, increasing open and click-through rates. Tailoring your messages this way not only makes your emails more relevant but also keeps your audience engaged and interested.

Overloading Your Emails with Content

It’s tempting to cram as much information as possible into your emails, but this can overwhelm your readers.

Keep your emails focused and concise. Use clear, engaging headlines and include only the most important information. If you have a lot to share, consider breaking it up into a series of emails rather than one long, dense message. Remember, your goal is to keep readers engaged, not to drown them in a sea of content.

Not Using Email Marketing

Email marketing is a crazy effective way to connect with your customers and target market—and build real relationships. If you’re a business owner, you might be shocked to learn that the average ROI of email marketing is $36 to $40 for every dollar spent. See why I said CRAZY EFFECTIVE? So, what are you waiting for? Put your thinking cap on and figure out how you can start using email marketing for your business or organization today.

It May Look Like a Lot, But Really, It’s Not That Bad.

Email marketing might seem like a daunting task with all these potential pitfalls, but don’t let that scare you off. It’s one of the most effective tools in your marketing arsenal. By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create a more engaging, efficient, and successful email marketing strategy that resonates with your audience.

Remember, the key to great email marketing is consistency, relevance, and value. Make sure your sign-up boxes are visible, offer compelling opt-ins, segment your list, and keep your content engaging. Stay committed, email regularly, and always include a clear CTA. Most importantly, start now. The sooner you begin, the sooner you’ll see the fantastic returns that email marketing can deliver.

So, take these tips, put them into practice, and watch your email marketing efforts soar. Your audience—and your bottom line—will thank you. Happy emailing!

Marketing Services for Manitoba Businesses and Non-profit Organizations.

Imagine the feeling of seeing your business grow with every email you send. The excitement of connecting with your customers, building real relationships, and watching your efforts turn into success. At LM Creative, we offer a wide range of marketing services designed to help you reach your goals. Are you ready for marketing solutions that work? Discover the marketing services we provide to Manitoba businesses and non-profits, and let’s create a solution tailored to your needs!