Avoiding Common Email Marketing Mistakes for New Entrepreneurs
- Mandy
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
We've all been there! Email marketing mistakes happen but it's important to do our best to avoid them. Today I'll be sharing the common email marketing mistakes I see entrepreneurs and small business owners making and how you can avoid these going forward.
Not checking emails before sending
The problem:
This is a big one! While it's totally ok to send the occasional "Oops" email with a fixed link or corrected information, it should definitely be the exception and not the norm.
The fix:
To avoid this, it's important to properly check emails before sending (also known as QAing or performing a quality assurance check.) All email service providers have functionality to preview emails across both mobile and desktop devices. This is a good first step to make sure everything looks good, nothing is cut off and all text is readable.
Beyond that, I always recommend sending a test email to a personal account. To send a test email, you would enter your test subject line and the email address you'd like to send to, then click send. A copy of the actual email you are about to send to your audience will arrive in your inbox with the word "Test" at the beginning of the subject line.
Before opening the email, make sure your subject line is viewable and ideally not cut off from the preview window on both desktop and mobile. You can then proceed to open the email on desktop and scroll through, reading the copy and clicking on each link to ensure it directs to where you'd like it to go. Next, do the same on your mobile device.
Emails not designed for mobile optimization
The problem:
Hard to read emails that don't look good on a mobile device, leading to a decrease in subscribers reading your email.
The fix:
When you're checking your email on a mobile device, it's a good idea to pay extra attention to readability. If any font is hard to read or you find yourself wanting to zoom in on your phone, go back to your email service provider(ESP) and increase the font size. I recommend using a size of 16 or 18 for any paragraph or body copy and ensuring you are using a web safe font.
Avoid using a light font color on a dark background for large areas of copy in body or paragraph text. This makes your email very difficult to read and will likely result in your subscribers not reading it at all. The average reader looks at emails for around 10 seconds so you want to make that time count and avoid doing anything that makes your email difficult to read. If you'd like to use a lighter text color on a dark background, save it for a larger font size in the headline section of your email.
No clear CTA (call to action) or no CTA button at all
The problem:
No clear journey in your email that leads your subscriber to the next logical step.
The fix:
While it's great to send an email out containing information, it's important to have some sort of action for subscribers to take, even if it's as simple as driving to your website or social media platforms. A big misconception is that we just want to tell our subscribers information about our business. A better practice is to consider their journey in each email. Try asking yourself the following questions when drafting an email.
What action is directly related to what I am sharing here?
What is the next logical step that a subscriber might be interested in after reading?
Is there another facet of my business that I want to share about if nothing else applies?
Ignoring Segmentation
The problem:
Sending emails meant for separate audiences to the same group of subscribers, leading to confusing messages and double mailing.
The fix:
Email segmentation is a way to divide your subscribers into groups based on characteristics to help you send more personalized emails. It's important to make sure the correct message is getting to the correct audience, even when you're starting out! Before sending your first email, spend some time brainstorming and then creating multiple possible segments. You may end up changing things down the road but having a framework in place at the start is key.
Keep your segmentation clean. Create a new segment for each of your new lead magnets. Always funnel each segment into a main newsletter or general audience segment. If you're launching a membership or group, make sure that has a new segment as well.
If you uncover that you're double mailing your audience or sending a piece of communication to a segment it's not meant for, take a step back and figure out where the issue is. Let's say, for example, that you have a membership and are routinely emailing your membership but also sending communications about joining the membership to the same audience or an overlapping group. That's confusing to subscribers and something you'll want to address. You can fix this by pulling a new membership list from your membership platform and adding it into your ESP as a mailing list for members and as a suppression list for emails targeted to new signups.
Sending nurture sequence emails on consecutive days
The problem:
Not giving enough time between your nurture sequence emails, potentially leading to a decline in open rates and increase in unsubscribes due to subscriber overwhelm.
The fix:
Slow down friend! Give your subscribers the chance to ease into your messaging with the appropriate cadence! Edit your workflow and update the time delay functionality to 2-3 days between emails. Make sure to also add a time delay of 1 day at the end of your workflow to provide a buffer before funneling your subscribers into your newsletter segment.
These mistakes are common but also easy to avoid! I hope this blog post helps you uncover any mistakes you might be making in your email program to more effectively email your audience going forward.
Interested in learning more?
Grab my free 10 page Email Marketing Quick Start Guide here.
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