Don’t Engage In Bad Email Marketing

A recent case of bad email marketing took place, where a clothing brand, YP Threads, situated in Australia, sent an email to a customer. The email could be perceived as blackmail, because the brand threatened the customer to buy from them, and if they don’t, then the photos that incriminate them would be sent to the public. The brand even said that they know where the customer lives and the time to buy from them ‘starts now’. This seems like if the customer don’t buy from the brand, then some harm will come to them.

Even though the brand used it as a tactic to make the customer buy from them, it wasn’t a really good judgment call. The brand, YP Threads, had to apologize for their email. Those who observed what happened considered it a publicity stunt and said that after the email, the brand received a lot of recognition. However, this was a bad approach to marketing, because it was a threat to the customer; it didn’t attract the customer but caused them anxiousness.

It is not easy to come up with effective marketing strategies, which is why sometimes companies come up with such ideas. There are firms who specialize in email marketing campaigns and they will tell you that it is not easy to come up with unique strategies. There is a main point that marketers forget and that is, that there are tactics which might work but they might not be effective in the long run. There are certain email practices which marketers should avoid and these practices are as follows:

1. A List Filled With People Who Haven’t Heard The Brand’s Name

You can have as many people as you can on a list, it doesn’t matter. This is because every brand has a list, but they don’t know how to get the message across. Having a long email list, doesn’t mean that every customer the brand emails, would engage with them or have a conversation with them. The point here is that, the brand should email those people, or reach out to those people, who care about the brand, are loyal to it, and would engage in a conversation; email to those who would be interested in its content.

The brand needs to give it a serious thought. There are so many times customers receive emails from companies, whose services they don’t require or are not interested in. It can be an email about car repairs, and a company would send it to someone, who doesn’t even have a car. It wouldn’t have any effect on the receiver of the email.

The suggestion here is that the emailing list should be trimmed down to those, who can give better results. A brand should think twice before emailing someone; they need to try this method and then see the results.

2. Don’t Make It Hard For Subscribers To Opt-Out

When subscribers no longer want to receive emails from a company or a brand, they opt-out. However, sometimes the process of unsubscribing is difficult and this frustrates the customer.

Every brand or company, should give its subscribers the choice to opt-out or not receive any emails in the future. They should make this process easier, because if they don’t, then the customer would perceive the brand, as a very annoying one.

This cannot be categorized as personal-it’s marketing. There are people who don’t want to hear from a company, but then there are those who want to, like special offers and discounts. A company should give both customers the same choice.

3. No Spam Content In Emails

There are many emails that companies send without thinking. Such emails consist of words like ‘free’ and ‘buy now’. Even though such emails do attract users to open their emails, there is not enough content in these emails, that can engage them. Customers want to see smart content, that would give them details. Emails are the best way to send creative content to customers, which attracts their attention. The 21st century has changed customers, and they are smart and want to see creativity. If companies use the same words over and over, then customers would feel bored.

Customers should be given quality content. This way, they would be motivated to open company emails and even look forward to hearing from the company again. Glossier is a US based company that deals in makeup, and they send their customers a lot of updates. These updates include promos, and random content, which is related to the personality of the brand. They even send wallpapers for their customers and photos like a baby goat smiling; they try to engage customers in any way they can.

4. No Misleading Subject Lines

If the subject lines are misleading, then it can cause trouble for the business. At times, marketers want a quick way, so that their customers would open their emails. They engage them through misleading subject lines, which have nothing to do with the content inside the email.

When marketers do this, they can even cause the customers to panic. For example, a furniture store emailed their customer with the subject line that stated, a receipt from the future, and this is something that can cause the customer to panic. It was part of an April Fool’s campaign, where the customer was thanked for their purchase. The customers, after reading the email, did panic, until they realize that this is a marketing strategy.

A thing that a company wouldn’t want, is to lose the trust of their customers. It is not easy to gain the trust of customers, but because of these silly mistakes, trust can be lost. There are many other ways for brands to engage with their customers and use their email campaign effectively.

Sometimes, people get so focused on their marketing content, that they don’t realize how inappropriate the content can be. Thus, it is important to get the services of an email marketing campaign manager, or make note of what not to do.