A Summary Of Things to Check When Email Marketing Is Failing

By Tom Seest

What to Do When Email Marketing Is Not Working?

Email marketing is almost a necessity for online entrepreneurs if they want to be competitive and succeed in the marketplace. However, you may be struggling with your strategy and in trying to identify what you’re doing wrong.
This is an aspect of your business that you always want to be improving over time. Simply by understanding some of the most common problems with email marketing, you’ll be able to overcome the challenges you’ve been facing and improve the engagement you’re getting from your subscribers.
Below, you’ll find six things you may not have been doing correctly – or tried at all – that can help you perform well with your email marketing efforts. Address them one at a time and track the changes that serve you best.

This photo was taken by cottonbro studio and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-gray-long-sleeve-shirt-using-macbook-pro-4626350/.

How to Segment and Personalize A List for Better Performance

When you want your emails to perform better, there are two specific things you can do that tailor your messages to the individual receiving them. The first thing you can do is divide your list into groups based on certain information.
This might be demographic information or behavioral information that helps you send content specifically for their needs rather than a catchall topic that might not be relevant to some people.
Your email autoresponder system will have a segmentation feature built into it so that you can target the emails to different audiences. Another thing you can do is personalize your emails with their name as well as information coming from you about your life that helps them build a bond with you.
Not only can you personalize the body of the email, but you can personalize the subject line, which often helps improve the open rate of your campaigns. These two strategies also increase brand loyalty because it shows that you understand their needs better.

This photo was taken by Anna Shvets and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-using-a-laptop-4226266/.

How to Ensure Deliverability So Emails Don’t End Up as Spam

One big problem many online entrepreneurs have with email marketing is that their messages never even get to the inbox of their recipients. They are immediately sent to spam filters.
You can write the most perfect version of copy for your message, but if a spam filter siphons it off, you won’t see the results you were hoping for. You have to use a reputable email autoresponder system so that Internet service providers will allow your messages through.
You want to build a high-performing sender reputation score, which is assigned to your email domain and you can do this by getting better engagement and fewer complaints and keeping your list clean as you adhere to best practices so that your recipients are not labeling your messages as spam.
If you can avoid using spammy words and ensure that you are sending out high-quality content that people always want to open, this will serve you well in helping your emails bypass spam filters.

This photo was taken by Vlada Karpovich and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/content-young-woman-using-laptop-in-modern-living-room-4050334/.

How to Get Better Engagement for Opens and Clicks in Emails

Whether or not someone opens your email, begin with what you have used to craft your subject line. It needs to grab their attention and be compelling, and not rely on deceptive clickbait tactics.
In addition to being transparent with your subject lines and personalizing them, too, you can use a call to action in your subject or pose a question. You can build a swipe file of effective words that perform well with your list in getting them to open your emails.
Once they are in the email itself, you want the body of your message to perform well in getting clicks to the links you are sending. You might use a teaser as the body of your email, with a link that makes them want to click through and find out more – or you can simply use a strong call to action that makes them not want to miss out.

This photo was taken by cottonbro studio and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-yellow-bubble-jacket-3205741/.

How to Optimize Emails for All Audiences

Everyone who is opening your emails is not going to be on a personal computer viewing them. You have to account for those who are opening your emails on the go, using mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and even laptops.
Whenever someone is opening your emails on a mobile device, and you have failed to optimize it, they will usually simply delete it and possibly unsubscribe. Not only does it impact the look of your emails, but it often makes it difficult for them to click on any links.
You have to use a responsive design that can adjust for any screen size and device that it’s being viewed on. The more complicated you make your emails, using bullet points, multiple links, and multimedia, the more opportunity there is to run into a problem.
The best thing you can do is check to see how your emails look on a variety of different devices as well as browsers. You also want to make sure that the font you are using is big enough for people to read on a small screen.

This photo was taken by Christina Morillo and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sits-and-use-laptop-computer-near-window-1181542/.

How To Time Emails for Maximum Impact

Timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. If you are not timing your email campaigns properly, you run the risk of not having your messages get opened but instead deleted and ignored.
When it comes to timing, there are two different things you need to consider. The first is literally what time of day you are sending your emails. If most of your subscribers are in America, you still have three time zones to make a decision on.
Remember, you can segment your list to send your emails out at the right time if you know this demographic information. But you’ll be able to see what time of day performs best with your subscribers based on the performance you get out of them.
The second issue with time is frequency. Some subscriber lists do well with daily or even multiple times per day communication. Others do better with less frequency, such as once or twice per week.
Even the day of the week may have an impact on whether or not your emails perform better since Mondays are the days when most people are busy and just returning to work, and Fridays or when they are getting ready to have a relaxing weekend.

This photo was taken by Ivan Samkov and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-working-in-home-office-4240511/.

How Analytics Analysis Can Improve Email Marketing Results

One thing you will find as a big relief as an email marketer is that you have analytic data at your fingertips to tell you what is going wrong, as well as what you’re doing right. Your email autoresponder system should have analytics built in that will show you information that you can use to make improvements.
For example, you can start by trying to get more people to open your emails and improve your open rate. You’ll be looking at how subject lines perform, whether personalization or emojis help or hurt you, etc.
You’ll also be able to see what your clickthrough rate or conversion rate is. This may be caused by a weak call to action or the fact that you are not sending the right offers to you are subscribers.
You also want to pay attention to your bounce rate. If these are high, you have to clean up your list so that your sender reputation will remain in good standing. Some new marketers are hesitant to delete subscribers who signed up but are not getting their emails – but this will only hurt you in the long run.
Email marketing is an aspect of your business that can help you build strong connections with your prospective buyers. But unless you take time to identify weaknesses in your strategy and repair them, you may be spinning your wheels and wasting precious hours in your day.

This photo was taken by Ivan Samkov and is available on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-looking-at-a-laptop-4240507/.