7 Sins and Top Email Marketing Mistakes - UPDATED

I've read a couple of pieces on this topic in the last few days, so here they are 

Mistake No. 1: Neglecting Buyer Needs

Mistake No. 2: Blasting the Same Message to All Contacts

Mistake No. 3: Failing to Adapt Messaging

Mistake No. 4: Not Linking to Your Website

Mistake No. 5: Ignoring Mobile Email Readers

Mistake No. 6: Not Having a Strategy in Place

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/8624/six-email-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid#ixzz233W4DRS1

Not running the SPAM checker

Sending One Big Image

Forgetting the TEXT Version

Over-Zealous Design / CSS Styling

Not Testing Enough

Ignoring CAN-SPAM Compliance Requirements

Ignoring the Inbox Previewer

Deleting and Re-uploading Lists for Each Campaign

Using Poor Email Structure

Not Designing for Blocked Images *

*Read the detail at Top Email Marketing Mistakes | Business Email Marketing Blog - Pinpointe

To Tailor the Offer, Or Not To Tailor the Offer? INRS

Discount Codes - Exclusive Offers - Limited Time Only

Wow, as a subscriber and customer to Mankind (www.mankind.co.uk) , a men's grooming and styling retailer I naturally assumed that these discounts and offers from their partners would be tailored to me, a male.

I score them as 3 from 7 in terms of relevancy so I'm not sure how exclusive that is?

It's Not Rocket Science , just to split male versus female

Favourite Subject Line of the Week

Non Opens from an email campaign can be a useful segmentation and trigger

I received this email today, Saturday 

Actually I had all of them, so this was a nice and timely reminder. The Wine Club had obviously looked a their non opener file for the sequence of 5 emails and and used that to trigger a reminder message to me


Not only that, but they summarised the deals within the email, negating the need for me to trawl though my inbox .

Integrating Social and Email

Interesting video conducted by my friend Jim Ducharme from Get Response with Sundeep Kapur of Email Yogi at the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit . 


Yogi answers this question: “What is the optimal way to integrate and connect the activity of your social and email marketing efforts?”


In particular Sundeep talks about using Social to get more customers, cut costs and improve email marketing results.

DMA Email Event - Key Takes Outs

Luckily in the audience during my presentation at the DMA Email Winback Event was Email Marketing Expert, Kath Pay from Plan to Engage.

These were her key takes outs as Tweeted during the session

Thanks Kath!

@iamgfc device - use media queries to determine which device they're reading your emails on so as to deliver the correct version #dmaemail


@iamgfc in the real world you can read body language to see if they're interested in what your saying - apply this logic to email #dmaemail


@iamgfc timing - understand latency for your brand/product - maximize key moments of truth#dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc nothing lasts forever - understand the Lifecycle of your consumer. Consider timing content context and device #dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc they never got your email - ask for re-entering your address- preferable to dbl opt in for list growth purposes #dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc never active - I.e. competition subscribers. Value of these subscribers are different to your regular subscriber - think of ROI.


@iamgfc defining inactive - they were never active, never got your email, they never last forever#dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc defining inactives will differ if you're a client, an ESP or an ISP. Very true. #dmaemail@dmaemail


@iamgfc don't underestimate the power of a thank you email, that arrives in your inbox immediately#dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc important to meet expectations during subscribe process. Ask what other channels they'd like to hear from you #dmaemail @dmaemail


@iamgfc understand what your consumers are doing on a day 2 day basis so you can ensure your content is relevant @dmaemail #dmaemail


the conversation engineer @iamgfc is up now - how to keep the flame burning @dmaemail #dmaemail


You can follow Kath via @kathpay

Oh, and I'm @iamgfc by the way.