5 Reasons Your Email Strategy Sucks (and What to Do About It)

Having a robust marketing strategy is imperative for business success. Without carefully thought out marketing, you won’t reach your customers, and your brand’s messaging will come across as inconsistent – or worse, not come across at all.

Here are five of the most common mistakes that hold marketers back and what you need to do to fix these.

1. You aren’t thinking user-first

It’s easy to get caught up thinking about the nitty-gritty of your marketing, such as how things look, whether they’re on-brand, and how the copy sounds, without thinking first about your user. Does your user actually want the type of content you’re putting out, and if so, how will they access it? Is the tone right for the type of individual you’re trying to attract?

Many companies rush to set up social media accounts on every platform in existence, without thinking about the ones their users are most likely to be present on, and focusing on those first. Your time and resources are limited, so don’t try to be a jack of all trades.

It’s useful to draw up a few user personas of who your current customers are, as well as what your ideal customers look like.  As a starting exercise, think about the following:

• What age are they?
• What’s their gender?
• Where are they located?
• What’s their economic position?
• Are they university-educated?
• What do they do for work?

All this will inform the places that they congregate, and the messages they’ll respond well to. For example, research shows that those in the baby boomer generation are more likely to be loyal to brands, and read more reviews before purchase.

2. You aren’t testing as you go

It’s all well and good experimenting and testing out new strategies, but without reporting and analyzing the results, it could all be meaningless.

If you sent out one email which gained a 5% open rate, and another with a 25% open rate, consider the reasons why the latter did so much better. What was the subject line? What time of day did you send it out? From which account did you send it?

You should record and analyze the results of every campaign you deliver, no matter how bad or brilliantly it did. A good thing to try is A/B testing, which compares the results of two campaigns based on one small change.

Furthermore, SuperOffice highlights that 20% of all emails don’t even make it into the inbox, so make sure you minimize the chances of this happening and keep an eye on sending rates.

3. You aren’t using a CRM

CRM (customer relationship management) software allows you to keep track of conversations you’ve had with your customers, and logs their details as well. There comes a time in a company’s life where shared Google sheets aren’t enough to keep track of the complexities of customer relationships.

Research shows that 85% of companies with CRM said it has improved their ROI, and the benefits are abundant. CRM helps sales, improves customer service, and saves employees time spent doing administrative tasks, so it really may be a worthwhile investment for any business.

4. You aren’t future-orientated

If you’re only thinking of the now, then you’ll soon look up and realize your competitors are overtaking you. Technology moves fast, and you should aim to move quickly with it to remain competitive.

According to Entrepreneur, future-orientation is the most important aspect of entrepreneurial thinking. Here are some questions to consider:

• What hires will you need down the line?
• What are your competitors doing that you aren’t?
• Are your employees adaptable?
• What technology is growing in popularity?
• What new offerings could you give your audience?
• What are the upcoming digital trends?
• What innovation could you invest in?
• How can your teams collaborate with each other?

5. You aren’t providing value

It’s likely you have a lot of competition. So why should a customer go to you rather than a competitor? Besides price, the answer often comes down to how much value you can provide. Is your website informative in describing who you are, how you differ from similar companies, and most importantly, how you can help them?

Content really is king, and the key to inbound marketing. In the past, a sales team would be concerned with ringing up customers or clients and trying to convince them to buy their product or service. But things have changed, and this is no longer a useful tactic for most businesses. You want to prove to your customers that you’re experts in your field, show them case studies of previous clients you’ve helped, and send them informative newsletters and email campaigns with special offers.

What can you offer your clients? Could you write an ebook guide? Could you offer them a free trial that they don’t have to input card details for? Any small way that you can be adding value is extremely valuable.

Putting together a solid marketing strategy need not be stressful. Just keep the end-user in mind, and consider the journey they take and all the steps along the way. You want to make this journey as smooth, trustworthy, and positive as possible. All these tips will turn a lackluster marketing strategy into a world-class one.