Email marketing continues to be one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s arsenal—but it’s easy to overlook simple missteps that sabotage your results. If your open rates are stagnant or your click-throughs aren’t converting, you might be making one of these ten common mistakes. Don’t worry—we’ve included practical tips to help you fix them fast.
Your subject line is the gatekeeper. If it’s not grabbing attention, your email won’t get opened.Your subject line is the gatekeeper. If it’s not grabbing attention, your email won’t get opened.
Keep subject lines around 40-50 characters. Test these proven tactics:
Urgency - Example: Last chance! Complete your order today.Experiment with different formatting by incorporating emojis, testing sentence case versus title case, and utilizing brackets to call out specific offers and information. Conduct an A/B test and see what your audience responds best to!
One of the most common email marketing mistakes is assuming your audience will subscribe without something in return. Asking your audience to join your email list without an incentive leads to fewer prospects.
Add value to your email campaign by offering a relevant, free offer. Some lead magnets to consider include:
Choose a lead magnet relevant to your target audience and the problem they are trying to solve. By incorporating lead magnets that add value to your email marketing strategy, you can begin positioning yourself as a trusted expert and resource for your audience.
No one likes shouting into a void. These reply-to addresses feel impersonal and effectively make the conversation seem one-sided. While using this reply-to address may be optimal for organizational purposes, it’s a missed opportunity for engagement.
Provide recipients with a way to get in touch. Designate a specific email address that a team member monitors to use as the reply-to address. This invites your audience to continue the conversation and makes your organization feel more trustworthy.
If you can’t keep up with email replies, consider adding a section to the bottom of each email that provides detailed contact information and directs prospects to a landing page where they can request further information.
If your email is like a news story, then the message preview is the lead. As many as 24% of customers look at the preview text when deciding to open an email. Not utilizing your preview text may cause prospects to look over your email entirely.
This is valuable real estate—don’t waste it on boilerplate or blank space. Preview text is an excellent opportunity to include secondary messaging to complement your subject line. Making sure the two work together is key. Here are some other quick tips to craft compelling email previews:
Your prospects are smart. Modern audiences can spot a pushy sales pitch from a mile away.
You may not see any conversion if you stuff your email with aggressive sales language without providing much value. Being overly positive, relying on FOMO, or talking too much about savings will turn prospects off your content.
Emphasize customer ownership. Instead of simply offering $25 in credit, try “you have $25 in credit expiring tomorrow! How will you use it?” Follow the 80/20 rule; 80% of your content should be informative or entertaining, and 20% is sales-related.
A personalized email subject line can increase open rates by as much as 50%. On the other hand, over-personalizing emails with un-vetted or user-generated data may turn the customer off your content.
Strategically test first name and full name personalization in your subject lines or body copy. Be sure to analyze your data and adjust your personalization to your audience. Auditing your data thoroughly will make sure you have the correct data to avoid misidentifying your customers.
Different segments of your clients may respond differently to your messaging, so treating each segment the same may cost you valuable engagement opportunities.
Segment your email lists by buyer personas or where they’re at within the buyer’s journey. Use filters like:
We don’t have to tell you the importance of including a call to action (CTA) in your content. If your CTA is confusing or unclear, your audience has to figure out for themselves what you want them to do, leading to less engagement.
Before you even begin composing your email, decide what you want your CTA to be. Ask yourself what action you want your readers to take? Do you want them to learn about an upcoming launch? Read your latest blog post? Download your latest asset? Or simply buy now?
Whatever you decide, focus the entirety of your email on guiding your readers to take that action.
Over 70% of email opens now happen on mobile devices. Failing to optimize for mobile will cost you valuable engagement opportunities.
Use single-column layouts, large tappable buttons, and concise text. Tools like Litmus or Email on Acid can help test responsiveness across devices.
Without data, you’re guessing what works.
Most CRMs come with data analysis tools, allowing you to quickly and easily aggregate data and inform strategies for your next campaign. Track key KPIs like:
It’s a new era of email marketing—smarter, more personalized, and more data-driven. If you're ready to improve engagement, boost conversions, and make email work harder for your brand, GROWL is here to help.