As An Email Marketer, You Can’t Practice These Bad Email Habits

As a marketer, you know how important it is to constantly redefine your goals and rethink your strategies. Still, human instinct all but forces us to fall into habits that get us through each day. Some habits are good (say, brushing your teeth before bed), but some habits are bad. When it comes to your work as a professional, falling victim to certain bad email habits could be the difference between having a successful campaign and having a series of emails that no one takes note of.

An article on campaignmonitor.com, Email marketers behaving badly — 6 habits to kick to the curb, discusses six specific habits that any marketer should steer clear from.

Some email marketers are committing some downright cringe-worthy practices. Some of these habits fall into the “you should know better” category, while others walk the line of email laws and regulations.

The 6 habits you should steer away from include:

Sending your emails to people who never asked to be on your list. Not only is that poor practice, but it’s also in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
Having one master list without any segmentations. Oy, where do we begin with this one? There are so many ways to segment your list, from age to point in the buying cycle and more. The more segments you create, the better targeted your emails can be.
Getting email-trigger happy. It happens to the best of us — sending too many emails in a short period. It’s best to clearly state how frequently you’ll be sending emails. If you choose to change that frequency, communicate that with your readers beforehand.
Getting lazy with your subjects. Your subject line is like the headline from a newspaper. Without a good subject line, why read on? Plus, you have to factor in the spam-flagging topics ISPs tend to toss out (hint, don’t ever use $$$).
Leading your readers to water, but never asking them to drink. That’s just our way of saying you aren’t using calls to action. That’s crazy! Not only must your emails have CTAs, but they should stand out from the rest of your copy.
Not making it easy to unsubscribe. None of us want readers to leave, but we shouldn’t make it harder for them to do so (that just hurts your branding in the long run). Make the unsubscribe option easy to recognize, and be sure you follow the law that stands you must honor that request within 10 business days.

While fancy tools and applications can help you create stellar campaigns and emails, nothing is more important than avoiding bad email habits. As you look to bring your marketing game to the next level, make sure your strategies reflect email best practices. Some email solutions, such as BrandBlox, actually make it easier (and automatic) for you to abide by accepted industry practices and standards.

Here are some related articles:

How to Stay Out of Email Review and Approval Purgatory

We Hate to See You Go: Why People Unsubscribe from Your Email