Warming Up For Year-End: 6 Email Mistakes To Avoid
Because such a large proportion of online contributions arrive in the final 45 days of the year, now’s a good time to start sharpening your email campaign skills.
Neil Patel, head of the audience metrics firm Kissmetrics, publishes a great blog worthy of subscription.
In Neil’s experience here are the six reasons that most most email campaigns are undermined even before they’re written:
- You don’t have a clearly defined idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.
- You haven’t clearly defined who you’re trying to influence.
- You’re mixing your messages.
- Your style is putting people off.
- Your emails don’t lead people to where they can make a transaction.
- You’re sending your emails at all the wrong times.
And here are the corrective strategies Neil recommends “to help you craft tightly focused, action-oriented, results-driving emails.”
He calls them the “5W’s and One H”:
- Determine WHY you’re sending the email in the first place.
- Know exactly WHO you’re making your offer to.
- Determine WHAT you want to say, and stick with it.
- Learn HOW to think like your customer and communicate accordingly.
- Lead recipients exactly WHERE you want them to go as a result of viewing the email.
- Send your blast WHEN recipients are most likely to take the action you want them to.
Neil’s post contains examples of emails featuring these corrective strategies drawn from some of the best in the business.
Neil, you deserve a raise.
Roger
P.S. Kissmetrics free e-newsletter is worth signing up for. Click here for their sign-up page.
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