By Darren Gilbert

The point is this: email is personal. You have access to your audience. However, businesses can treat it glibly, seeing it simply as a part of the marketing strategy.

Weak or non-existent calls-to-action

The whole point of sending an email to someone is to elicit a response. “Whether you want someone to purchase a product, attend a conference or download an ebook, your call to action has to be the meat of your email marketing newsletter,” writes Daniel Cassady for Social Media Today.

In failing to do this, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Without a visible call-to-action, you are wasting your time. Cassady continues, “Don’t mince words or beat around the bush. If you want a reaction, keep your call to action above the fold - put it in the spotlight.”

Mallory Mongeon of Email on Acid agrees. She writes, “If you went through the effort of creating a killer subject line and compelling content, it is an epic fail if you forgot to add your ’call to action’ in the body of your email.”

Failure to segment lists


There are two parts to any successful email marketing campaign. First, you need to grow your mailing list. Second, you need to segment this list. Both are relatively easy.  Most businesses focus solely on the first. However, the second part is worth just as much attention.

Online marketer, Syed Balkhi explains: “[B]y segmenting your list, you’ll see far better results – lower unsubscribe rates, higher engagement and more sales.” And don’t think it’s hard – it’s not. It simply takes a little effort to get right. But once it’s done you will reap the benefits.

“The one size fits all email philosophy hardly ever flies. That is why segmenting your list is a must,” writes Mongeon. “Using the data available to you is what sets a good campaign apart from a bad one.”

One way of doing that is by grouping email addresses according to a location. Another is to group them according to a specific product or topic.

Mobile-unfriendly emails

When it comes to sending an email to your subscribers, you need to ensure that it’s mobile-friendly. Pamella Neely, a copywriter and Internet marketer points out that as of 2014, more than half of your emails are opened on a mobile device. That begs a question: why wouldn’t you consider creating mobile-friendly emails?

“If your subscribers can’t read your emails on a mobile device, or if they find them hard to read, or if they simple aren’t easy to read, they will just delete them,” writes Neely.

It is worth getting into the habit of creating emails that are easy to open on any smartphone. It could be the difference between making a sale later and closing your business.

What are your thoughts? Have you come across any other email marketing mistakes that people should know about? Tell us below.