Why Do Your Email Marketing Campaigns Fail So Regularly? 10-Reasons

Ask any marketing guru about the most profitable marketing channel, and they’d say email marketing in a heartbeat. You’d expect with the rise of social media and influencer marketing that emails would have taken a step back, but that’s seldom the case.

Emails are probably more popular today than they were 20 years ago. But why isn’t it working well for you? Why are all your email campaigns showing unsatisfactory results?

Cheer up, this article highlights 10 possible reasons why your campaigns are not performing as expected.

10 Reasons That Lead to Email Marketing Failure

Ever heard of the Failure Magazine?

It talks about people’s mistakes and poor decisions that lead to their failure. The notion behind starting this publication was to highlight the things not to do to achieve success. In short, failure = success.

The same logic applies here. To achieve high open and conversion rates, you must avoid the following email marketing practices. Or else, be ready to achieve not-so-amazing results.

Email campaigns fail because;

1. Your subject lines are boring.

Did you know that 47% of all emails are opened only after reading the subject line?

Writing uninteresting subject lines is a big email marketing no-no. They set the fate of how successful or unsuccessful your email campaigns will be.

Your subscribers are busy people – they receive multiple marketing emails in a day. Your email subject lines must instantly capture their attention. You can achieve the latter by using numbers, creating a curiosity trap, or asking a question. You may also add emojis as they bring a much-needed visual element to the plain text subject lines.

Additionally, your subject lines might be responsible for sending your emails to the spam folder. Avoid using spam trigger words, like free, no cost, and fast cash.

2. Your email list isn’t segmented.

Are you sending identical emails to your entire mailing list? If you are, that’s a big email marketing mistake.

No two people are the same. Would you send the same gift to all your friends? Obviously, not. They all have different interests, likes, and dislikes. Think of your customers in the same way. Before you execute email campaigns, remember to segment your mailing list.

Take your whole audience and divide it into different segments. The latter can be anything you deem valuable, like income class, engagement level, gender, or buying behavior.

When you segment your subscribers, you lay the foundation for personalized emails, which in turn helps in nurturing relationships and increasing returns. According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), segmented emails derive 58% of all revenue.

3. Your email copy is unimpressive.

One big reason behind your email marketing failure might be your email’s content that fails to impress.

What makes emails so powerful is that it is permission-based. Your subscribers have given their consent to hearing from you. But when you craft your email’s copy in a salesy or spammy manner, you’ve encouraged the reader to unsubscribe.

No matter how important design gets, it is always the words that convince a reader to open and engage within an email. The following email copy best practices must be kept in mind:

• Keep subject lines short and sweet
• Don’t forget to add the preheader
• Focus on benefits rather than features
• Use action-oriented words
• Aim for clarity, not creativity

4. Your email design is poor.

Sending text-only emails was so early 2000s. The competition today is intense – you’re not the only one sending emails to your audience.

The truth is that your emails will fail to perform well if the design is lacking. Unattractive emails look uncredible and are easy to ignore. To win over your customers’ attention, you must design emails that appeal to the eyes.

Consider adding visual elements in your email, like pictures, videos, and GIFs. According to Hubspot, 65% of all email recipients prefer emails to have mostly images.

You can further step it up a notch by adding interactive elements, like carousels, rollovers, forms, and videos. Not only do they boost must-needed engagement, but they instantly grab the viewer’s attention.

“65% of all email recipients prefer emails to have mostly images“. – Hubspot

5. Your email footer is missing.

I can’t say about you, but for us, a dinner out is incomplete without dessert.

Similarly, the footer in an email is a sweet conclusion that all your subscribers are looking forward to. Hence, not including them might be the reason why your emails are not performing as expected.

Email footers are a must-have element because of two reasons;

1. It provides helpful information.
2. It saves you from trouble.

Your subscribers are often looking at footers for quick information, like your website’s homepage and social media handles. You can also sneak in discount codes in footers to reward your subscribers for reading the entire email.

Footers are crucial for saving you from legal trouble. They include useful information, like an unsubscribe link and contact information, that saves your emails from landing in the spam folder. Neglecting to add these details might get your IP blacklisted, and you might be fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

6. Your email list is outdated.

You might be doing everything right in the book, and still, your emails would be failing for the goals defined. If that’s the case, chances are your email list is outdated. In other words, your mailing list includes subscribers that might not want to hear from you.

What’s the solution? You must perform an email list audit after a specified time period. Remove the following IDs once the audit is in action:

• Duplicated email addresses
• Email IDs that have the word ‘spam’ in them
• Subscribers who don’t engage with your emails
• Any email ID that has been bought or rented

You can also consider going towards the double optin form route for added assurance that your subscribers really want to hear from you.

In a double optin form, you ask your subscribers twice if they consented to receive emails from you. This might appear annoying, but it saves you from constantly having to audit your mailing list.

7. Your emails are not responsive.

Times have changed and so have your audiences’ preferences. As per a report from Vision6, 47% of all email recipients view emails on their mobile screens.

If your emails are not optimized for various screens, you’re laying a path of failure for yourself. Emails must be of a responsive design – period.

Choose an email design software that lets you create emails that display well on all screens, be it mobiles, tabs, or desktops. Make sure you test all your emails prior to sending them to check their responsiveness.

A responsive design can also be achieved through the following ways;

• The copy’s font should be legible on smaller screens.
• Don’t bombard emails with images.
• Keep email length adequate. You don’t want your subscribers’ to scroll forever.
• Stick to one-column layouts

“47% of all email recipients view emails on their mobile screens” – Vision6.

8. Your calls to action are not click-worthy

You might not be witnessing conversions simply because your Call To Action (CTA) buttons fail to create an impact.

CTAs define the desired action you want your email recipients to take. It should be persuasive yet valuable at the same time. CTAs, like Subscribe, Download Now, and Browse More, fail to get any attention because people are accustomed to seeing them.

Grab attention by shifting your paradigm. Instead of developing calls to action, create calls to value. Focus on mentioning the benefit that will be achieved when a user clicks on it. For instance, when redirecting your audience to your new Fall collection’s webpage, use the CTA ‘Get Stylish This Fall’, instead of the generic ‘Shop Now.’

9. Your emails are sent at the wrong times.

The time you send emails is more important than you think it is. Imagine sending emails to your subscribers at 3 in the morning – no one would be up at that time to read them.

According to different studies, the best days to send emails are Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the best time to send them is in the morning, preferably around 10 am.

While the above suggestions are great starting points, we always recommend A/B testing to find out the time and day that works best for your audience. You can also ask about their preferences through survey-based emails.

10. Your campaigns are promotional-based only.

Are you only sending emails when you’re going on a sale? If the answer is yes, you’re doing it wrong, my friend.

Consider email marketing as a lead nurturing channel. For you to get monetary benefits from emails, you must focus on sharing content that is relevant and valuable.

Take into consideration the buyer’s journey and send specific emails that target its different stages. For the awareness stage, send welcome or brand introductory emails. For the consideration stage, share newsletters or client review emails. For the decision stage, you should send promotional and feedback emails.

Wrap Up 

There you have it; the top reasons explained why your email marketing is not performing to what is expected. Figure out what you’re doing wrong and follow the recommendations in this article to avoid them.