Top 5 Email Marketing Errors and How to Prevent Them

By: Aubrey Blankenship Tuesday September 26, 2017 comments Tags: email marketing, small business, business tips

Years ago, before computers, penmanship was king. Whether or not you had good penmanship denoted your status and level of education. Today's form of primary communication is email, and like penmanship, whether or not you take care to do it right says something about you. 

We are all in a rush to complete things as quickly as possible, but in our haste, multitudes of marketing emails are sent out each day that reflect poorly on the sender. In these cases, sending a poorly crafted and formatted email is worse than sending nothing at all. With this in mind, here are the top 5 email marketing errors that are easy to correct if you take care when creating your email, but will hurt your brand if you don't. 

1. Text formatting issues

Raise your hand if you've ever received an email with two different fonts in the body of the email, or awkwardly sized text in headers or paragraphs that appears inconsistent. There is a simple way to prevent this problem from happening. When you are building your email, take care not to paste in text directly from another document. This will bring with it formatting from the original document and may mess up the formatting of your email. Sometimes the only way to fix these formatting issues is to dig into the HTML code and correct the errors manually. This can be a problem if you are not comfortable with HTML. The best way to avoid these and other text formatting issues is to type directly into the email itself. If this is not possible, copy the necessary text from your original document and paste it into a text editor like Notepad first. This step will strip the formatting the text carried from the original document. Then, copy it again from Notepad and paste it into your email template.  

2. Image size or alignment issues

A great image is engaging and draws people into your content. Conversely, an ill-sized image, or one that is out of alignment with the rest of your document, can detract from your message. Some email providers are better at resizing images than others, but to truly make sure your images show at the size you want, you should size them yourself in a photo editing program before adding them to your email. For example, if you want to include an image that is 800px x 400px, you will need to shrink it down to fit. A more appropriate size might be 200px x 100px. However, if you upload the original large image and insert it into your email, it will put it in at it's original size, potentially breaking additional elements of your email in the process, and there is always the chance that the image will show up in it's original size once delivered to your recipient.  Additionally, when the email is received by your audience, the image may take longer to load because even when resized in your email program, you're still using a large image and your email provider will be calling up the original image you uploaded.  However, if you resize the image yourself in a photo editing program first and then upload the smaller version, you won't have these issues. 

3. Missing images

This is another major issue that is easy to avoid. When you upload an image, your email marketing provider will create a link to the location where you uploaded the image so it can recall the right image when needed. However, if you decide to organize or rearrange your images into different folders after you have added an image to your email, you may break that link since the provider will be looking for an image in a location where it no longer exists. As a best practice, create appropriate folders for your image before you start sending out emails and upload images as you go. Then, don't change folder names or move images or folders around after they are uploaded. 

4. Broken or wrong links

Clicks on your email links can be invaluable for your business, especially if your links lead your audience to purchase products and services. So a broken or inaccurate link can be unprofessional and cost you in lost revenue as a result. The easy fix here is to test every link in your email before you send it out to ensure all links go to the right place. Simply send yourself a test once you are done building your marketing email and click on every link to make sure they are working. It's a little extra step that will save you a ton of headaches and embarrassment if the links are wrong. 

5. Spelling and grammar issues

I know this sounds basic, but make sure you are not sending out emails with glaring typos and grammar issues. Remember when we talked about penmanship and how it showed people your status and level of education? Well, poor spelling and grammar is a huge turn off for your prospects and can immediately give you a reputation of being unprofessional and uneducated - even if it was just a simple mistake. You don't have to have all your emails reviewed by an English major before sending them out, but do a simple spell check and read all content for clarity before sending your email. AllProWebTools can actually spell-check while you type, making it easier to catch mistakes. But even if your content passes spell check, always take the time to read all of your content before pressing send. Unsure whether or not you are using the right word in the right context? Google it! You will quickly get a definition that will tell you whether or not you are using the right word.

Bonus Tip

Always - always, send yourself a test email before you send it out to your entire database.  Be sure to read the email on your computer AND your smartphone to make sure everything looks correct!

AllProWebTools offers a great email marketing platform for sending all kinds of emails, as well as pre-formatted templates to make it easier to create and send beautiful messages. Give it a try by using our free demo today!