Email is relatively easy and inexpensive to use. This means it’s a great tool for small businesses that may not have a big marketing budget. It also means almost everyone is doing it and it’s becoming more difficult to rise above the dross and get noticed. It’s therefore crucial to make the most of each email that’s sent out. Sometimes knowing what not to do can be as important as knowing what actually works. The following are 5 email marketing strategies that shouldn’t be used.
1. Don’t Bait and Switch
Businesses are always told to have an interesting subject line in an email. On the other hand don’t provide a catchy phrase that has nothing to do with what your business is actually promoting just so a customer will open the email. This is a gimmick that can make a small business look unprofessional or even worse, desperate.
2. Don’t Use No-Reply Email
Small businesses should be customer friendly and a no-reply email feels stiff and informal. Even worse, it may tell customers that you want their business but don’t want to take the time to actually hear from them and take into account what they have to say. If customers want to contact you for any reason, they should be able to do so easily. After all, isn’t this the reason you’re in business?
3. Don’t Randomly Increase Frequency
Sending out more emails without actively measuring the response of your customers is unlikely to increase sales. There is a tolerance threshold to how many emails people can receive. Run some simple tests if you’re thinking of increasing frequency. Using two control groups, send the first group of regular customers the same amount of emails while sending the second group a few extra. Analyze which amount of emails delivered better results.
4. Don’t Practice Batch and Blast
This is a strategy that simply involves sending the same general email to your entire database. While it’s never good to use this technique, it can be even more damaging to small businesses. One of the reasons people often do business with smaller companies is the personal attention they receive. If they’re getting slammed with generic emails that don’t really address their particular needs they might as well be doing business with the big companies.
5. Don’t Use Negative Events to Increase Sales
While this may seem obvious, businesses do this without realizing how inappropriate it may be. An example would be using the anniversary of September 11 for promotional purposes. Tying a marketing message into the current news is a strategy many businesses are increasingly using. This can be tricky to say the least. It’s probably a good idea not to employ this method, especially if the news happens to be negative.
