working-for-meI’ve written a lot about the benefits of using email marketing for your business. And, for most businesses, email marketing is extremely effective. It’s a simple and affordable way to reach out to a lot of potential customers, while still feeling friendly and personal.

However, if you have been using email marketing for a while, but have yet to notice the promised benefits, you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. When email marketing doesn’t work for someone, it’s usually because there’s a mistake, or something missing, in the messages you’re sending out. Thankfully, these mistakes are very easy to correct. Here are some of the most common mistakes email marketers make, and how to rectify them:

Your Subject Lines Aren’t Good Enough

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the subject line is one of the most important elements of a marketing email. It’s what will help the customer decide whether they’re going to read an email, delete it, or send it to the spam folder.

A good subject line should be short, but should also give the customer a good idea of what’s contained within the body of the email. There are also a few tricks you can use to help encourage your subscribers to open your emails.

A sense of urgency in a subject line can be useful in encouraging opens. If the customer thinks that the offer contained within the email is time limited, they may be more likely to open and click through.

Wool Overs used a subject line like this to let their customers know that their free delivery offer was ending soon:

It can also be a good idea to use questions in your subject lines. This will unlock a sense of curiosity in your customers, hopefully persuading them to open the email.

Bella Italia used a question in the subject line of a recent email. By opening the email, the customer will find out if they’ve won a prize:

You’re Not Using Personalisation

Nowadays, customers expect the emails they receive to include some form of personalisation. A personalised email makes a customer feel like they are dealing with a company that cares about them and values their needs.

The simplest way to personalise your emails is to use your customer’s name in the subject line and body, like in this email from Brastop:

As you gather more information about your customers over time, your emails can become even more personalised. You can personalise messages based on previous purchases, items they’ve shown an interest in, and even your customers buying habits.

Steam send their customers an email when an item on their wishlist goes on sale:

An email like this is a sure fire way to encourage an impulse purchase. After all, you already know that it’s something that the customer wants.

You’re Overloading Your Customers With Information

Some marketers think that, in order to achieve success with their marketing emails, they need to constantly bombard their customers with information, just to make sure every base is covered. However, more often than not, this will just annoy your customers. With customers becoming more and more savvy, they now demand interesting and engaging emails sent at appropriate intervals. Don’t forget that what’s interesting to you may not be interesting to your customers.

You also shouldn’t overload each individual email you send with information. Customers will generally only spend a few seconds looking at each email they receive, so they should be able to take in all the information they need in that time.

Make one piece of information the focus of your email, and rely on strong visuals to get your message across. Hotels.com used just one image to let their customers know about their 50% off sale:

It can be incredibly frustrating if you’re not achieving the results you hoped for from your email marketing methods. However, by taking these tips on board, and using a few simple tweaks, your email marketing fortunes could turn around.