Top 5 embarrassing email-campaign habits

We’ve all heard about bad email habits that stem out of good intentions… but the one thing that brands have to be aware of are bad email campaign habits. Making these mistakes could not only be embarrassing, they could also damage the reputation of your firm, no matter how big or small. Here are some mistakes you should never make when sending out an email campaign:

1. Don’t put empty promises in your subject line: It’s tempting to make your subject line sound larger than life, but this is the #1 thing to avoid in email campaigns. Your subject line should always match the content of your mail.

2. Don’t make the subject line reveal everything: The trick is to balance the ability to generate curiosity and yet being clear about what’s in the email. When you reveal everything there is in your email in the subject line itself, the body is made meaningless.

3. Don’t talk about more than two things in one email: If you’re running a campaign for say Mother’s Day and you have a brunch going on Sunday, don’t make 5 different events. The best thing to do would be to combine both into a single event, but if you can’t do that, have different plans and selling points for both. Talking about more than 2-3 things in a single newsletter only confuses your audience.

4. Don’t send your emails at odd times: We’ve talked about this before, but we’re saying it again: Don’t send emails in the middle of the night, or at dawn, or when you know your audience won’t be paying attention. Send them when they’re getting ready for the day, just before they reach work, or after they get back from work.

5. Don’t make your email too heavy for smartphones: Everybody reads their mail on smartphones, so if you’re going to put images in yours, make sure the final draft isn’t more than 3MB in size.