5 Common Email Challenges

There are many things that can wrong in an email marketing campaign, from conception to delivery. Here are five of the most common challenges, and simple steps to take to fix them.

The email marketing train is a constant and fast-moving one. It is hard to get off at the high speed and seemingly even harder to slow it down and take in the view. I know many email marketers that find it very hard to change less-than-successful practices or gain momentum on new techniques and strategies. However, there is hope! Email marketers share many ailments, but the remedies may not be as painful as one would expect.

The Most Important Things Are Done at the Last Second:

You would never choose your brand name, where your office or stores should be located, or who should run your company at the last minute, but we make most of the crucial and impactful decisions at the last moment of our campaigns. Sometimes email marketers literally think about the subject line right before pressing send, as an almost necessary evil.

The subject line and your second subject line (aka preheader/preview text) are so important, especially since 65 percent of emails are opened on smart phones and/or tablets (according to Movable Ink). This is how consumers and busy professionals are reading (really skimming, at best) your emails and deciding if they will delete immediately or engage with your email whether on their mobile device or back on a laptop or desktop.

Asleep or Inertia as the Mobile Tide Surges:

I was recently speaking to a smart group of 100 digital marketers, almost all who were involved with their email programs, if not outright managing them. Not a single hand went up (yes, I know that is not statistically pure) when I asked if anyone knew how many of their subscribers were reading their emails on a mobile device. After I was given CPR, I counseled them to make this a priority.

Having a Generalist Creative Team Design and Code Your Email:

Great email creative is often not great Web creative and vice-versa. The old mindset of no one wanting to design emails because you can’t design email is long gone and a new generation of tech-savvy designers knows what separates a functional and fantastic email and it is a very different build than designing a website.

Operating in a Vacuum:

You want respect, right? Then earn it. Start with ensuring your email program is not soiled within your company, much less your marketing organization. One way to do that is to share your high-level scoreboard/dashboard type business metrics with many people outside of your immediate team. Articulate what is working, how progress has been made, and anecdotes from your subscribers or internal stakeholders. This will allow you and your program to be more visible and everyone wins in that scenario.

Not Understanding How Email Works:

It’s kind of what you do for your job, right? You probably should have a deep and complete understanding of the basics of how email works.