Email marketing is one of the most undervalued marketing channels for small business owners in New Zealand. But marketers and larger brands know better.
Our cousins over the ditch are also aware of the benefits of email marketing for small businesses.
“Email marketing has since evolved from a marketing tool into a core strategy for most businesses in Australia. Currently, 81% of businesses use email as a key component of their marketing strategy.” Red Search Australia.
I’m passionate about helping small business owners get a leg up using email marketing. But you’d need to let go of the things that are keeping you stuck.
I’ve listed a few of the reasons you might not be getting the results you need with your current email marketing strategy. That’s assuming you have one. Which is probably the biggest email marketing strategy mistake of all (not having an email marketing strategy).
Mistake 1: Bias & Personal Opinions
We all have at least one person in our team meetings that dominates the conversation. The loud one with many strong opinions. The one declaring ‘email doesn’t work, we need to be on TikTok’. Or whatever the latest shiny object of the week is.
They have views, and biases, and you’re going to hear them.
Meanwhile the quiet one in the room, the one with the data and experience with modern channels is trying in vain to get a word in.
We all have biases. But if we let data guide our decision making then we can reduce the impact of the distractions, limiting beliefs and guesses.
So be the person with the data and give it some air time. It may support the loud person or the quiet person. Either way you’ll be more informed.
If you’d like to understand more about email so you can make informed decisions then join Digital Chats with Tiffany. You’ll also get a get started with email marketing guide. Even if you’re already sending emails there’s something for you in the ebook.
If you’d like to understand more about email so you can make informed decisions then join Digital Chats With Tiffany. You’ll also get a get started with email marketing guide. Even if you’re already sending emails there’s something for you in the ebook.
Mistake 2: Poorly Optimized Lead Capture Forms
There’s a lot that can go wrong with lead capture forms. Apart from the obvious broken links, poor design, and uninspiring copy. That also makes them a great way to improve your list building and lead generation performance.
Make sure your lead capture form avoids this mistakes:
Include an opportunity to fill out your form in a non-invasive way closer to the top of the page. For example, you can ask a question and link down to the form.
Make the benefit clear. Confused people don’t buy. If you haven’t made it clear then they’ll get lost.
Keep your form simple. If you want to add more questions then there are tools that can make it easier like SparkToro. But for most small businesses, especially while you're gathering data, you want to keep it as short as possible.
Mistake 3: Weak Offers
A strong offer is one that is clear, benefit-driven and relevant.
Mastering a good strong offer takes practice and experimentation. This is where an expert can shorten the learning curve. It’s also where your messaging, email marketing strategy, market research and analytics play a big part.
Mistake 4: Mobile Optimization Issues
Small business owners are getting better with mobile optimization. Approximately half of New Zealand subscribers (if not more) will be using their smartphone to open their emails.
I’m going to be honest. The chances of a poor mobile experience at some point is significant. Outlook is cursed by many email marketers. The chances of your email breaking with Outlook is higher than others. Fortunately, many email marketers factor this in and have workarounds.
Your emails may look great when testing but then someone uses a different browser and oops. As a small business owner, let’s be honest, your email game and budget is limited. So you’re not going to have an email developer on tap. But you’re also likely using tools that do make it easier and simpler.
There are things you can do. The most important one is to test your email. Mailchimp includes inbox testing in some paid plans.
Keep your design simple. If you design your email in a vertical format so you have Heading, Image, Text it’s much less likely to go wrong. It’s when you get into the more advanced or complicated email design when there is a bigger chance of failure.
Stick to email marketing platforms that include responsive email templates like Mailchimp and Mailerlite. Responsive email templates are email templates in your email service provider (ESP) that are designed to change based on the device they are viewed on.
Mistake 5: Multiple Objectives in One Email
I see this all the time. Your sending a quarterly or monthly email with lots of links. It’s your traditional newsletter. These can be great. Some of the email marketing specialists I admire send a weekly email with an assortment of different things their audience may enjoy.
But the goal of those emails is not to sell anything. When you are using email to gain clients for your service based business you need to be more focused. Send a quarterly newsletter if you want. But you should also be sending weekly emails as well. Yes as well.
They should have one goal and one destination you are sending them to. Anything more than that are your chances of getting the result you want from that email goes down.
Every choice you add can reduce your click through rate. Why? Because you’re asking your reader to work harder. To make a decision. Choose the chocolate icecream or the vanilla. That may be simple. Or it may be the hardest decision they’ve had to make that day. Lucky them. Anyone else feel like ice cream now?
You can have more than one call to action button but it should lead to the same place as all the others.
Mistake 6: Poor Deliverability and List Hygiene
Deliverability is like making sure your letter actually gets to your friend's house. Sometimes, the post office might have trouble finding the right address or the letter might get lost. Electronic mail is similar but different. If your email doesn't reach the inbox you sent it to then you may have issues with your email deliverability.
Good deliverability means your email gets to the inbox most of the time, just like your letter would get to your friend. Bad deliverability is like your letter getting lost or going to the wrong address.
There’s a lot you can do to improve your deliverability. One ‘lost email’ doesn’t mean all emails will go to spam. To improve your chances of landing in the inbox you need the following:
There’s more to it but follow these recommendations and your emails will have a fighting chance.
Mistake 7: Short Flows
Your email sequences should be long enough to get the message across but not so long that subscribers lose interest. If you get the timing or amount of emails wrong then your email automations may not achieve your goals.
For example, a welcome email is OK in the beginning until you get a welcome sequence (series of emails sent over the next few days automatically). But one welcome email is not enough to introduce your new subscribers to your brand, help them get to know you and how you can help, and to give them an opportunity to deepen your business relationship.
Testing can help work out how many emails should be in your email sequence but generally speaking you want at least three. Bare minimum three.
Mistake 8: Lack of Segmentation
Segmentation and personalization may seem like advanced email marketing to some small business owners. Having a solid segmentation strategy doesn't need to be complicated. Essentially email segmentation involves dividing your subscribers into segments (cohorts or groups of subscribers).
Common segmentation tactics include grouping subscribers based on:
Segmentation is a powerful tool to increase your email engagement and conversions. Especially when combined with email personalization.
Personalised email campaigns see an average open rate of 25% and a click-through rate of 3%.
For my ideal clients, segmentation, A/B testing, and personalization are why they want an email marketing specialist's help. They can send basic emails but they want to tap into the full potential of email marketing.
If that sounds like you then please contact me. I can help you get more from your email marketing.
Segmentation and personalization may seem like advanced email marketing to some small business owners. Having a solid segmentation strategy doesn't need to be complicated. Essentially email segmentation involves dividing your subscribers into segments (cohorts or groups of subscribers).
Avoid These Email Marketing Strategy Mistakes
Email marketing remains an effective email marketing channel for New Zealand businesses. I’ve covered basic through to more advanced email marketing strategy mistakes. You can avoid these with an email strategy that covers all the bases and avoids these pitfalls.
If you’d like to find out more about how my services can help you then contact me for a no-strings chat.
Tiffany Your NZ Email Marketing Specialist For Service Businesses
Hi I'm Tiffany, your email marketing strategist for service based businesses. Based in Auckland New Zealand I'm one of the few NZ email geeks for hire that offer email strategy and marketing automation for your professional services business. Turn attention into leads with a better conversion rate.