6 Email Marketing Mistakes That Scare Subscribers Into Unsubscribing

email marketing mistakes

email marketing mistakes

You work hard at growing your email list. You created an irresistible lead magnet and optimized your website to capture leads. But when did you last take a close look at the emails that you’ve been sending out?

While growing your list is important, it’s equally important to take care of your existing subscribers and provide them with a wonderful brand experience. The last thing you want to do is push your subscribers to unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Now, getting unsubscribes is a natural and healthy aspect of email marketing, but not if you are unknowingly making mistakes that leave subscribers with no choice but to unsubscribe.

Here are six email marketing mistakes that you should nip in the bud to build trust and nurture a lasting relationship with subscribers:

#1 - You make them ask “Wait, who are you again?”

Your subscribers do not have the faintest clue as to who you are.

If you have not been consistent in emailing them and have been missing from their inbox lately, you need to re-establish your relationship with them.

Your subscribers’ inboxes are crowded. If they see a name that they are not familiar with, they aren’t going to think twice about deleting your email or unsubscribing from it.

Drop a line in your email introduction or email footer telling them where and what they signed up for. This jogs their memory about you and your brand. Start to plan and schedule your emails so that you get into a routine and your name stays fresh in your subscribers’ minds.

#2 - You ask for the sale (too quickly)

It’s not wrong to put yourself out there and ask for a sale. Don’t get me wrong. But you have to ask yourself if the subscriber is ready to act on that call to action.

Your subscriber goes through several stages before she is ready for a sale. Here’s how a typical customer journey is like:

  • Unaware (don’t know who you are)
  • Read your blog post
  • Come across a compelling lead magnet or content upgrade and sign up
  • Start to get aware of your brand
  • Get value from you and your brand
  • They start to see you as an authority figure and trust what you have to say
  • You educate them on the problem they need to solve
  • You allay their fears by removing objections for using your product or service
  • You instill desire for your product or service and paint a vivid picture of how it could solve their problems
  • They purchase your product
  • They get results
  • They become fans and spread the word about your brand and products

The percentage of subscribers who are very engaged with you and your brand and may not require that many touch points before they are ready for a sale is small.

For the majority of subscribers, you need to gain their trust, educate them on the problem and remove any mental objections they have before you ask for a sale.

When you ask for repeated sales too early on in the process, your subscribers will lose trust in you quickly and even unsubscribe. Before you hit send on any email, ask if it is self serving or audience serving.

#3 - Your emails render weirdly on their devices

It’s becoming harder to determine exactly what devices your subscribers will use to access your emails. And when you use image-laden email templates, you cannot ensure that your emails will show up exactly as you would want them to on different devices.

Marketing Agency Brafton reported that “75% of Americans will simply delete an email before reading it if it is not optimized to be viewed on their screens.”

Plain text emails have the highest chances of rendering in the same way across different platforms. Strip your emails off unnecessary sidebars, and graphics. (Editor’s note: It’s one reason why ConvertKit emails have higher open rates than other providers’.)

Your subscribers will be more likely to perform that single call to action without all the unnecessary distractions. Your emails will also look a lot less commercial.

#4 - You use clickbait subject lines

We know the importance of a subject line to grab attention and instill curiosity to get your emails opened.

But when you over-sensationalize your subject lines and your email copy doesn’t live up to the buzz that your subject line has created (#clickbait), you are going to lose trust with your subscribers quickly. They are less likely to open up your future emails because of the previous letdown they had.

Here are some simple tips you can follow:

  • Use symbols: Symbols work because they jump out at you in the inbox. Start by including one at the start of the subject line to replace a word. Example: ⬆ your sales, with this one simple sales page hack
  • Add the recipient’s name in the subject line: Personalization in the subject line compels you to open up. Seeing your name in the subject line gives a sense of familiarity and makes you respond. Example: Have you written that ebook yet, Meera?
  • Show results: Add specific numbers and a promise to let the reader in on a strategy or tool or process. Example: The best $55.68 you will spend on your business

Remember to appeal to different sides of your subscribers rather than sticking to a single type of subject line just because it works.

#5 - You confuse them and provide little direction

Subscribers are not sure if you want them to comment on your post, click over to the sales page, share your post on social media or buy your ebook.

You pack several calls to action in your emails and give your subscribers too many decisions to choose from. And when you give people several choices, it overwhelms them and results in decision paralysis. They end up not acting on any of your suggested actions.

It’s best to keep to one call to action per email. But should the need rise for you to have a few, give clear instructions and the order of the actions you want them to take. Bold the most important action for emphasis. Number them or place them prominently in your emails.

#6 - You write mini-blog posts

Your emails are long with big paragraphs and rows and rows of text.

Keep in mind that more and more of your subscribers are accessing their emails from their mobile devices. According to a survey by Litmus, 33% of email opens occurred on an iPhone.

When readability becomes an issue, your subscribers aren’t going to scroll to the end of your email no matter how much value you provide.

Build a solid relationship through email marketing

The main purpose of email marketing is to build a relationship. While it takes time to experiment with and find out the types of emails your subscribers will engage with, you don’t want to sabotage your list building efforts by making any of these six email marketing mistakes.

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Meera is a certified email marketing specialist and blogger who helps ambitious female solopreneurs and bloggers find focus, build authority and stand out online. Want to get started with your email list? Take the free email course, Email Lists for Newbies.

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  1. Aprisa says:

    Another great piece by Meera! This sums up what I complain about many newsletters I’ve subscribed to (and wanted to unsubscribe from). After knowing that unsubscribes are healthy for an email list, I stopped feeling guilty for unsubscribing to the list I want to. It’s like stopping giving them fake impression of huge list (I might be just one, but even one matters, right?). As a blogger myself, I also appreciate unsubscribers for letting me know that they’re not my customers 🙂 Thanks for this reminder to not annoy my list!

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