12 Reasons Why Readers Ignore Your Emails (and How to Change It)

Do you know how users react to your messages? Probably yes, because you analyze open and click-through rates. Probably no, because you find yourself stuck in familiar patterns and don’t question them or don’t try new options. Today we would like to encourage you to step back and look at your emails from customer’s point of view. If you were a recipient, not a sender of the message, what would you think of it?

There are 12 mistakes that marketers fail to spot in their creations. Do you make these?

1. Vague subject line
It’s the best way to hide your message in the inbox so nobody can find them because it makes you email look as of you had nothing to offer.
In subject lines being specific pays off. “Vacuum cleaners from $50”, “Chocolate bars 30% off”, “Increase traffic by 100%” or “$100 for you” motivate users to open an email.
That’s why numbered lists work so well: they promise concrete value.

When crafting subject line, always ask yourself “How can I put it in the more precise way?”

2. Banality
Safe solutions, following the competition and avoiding risk work like an invisibility cloak. If you don’t stand out, nobody will notice you. As Seth Godin says, today being decent or regular is not enough – you must be remarkable. Otherwise, no one will bother.

Experiment. Test crazy ideas. It involves not only creation itself but also types of emails and time of sending. Why not to segment your database or try dynamic 1-to-1 emails?

3. Lack of personalization in subject line
Putting customer’s name in the subject line is super easy and efficient; it catches the eye! Of course, it’s only a small action you should take next to real, deep personalization of offer and content, not instead of it.

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4. Newsletters aren’t helpful
A newsletter can waste your time. Why to read it, if there is nothing for you? Many marketers send bulletins because they’re used to it, but is it a good reason?

Try to be in customer’s shoes: what would you like to get from a newsletter? Use research, Buyer Persona, surveys. Discover how you can help your audience.

5. Irregularity
Email marketing requires a sense of rhythm. If you send newsletters too rarely, users will forget who you are and lose interest. It also applies to dynamic 1-to-1 emails: email with abandoned cart can be outdated three days after the visit.
On the other hand, abundance can make the customer feel fed up with your messages. Find the balance.

6. Lack of measurement
You don’t do A/B testing. You don’t measure a performance of your email campaigns, or you do it inaccurately. At the end of the day, you have no clue what are you doing and what do you want to achieve.

Remember that tests and analytics is the lifeblood of today’s marketing. With the market and audience changing so fast, we must be able to test new solutions and quickly adapt.

7. You don’t know what readers want
How do you compose your messages? How do you choose their content? Is it based on the habit, on the sacred “We’have always done it that way” rule or maybe you rely on chance?
One of the simplest ways to learn it is to ask. If you send first welcome email, ask what kind of offer is most interesting for the user. Allow readers to respond to your messages.

8. You believe that “One size fits all.”
No matter how precisely targeted and narrow is your audience: they’re still different individuals, at various stages of buyer’s journey, with diverse interests. That’s why include dynamic 1-to-1 emails in your arsenal (like welcome messages or emails with an offer of viewed products). Also, segment your database and send dedicated emails to a particular groups (like loyal customers).

9. Lack of focus
Many emails suffer from lack of clear purpose. They’re cluttered with messages and calls to actions, so the reader doesn’t know what to do. Should she “Buy now” or “See” or “Discover”? In consequence, she removes the message.
The solution is to define what is the key purpose of every message and include one CTA (you can repeat it, but don’t put many various ones).

10. Bad promotion – education ratio
Sending only offers might backfire – they discourage users who don’t want to buy, and your relationship with audience can’t be based only on purchase.
Deliver knowledge, inspire, entertain: include more human communication in your messages. Flooding people with offers can’t do any good.

11. Too many words
Editing your copy hurts, but if you don’t make your writing more concise, your readers will suffer, trying to fish out the meaning out of the long-winded discourse. Most of them won’t bother.

12. Bad timing
What you recipient do when you send her a message? Is now a good moment for her to read your email? Finding a perfect time for each user is easy now – thanks to Marketing Automation. The system automatically delivers your message each recipient basing on the data on her activity online.

What do you think? What can discourage recipients from reading your emails?