7 Challenges Businesses Face Using Email Marketing
Everyone uses email today.
That's why it's a popular choice as a marketing channel. Simple, easy and cost-effective, email marketing can be highly effective. But that doesn’t mean it just works instantly! While everyone always keeps an eye on their inbox, they need to be receptive to your message if you want them to pay attention.
Let’s talk about the most common challenges businesses face with email marketing and how to solve them, so you can make it a viable option for your business.
When we think of emails, the first thing that often comes to mind is business.
Some may even feel nervous at the thought of emailing because it's often associated with work. For others, emails are annoying – just a bunch of messages from people trying to shove products or services into your inbox.
This is email marketing today. But annoying or frustrating people is quite counter-productive to the process! That can lead to an overall loss for your company despite all your efforts to win clients.
So, what do you do?
But first, what is Email Marketing?
Since the very first email was sent in 1971, communication changed forever.
It was only a matter of time before businesses took advantage of this new method of direct communication. With only 400 recipients, the first commercial email that was sent to promote a product gained about US $13 million in sales!
Well well well, let’s all do it, right?!
That’s exactly what happened. But now it’s saturated and we have to be smarter if we actually want email to work.
Email Marketing (sometimes referred to as EDM or Electronic Direct Mail) is a form of direct marketing that involves sending messages to customers and prospects straight to their inbox to promote your latest products, services or news.
It can also boost your business’ marketing strategy by building brand awareness and creating strong relationships with your customers.
So, why do businesses utilise it?
It works, that’s why.
People put a priority on their inbox. It’s undeniably the backbone of business today.
Aside from email marketing’s ability to reach your customers individually and directly, this marketing tool inspires some kind of action from the receiver - unless an email is read, deleted or archived, it will just remain in the inbox of the recipient.
Because you can curate the list of intended recipients of your emails, you can target specific demographics with personalised messages, allowing them to feel that you genuinely care for your customers – as you should.
Email marketing is one of the most inexpensive, if not the most cost-efficient marketing tools out there. It’s no wonder why businesses love using it!
But it’s not that easy.
7 Email Marketing challenges for businesses
As with any other marketing channel, it’s not all just phenomenal results – challenges arise, and this can sometimes have us question if we have made the right decision to utilise it for our business.
Here are some of the most common challenges businesses experience with Email Marketing:
1. Subscriber retention and growth
This may be one of the trickiest challenges for email marketing – you may have the right messages, but who’s going to read them without any active subscribers?
That’s why it is important to keep your existing subscribers engaged while adding new subscribers to the list to ensure your email marketing strategy reaches enough people to grow your business.
For more information, read: How To Craft Marketing Emails That Convert
2. Personalisation
Why personalise emails?
Well, we say - why not? Emails are messages sent directly to your audience’s inboxes. This is a great opportunity to build a relationship with them by personalising emails with, at very least, their name. Also, you can increase open rates by 26% just by personalising! You can do this by understanding your customers and your target audience.
Go to the effort. It’s worth it.
3. Spam Complaints
Who wants their inbox bombarded by irrelevant content? Definitely no one! Even if you think your content is great, some people might not want to receive each and every email.
You can address this by providing a selection process in your subscription where people can choose what type of content they would like to receive. And, for goodness sake, sound as human as possible! By human, we mean more like a friend – not a pushy salesperson!
Make it something that they want to open!
4. Getting clicks
Getting people to open and read your emails is one thing, but getting them to click through to your website, your call to action or other attached links is another story.
Make sure you optimise your call to action (CTA) buttons and messaging. Is it easy to find? Do they guide your customer towards your website, or do they just appear too pushy?
To learn more, read: 5 Ways To Improve Your Call To Action
5. Mobile optimisation
Nowadays, everyone is on the go and they don’t have much time to sit and read through their emails on a desktop computer or laptop.
So, it is important to ensure your readers are getting the same content experience from your emails even via their mobile phone! Photos, text formatting and links can be affected when emails are opened on different devices. That’s why you should always test and adjust!
6. Monitoring data
So, you’re sure your email marketing strategy is excellent – but how can you guarantee it’s getting you the desired results?
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No matter how confident you are of the quality of your email content, it’s still essential to monitor and analyse your email metrics. In doing so, you can make necessary adjustments, address problems and improve along the way.
7. Delivering engaging messages
We all know it’s a struggle to earn the attention and interest of our audience, but with emails, it’s easier to do this because you’re talking to them directly. This is your chance to make sure they are really engaged with your messages!
You can do this by having a powerfully compelling marketing message that’s suitable for your brand and value-adding to the experience of your customers.
For more information on this, read: How To Create Effective Marketing Messages
4 tips for better Email Marketing
Now that we’ve discussed the most common challenges in Email Marketing, we wouldn’t want you to leave this page without giving advice on how to avoid these!
So, here are some email marketing tips to really get great results:
Identifying and understanding the buyer personas amongst your list of subscribers will allow you to create customised messages that are aligned to the different types of personas.
With this, you can effectively hit the goals on your targets while making your audience feel valued and highly regarded.
Read this for help: How To Define Your Ideal Customers In 10 Steps
Great results don’t just happen in a blink of an eye – checking your metrics and identifying the messages that work will enable you to adjust accordingly to the preferences of your audiences.
Remember, this is a continuous process and trends are always evolving!
Depending on your brand, the tone of voice is different for many businesses. But it should always align with your values and never sound robotic.
Your customers are expecting a real person behind your emails – not a bot! So, make sure to keep the messages conversational and engaging, but don’t come off as annoying, either!
If you have no idea about the “why” behind sending emails, how do you expect the receiver to understand it?
Effective marketing emails have consistent content, subject lines and calls to action that are all aligned to achieving a goal. Identify your goal first before putting it all together into email!
How expert Copywriting helps you deliver better Email Marketing
Email Marketing is a powerful weapon. But only when wielded correctly.
It’s common to underestimate email marketing on so many levels because we’re so used to emailing every minute of every day. But getting results is a different story.
You must be able to write marketing emails that appeal to your target audience, nurture customer relationships and inspire action for your strategy to be effective.
This is where professional copywriting services come in.
Quality copywriters are experienced and well-equipped with the skills to understand certain audiences and create messages that fully address their pain points. They also have the ability to perform comprehensive research and utilise words in a way that will get you impressive outcomes.
Additionally, we’re sure you’re probably too busy running your business. So, it’s best to reach out for copywriting help in delivering your business’ email marketing.
To gain more information about this, read: Why Do You Need A Copywriter For Your Email Marketing?
How to hire the right copywriter?
The benefits of marketing copywriting for businesses are undeniable when it comes to creating emails for your target audiences - as are the potential results.
Although many people can put words on a page, most business owners are not experts in the art and science of copywriting. In addition, people often lack the time, ability and resources to do what needs to be done.
Don’t let this hold you and your business back, though!
Freelance copywriting services are available to cater to whatever your business needs. So, we recommend hiring freelance marketing copywriters to fulfil this role for you.
Quality freelance copywriters with Marketing backgrounds are experienced marketing email writers who can help you engage with your audience and achieve your goals of growing your business.
They offer many benefits without the ongoing costs to your business of a full-time employee.
But make sure you choose a copywriter with good Google reviews and great recommendations. Sure – they won’t be the cheapest, but they’ll provide you with the best service.
How can Melotti Media help you?
We completely understand your intention to achieve business success by utilising quality copywriting in your email marketing.
We also know that you’re time-poor and spread thin, and it’s possible you still have a lot of questions regarding copywriting.
But you don’t have to worry!
At Melotti Media Copywriting, we can assist you with your email marketing needs while you focus on what matters most to you – growing your business.
Let’s start by getting the results your business deserves using copywriting effectively.
For more information or to speak to a trusted copywriter, contact our team now at enquire@melottimedia.com.au
We can sharpen your words to achieve your goals today.