Crazy Email Marketing Strategies To Avoid For Higher Open Rates

It is no secret that I am a massive fan of email marketing. It is one of the first things I recommend for people starting a new business setup. It is a fun and potentially lucrative way of engaging with your audience. But alas, the word engaging - it's often forgotten. Let's look into this a bit further and explore some email marketing strategies we should be avoiding. Hopefully, we'll all learn something.

Now, before I go on, I must point out that I do not claim to be an email marketing expert. I am not a guru. I'm 100% sure that there are people who hate my emails just as much as the next person. You know what? That's okay. As much as everyone loves being loved, not being loved by everyone has its benefits, too. Maybe we'll chat about them one day.

The things in this post that bug me are not about having years of experience. People who have way more experience than me are still doing many of the things down below. No, the things that bug me do so because of what I focus on.

During my time sending emails to my list, there is one thing that is always at the forefront of my mind: I am human writing to humans.

For me, this is THE most important thing in my business. I'm not writing to credit cards or bank accounts, nor am I writing to robots trained to click every link I send their way. Nope, just bog-standard - yet beautifully unique - humans.

I highly recommend that you never forget this. I'm hoping this post will help you see why.

The things I'm about to talk about are not personal to anyone. These are things I have been shaking my head at over years of receiving hundreds of emails a day. They are also just my opinion - this doesn't necessarily make me right.

With that disclaimer out the way, shall we dive into my 7 email marketing strategies to avoid? 

Oh, by the way, when I say strategies... some of these are more like "anti" strategies - as we'll see in the first couple of instances.

1. Starting with Poor confirmation emails

A confirmation email is what I would call email zero. This is the email people get to confirm that they want to sign up for your email list.

What a surprising number of people don't realize is that if you're using double opt-in, the content of Email Zero could be fundamental to adding people to your list.

So, effectively having a poor confirmation is one of the most common "anti" email marketing strategies. It is not in any way strategic.

example confirmation emails

First, let me show you two example confirmation emails before I explain why they're so important.

Now, I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, but I know which button I'm hitting. More to the point, I know why I'm hitting it. Let's think about this for a second...

What does the first example tell us? Well, absolutely nothing. It doesn't tell me who I signed up with. It doesn't tell me what I signed up for. Nor does it tell me why I should hit that button!

The common assumption is that people sign up for stuff and then sit waiting for that confirmation email. On occasion, this is the case, meaning you're onto a winner - people are sitting waiting for your freebie, so they don't care what the email says. But this is not always the case.

Who, what, why?

For example, the other week, I bought a bundle of products from about 65+ online business owners. I tried to look at about five products a day throughout the week. I had to sign up for one email list per product to get each product. So, of course, I signed up for everything I wanted and then checked my email.

Say I signed up for six products at once and then grabbed some lunch. By the time I get to my inbox, I may have forgotten what I signed up for.

So, if I get six confirmation emails like example one... I don't want to click on any of them. I don't know what I'm agreeing to, AND I don't feel welcome.

In my opinion, if you want people to click that button in your confirmation email, you need to do these four things in a very clear and concise way:

• Remind people who they signed up with
• Remind people what they signed up for
• Tell people what you have to offer
• Make people feel welcome

This links in very nicely with the next of my "anti" email marketing strategies.

2. Not having a welcome series.

If you don't know already, a welcome series is a sequence of emails sent to new subscribers to help them get comfortable with you and familiar with your content. The idea is that whenever a new subscriber signs up for your email list, they get an email series to ease them into who you are and what you have to offer.

The emails in your welcome series are arguably the most important you'll ever send. Getting this bit right could serve as your most valuable email marketing strategies.

To illustrate one of the reasons (I have a few) I think having a welcome series is so important, I'm going to tell you about a real-life - recent - example.

Why is a welcome series important?

As I mentioned above, I've recently been signing up for products that I bought as part of a bundle. I was keen to explore all the goodies I got, so I signed up for many things at the same time. One day, I signed up to get eight products.

So, I clicked the buttons in the confirmation emails, downloaded my products and went on my merry way.

When I got back to my inbox, I had at least four emails from the people I'd just subscribed to, all about one thing: Why they recommend buying the bundle I had JUST bought!

Now, I would let this go if the emails introduced me to some of the products I'd just got access to - or encouraged me to use them. But they weren't - they were standard sales emails.

Why did this happen? Because I signed up for something, then was put straight onto general mailing lists. So, the next time a general email went out, I got it - no matter when or what it was about.

Can you see the problems here? For me, there are four main issues:

• I don't want to buy something I just bought
• I know very little about who I've just subscribed to because they haven't introduced themselves.
• I got no extra value from signing up
• I don't feel welcomed (do you see the pattern?)

From here, there is a high chance that I will unsubscribe.

Whereas subscribers who get to know you and your business (and see a consistent and personalized approach) they will be more likely to open your emails. You're also more likely to see: higher click-through rates, lower unsubscribe rates, and higher engagement. Fact!

3. Wasted subject line real estate

With the number of emails we receive every day, it's pretty hard to get someone's attention.

That's why it's so essential to craft a subject line that will catch the reader's attention, make them curious about what's inside the email, and encourage them to read on.

When people are reading your subject line, they are subconsciously evaluating whether or not it's worth their time. The subject line is the first thing they see and therefore plays a huge part in how likely they are to open the email and read on.

You must think of your subject line as prime real estate.

Monopoly - Email Edition

If we were playing email Monopoly, the subject line would be Park Lane (UK version) or Broadwalk (US version). Rent on these squares is super expensive! No one ever wants to land here after someone has bought it up.

Your email subject line is Park Lane, and, if you want to take the analogy further, every word is a hotel you have to pay megabucks for. 

In other words, it doesn’t matter how awesome your email is, if you land on Park Lane full of hotels (aka waste your subject line), you've lost the game.

Why then would you waste it on unnecessary words? Seriously, stop the madness.

Unnecessary words

The most mind-boggling thing about this is that I see vast numbers of people & businesses adding their business names to the front of their subject lines.

I've just sent myself two emails to demonstrate what a waste this is. The subject line is "How I Write Cool Emails". But in one of them, I added my business name. Check out the difference in my inbox:

I mean, look at what a massive difference that makes. If I were to add my business name, there would be no point in writing a subject line, and I'd have a hard time getting people's attention in a sea of a gazillion other emails.

Of course, you want people to know who the email is from. But you do this in your "from" line. Any marketing emails from me say they are from "Fran | The Happy Journals PLR Club". No wasted subject line here.

Honestly, this one frustrates me. It really does hit the top 3 in my poor email marketing practices list. It is just such a waste of... everything, to be frank.

The only time I ever recommend adding anything before your subject line is if you're writing to affiliates. I add [affiliates] or [affs] for my affiliate emails because this is super helpful to affiliates and helps the email stand out.

4. An Inauthentic email schedule and Multiple emails a day

This one might be a bit [more] contentious [than the other sections] because there is no right or wrong answer. I am okay that there is no answer because my goal isn't to give you an answer. My goal is to make you take a step back and think about how often you email your list (and why).

Only on rare occasions do I email my list daily. I did it reasonably recently to deliver a series of product reviews. Once that was done, I told my list that we would return to our regular twice-weekly schedule.

Interestingly, someone asked me whether I only email twice a week because I don't care enough to do more.

My answer is that I only email twice a week because I care about my subscribers.

Now, I wouldn't say there is anything wrong with daily emails. However, you'll rarely get away with it in my inbox for long before I unsubscribe.

Can you get away with daily emails?

That said, some people can get away with daily emails. But I have to feel engaged, learn something every time, or feel connected to the person in another way.

So, what do I mean by an "inauthentic schedule"? Well, let's think this through...

When deciding on your email schedule, you'll do so with one of three things in mind:

1. Making money
2. Your business needs
3. Your subscribers' needs

I hate to say this, but there is an issue if number three isn't at the forefront of your mind. I take you way back to what I said at the start of this post:

You see, numbers one and two on the above list will probably be taken care of if you, artfully, take care of number three. We'll also go into this in more detail in the next section.

But the point is, if daily emails don't offer your people something (other than things to buy so you get commission), then you probably shouldn't be sending daily emails.

If, on the other hand, you have enough quality, helpful, thoughtful content to fill daily emails that will offer value to your subscribers and make you money, then by all means... daily emails will probably work for you. Plus, they'll be authentic.

The open-rate argument

I've heard the open rate argument on this topic before, too. This argument goes something like this:

"I get such low open rates that I need to email daily to make money."

Again, think about this reeeeeally carefully. Are you not making money because you get low open rates? OR are you getting low open rates because your emails don’t serve your audience, therefore you're not making money.

Throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks does not a email marketing strategy make.

Why do you have low open rates? If you’re thinking, "I don't know" - you will if you look. You just have to read a handful of your emails from the point of view of your subscribers. Then ask yourself the following:

• Am I gaining anything?
• How do I feel after reading this?
• Do I get anything new/unique?
• Do I know what the goal of the email was?
• Was it easy to read?... Even better, was it easy to skim?
• Was I compelled to take action?

Again, if your primary focus is your subscribers' needs, you are likely to get a higher open rate and, therefore, a higher conversion rate.

Note: I never talk about my numbers because I don't think it is helpful. But I get more than double the average open rate in my industry. This doesn't mean I don't have off days with low open rates. But if I do, I go over the questions above to find out why.

It all comes down to the age-old Know, Like, Trust principle. It doesn't necessarily matter how many links you have in your emails if you don't have this nailed down.

5. Pure sales - or talking about why you want the sale

Ooo, I will have to be careful here because this is one of my "soapbox" topics.

If you ask Kate Doster - the email master - she will tell you that every email is a sales email. To be honest, it took me a while to stop fighting against this concept. But it does make sense.

However, there is a massive distinction between selling authenticity (and with purpose) and just chucking a ton of links at people, hoping a few of them get clicked.

When I was trying to work out how to write this section, I came across a quote that I absolutely love. I might even get it framed because it is literally everything I believe wrapped up in a few words:

I get a lot of emails every day, and whenever I go through them, I look for one thing: How they can help me?

What do they get out of this?

This might sound selfish but hear me out.

If you buy a pair of Nike trainers (sneakers), for example... You don't do so because John, in marketing, needs to pay the rent. Nor do you do it because John sent you a short blurb on every pair of trainers they sell.

You do it because you found the trainers will help you fill a need or want, right?

Therefore, John (or Steve if you like) in marketing at Nike will tell you exactly how the trainers will help you.

Although your business is YOUR business, and you should run it how you want. It's not really about you; everything is about your audience.

Nike might feel like a bad example because it feels like they don't need to "sell" as much as we do. But I tell you what they do well: they tell stories! Their TV ads may not have any words, but they tell clear stories that their target market can relate to.

Just because you add a link and a picture to your email does not mean your audience will automatically believe it's worth their time.

Why do YOU rate this product? More to the point, what problems does it solve? Tell a story, teach, and explore with your readers.

Until it’s not, free is boring

The same goes for free content. The reason Kate Doster says every email is a sales email is not that every email should be directly trying to get people to open their wallets. It's because everyone wants your readers' attention - why should you be the one to get it?

For example, it is highly likely - that if you were on my list when I first published this post - I sent you an email talking about it. I've not written that email yet, but I bet I didn't just send you a link. What did I do to get you on to this post?

Until it solves a problem, FREE is boring. Even if the free thing is enormous and exciting. People want you to tell them why they should click your link. What is in it for them (not you)?

6. Very Obvious copy & paste in Email content 

For this one, on top of what we've talked about so far, you have to remember one crucial thing:

More than likely, your subscribers will be subscribed to other people.

This is why I do not create email swipes for my affiliates. Nor do I ever use them as-is for my email list - if I use a swipe, it'll be for ideas only.

Someone did a launch last year sometime, and I got five emails from five different people that were identical in every way other than the name.

This is connected to all the things we've just been talking about.

People buy from people, not from a copied email.

As I say, I don't create swipes for my affiliates. So, sometimes a few of them will copy bits from my emails. I mostly have no problem with this.

However, one instance stands out: In relation to one of my new products, I wrote about something random I believed (I don't know what - maybe I think that wearing odd socks is awesome).

One of my affiliates copied what I'd said word for word a few hours later.

I remember thinking, I'm 99% sure that is not something you believe. But they had just told their readers that they did. Thankfully, it was a harmless belief. Although, I think it had some relation to why I create the products I create, which was personal to me.

It is never a good idea to simply copy & paste something into an email and hit send. If it isn't something you would say, don't say it.

7. Not inviting subscriber engagement

Finally, I'm hoping that if you've gotten this far, my thoughts on this will be more or less obvious.

For me, this is THE most important of all email marketing strategies: engaging with your people.

I get emails every day from a massive range of people whom I know absolutely nothing about.

I guarantee I am more likely to buy from a person who shares a bit of their life with me than someone I know nothing about.

I am also more likely to buy from people who invite me to engage with them. I might never do so, but if I know that I am welcome to do so, I feel like I'm on an even footing.

And if someone can combine all these things, they've won my heart:

Personality + engagement + sales = win!

Writing to your email list and hitting that elusive "sweet spot" takes practice and is also ever-changing. This is because we humans change our minds - we may like things one week and not the next. Which is precisely why I take the time to mix things up and try and give my readers what I think they will enjoy.

But everything in your emails should revolve around one thing: your subscribers. Everything else tends to fall into place if you get things right for them.

Many people ignore the essential aspect of their Email Lists and, basically, just chuck pasta at the wall to see what sticks. I don't want this for you. So, I genuinely hope you've got some practical & actionable tips from this post.

What would you like to change about your email marketing? Let me know in the comments below...