Email newsletters can be a powerful way to stay connected with your clients, help establish you as an authority in your market and keep your business top of mind.

However, there are a number of common mistakes that can seriously undermine your efforts and result in an ineffective campaign. Here are just some of the mistakes that you should avoid.

Treating the subject line as an after-thought. Spend a little time thinking of a compelling subject line for your email. It’s one of the most influential factors as regards the open rate; so don’t waste your efforts writing great content if you’re only going to add something as uninspiring as “November Newsletter”.

Being too wordy. Keep the content of your email concise and to the point. Often, your readers will only spend a few minutes scanning through for anything of interest; so making it easy to digest will increase the chances of engagement.

Providing too many options. Don’t confuse your readers with multiple calls to action. Your email should be focused on one main outcome, such as to encourage a click through to your blog or to download a PDF catalogue. Presenting a variety of different options will only dilute the impact of the email and will be less likely to achieve its goal.

Do you send email newsletters as part of your marketing strategy? Maybe you have some email marketing tips to share?

Post your comment below.

Following on from our first post last week, here are 3 more ideas to use on your website.

Less is more. On average you have around 3 seconds to capture the attention of a website visitor. Don’t waste that time by distracting them with unnecessary clutter. Be focused and concise with your content and give the page ‘room to breathe’ using white space. It will make it easier to read and you are more likely to get your message across during those all-important 3 seconds. 

Use social proof. People like following the crowd. It makes them feel comfortable. So when it comes to making a buying decision, the actions and opinions of others can be a great influencer. Take advantage of this by adding some testimonials to your website or perhaps even some social media widgets. Showing how many Facebook Fans have ‘Liked’ your page, for instance, can be an extremely effective conversion tool.

Make it easy for people to contact you. Visitors shouldn’t have to work hard to find your contact details and get in touch. Make sure you clearly display your telephone number and email address across your whole website. If you have a contact form, don’t ask for any more information than you absolutely need.  Nobody wants to give their life story just to make an enquiry! 

Did you try these tips? Did they work? Maybe you have some conversion tips of your own to share?

Post your comments below.

Do you get plenty of traffic to your website but not so many enquiries? For our next two blog posts, we’ll be giving you some practical tips you can implement now to improve conversions:

Direct traffic to a relevant landing page. We see many businesses directing traffic to their website’s home page in every advert and hyperlink. Research shows that if a visitor can’t find what they’re looking for within 3 clicks then they go elsewhere; so put that content in front of their noses and make sure your landing page is relevant to the source of your traffic. 

Have a call to action. Your website visitors need to be told what to do. You might have the perfect product and you may even have them hooked on the benefits with some persuasive copy; but unless you provide a call to action, many of your potential customers will simply reach a dead end on your website. Add a button or line of text at the end of your copy that gives a clear instruction and you will be more likely to see your visitors take action.

Give people a reason to take action. The simplest type of call to action is an instruction like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Register Here’. A better one, however, gives people an incentive to act on your instructions. Why not offer a free report or a trial period to encourage sign up to a newsletter? Not everyone will become a buyer straight away, but if you can get their email address and their permission to contact them, they may become a customer later on.

Come back on Monday for Part 2 and more great hints and tips.