Open your email inbox any day of the working week, and you will likely be faced with a plethora of emails that you do not recall subscribing to. Depending on your mood, these emails might be instantly deleted, marked as ‘junk’, or replied to with a sarcastic remark.

To save your inbound email marketing messages from suffering the same fate, make sure you do not commit these 10 common mistakes.

Sending Emails to the Wrong Recipients

Blasting a single email message to your entire list can be ineffective.  You will have far superior results if you segment and target your list properly. Email marketing is not about sending out huge quantities of emails, and hoping some recipients will bite. It is more about sending quality, targeted messages to the relevant people.

Failing to Personalize

Your marketing emails are much more likely to be read if they appear to be coming from a human being, rather than a robot. Personalize your communications by referring to the recipient by their name, so that you are speaking to them directly. If you know the name of their business, you could also include that to customize the message further.

Unattractive Designs

Poorly designed layouts, unattractive color combinations and broken images can lead an email straight to the trash can. It is worth taking the time to choose an aesthetically pleasing email template, as well as a plain-text version, that accommodates various browsers, devices and operating systems.

Failing to Grab Attention

If writing your marketing email makes you feel bored, it is likely that the recipient will feel the same. Keep your audience interested with a relevant, attention-grabbing image, and write engaging copy that speaks directly to them.

Having No Goal

Every email marketing campaign should have a goal; something that you can define success by. Before you start designing your email, decide on what you are trying to achieve, and take a note of the expected outcome. That way, you can compare the results of the campaign to your expectations, and identify what works and what doesn’t.

Including Errors

Grammatical faux pas, misspellings and broken links have no place in marketing communications. When you are next preparing an email campaign, have at least two people look over it to identify any such errors. It can be hard to spot these mistakes when you have built the email content from the ground up.

Being Too Long-Winded

People have busy schedules and limited attention spans. Keep your audience’s attention long enough to get your message across by keeping it under 200 words. Be concise. Get to the point quickly. Use an image to support the message, and close with a prominent CTA.

Having a Poor Subject Line

Your email subject line is the first thing your recipients will see, so it is of utmost importance that you get this right. Your subject line should grab the reader’s attention, create a sense of urgency, and give them a clear reason to open the email. Avoid using all caps and excessive exclamation marks; both can instantly kill your credibility.

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Avoiding these common mistakes can work wonders in keeping your emails out of the trash can. The easier you make it to read, open, and respond to your emails, the more your audience will engage with your business.

A study in 2014 found that email marketing was responsible for more than a quarter of all ecommerce sales on Black Friday across all industries. That makes email marketing the most effective marketing channel used.

That statistic was taken a couple of years ago, and email marketing has not showed any signs of slowing since. 90 percent of all consumers access email once per day, and most people use it far more than that.

Take all this along with the fact that email marketing provides the highest return on investment of all marketing channels, and you begin to wonder why more ecommerce businesses don’t bother with it.

If you’re not already investing at least some of your time into email marketing, here’s why you should.

Email drives sales

If you are not actively building your email list, your sales will suffer. By not emailing your target market, you rely on them randomly visiting your website to check for new products. And for many businesses, the chances of your audience visiting your site on their own accord are minimal, and those who do don’t return frequently enough.

Emailing your audience allows you to put whatever message you want in front of your audience, whenever you want.

Email helps reduce cart abandonment

You’ll be perfectly familiar with cart abandonment if you run an online shop.

‘Cart abandonment’ refers to when a browsing shopper places items in their cart, and then leaves the site without completing the purchase.

Lots of sales have been lost to cart abandonment in the past, but advanced email marketing has made it possible for us to do something about it.

If you have your customers’ emails, you can chase up on missed opportunities when carts get abandoned. A quick message reminding them that their items are still in the cart might just be enough to create a conversion.

By taking customers’ email addresses when they sign up for an account, you can both build your email list and reduce cart abandonment at the same time.

Emails helps provide insightful research

When done properly, email marketing allows you to learn important information about your customers, allowing you to target them more effectively in the future.

Now, you can not only find out what your customers want to order from you, but also more specific details such as color and size.

In the past, obtaining this information would be a costly process, likely consisting of surveys and focus groups. Now, you can get your customers’ opinions by email.

If you want to learn more about your customers’ tastes, try sending an email asking them to ‘vote’ on the item and size they prefer, allowing you to provide them with relevant notifications later.

Email continues to provide the most effective method of marketing. Not only that, research has shown that it’s one of the least difficult to execute. However, as with any channel of communication, email marketing does not come without its share of obstacles.

It is a relief to know that there is always a solution to the problems posed by email marketing. We take a look at some of the most restrictive challenges facing email marketers, and provide solutions for each of them.

1.  Building Your List

A recent study from Campaigner revealed that earning new subscribers is the biggest challenge experienced by email marketers in 2015. The report was based on a survey completed by 506 email marketers, many of whom claimed finding new subscribers to be their main challenge.

SOLUTION

The best way of overcoming the problem of earning new subscribers is to ensure the benefits of subscription are clearly obvious to potential subscribers. Having a clear value proposition will serve to answer those key concerns people have before opting in. You might be providing exclusive offers and discounts that cannot be found elsewhere, or providing links to premium web content: Either way, make sure the benefit to the recipient is immediately obvious.

2.  Increasing Open Rates

Another common problem experienced by email marketers is increasing open rates. In the Campaigner report, 26.3 percent of respondents thought of increasing open rates as the single biggest challenge, with 20.3 percent citing it as their second biggest issue.

SOLUTION

It all comes down to writing catchy, engaging subject lines. The subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see, and their decision to open the email is based on this alone. When crafting a subject line, you should keep it short and concise, immediately grabbing the recipient’s attention.

A well-crafted subject line should make subscribers intrigued enough to click through to the rest of the email.

Research from Sidekick found that emails with personalized subject lines had a 20 percent higher open rate than those with non-personalized subject lines. The same study found subject lines with fewer than 30 characters performed better than longer ones. The key is to write short, catchy subject lines that speak directly to the recipient.

3.  Improving Deliverability

Your email’s content and subject line will not make the slightest bit of difference if your emails are headed straight for the junk folder. Sidestepping the spam box is another major challenge facing email marketers, and increasingly intuitive junk mail filters only exacerbate this issue.

When your deliverability rate falls below a certain percentage, some internet service providers will send your email to the spam folder. This is a waste of time, money and effort.

SOLUTION

Avoid using spam words in your subject lines to prevent your emails from getting filtered as junk. The words classed as spam vary between industry, but some common examples include: cheap, free, buy, cash, subscribe, click, cost, and prize. Integrate any of these words into your subject line and you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot.

There are a number of measures you can take to improve the deliverability rate. You can monitor the contacts that have been inactive for a long time, and the ones that never open your emails, and delete them from your list. You can also avoid adding non-existent emails to your list by asking subscribers to confirm their opt-in via an email link.

4.  Retaining Subscribers

Growing your email list is wasted effort if you are losing subscribers at the same rate. Retaining email subscribers ranks within the top five challenges experienced by email marketers. If you have a large group of active subscribers, do whatever you can to keep them.

SOLUTION

The best method of retaining your subscribers is to send out the right emails to the right audience. This means segmenting your list into groups, and speaking directly to each type of buyer. A study from Lyris found that segmenting email lists results in a reduced unsubscribe rate for 28 percent and higher customer retention for 21 percent of marketers.

5.  Low Click-Through Rates

Another challenge ranking highly among email marketers is improving click-through rates. Your subscribers might be opening your emails, but if they’re not reading the content and clicking links through to your website, you don’t have much chance of converting them into paying customers.

SOLUTION

Email list segmentation is the key here, too. However, low click-through rates may be a result of disinterested subscribers. You can fix this issue by running a re-engagement campaign every year. Send out an email to all your subscribers asking if they want to keep receiving your emails, and include a clear opt-out option.

Low click-through rates in emails can also be the result of sending out emails too frequently. A study conducted by The Relevancy Group and LiveClicker found that too high a frequency of emails was the primary reasons that consumers disliked receiving marketing emails on their smartphones. You should allow subscribers to customize the frequency of emails based on their preferences.

The cannabis industry continues to grow as more states legalize the medical and recreational use of the drug. With numerous states likely to legalize in the upcoming November election, further industry growth is inevitable.

With increased demand within the market comes increased supply, and the marketplace is become more and more competitive by the day. If you’re looking to get a foot up on the competition, here are five reasons why you should hire a dedicated cannabis marketing agency in 2016.

Dedicated to the industry

Working with a marketing agency that is dedicated to the marijuana industry provides obvious benefits. The agency you work with knows the industry inside out, and more specifically knows how to speak to your customers.

A cannabis-focussed marketing agency knows exactly what is happening in the industry, in terms of events and new products, and knows how to take your brand to the next level.

Like your business, cannabis marketing agencies also operate within the marijuana industry, and they care about the overall image and well-being of the industry as a whole. It is therefore likely that your marketing partner will paint your business in the best possible light.

Experts in marijuana marketing laws and regulations

The cannabis industry may be intimidating as a result of its semi-legit nature throughout different parts of the country, but you can be sure that cannabis-dedicated marijuana agencies are fluent in the latest laws and regulations of advertising, marketing and packaging.

It is essential that you work with a marketing agency that remains fully informed of the ever-changing laws and regulations, particularly when it comes to edible product packaging.

Streamline your marketing operations

Instead of hiring in-house marketing staff that you have to oversee and manage, you can employ a marketing agency to deal with one single member of your team. This helps to minimize wasted time, allowing you to perform your marketing activities in a swift and streamlined manner.

By working with a dedicated marketing agency, you can enjoy much faster turnaround times than you would experience with an in-house staff member.

Industry connections

You’ve heard it before: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This rings just as true in the cannabis industry.

A marketing agency dedicated to the marijuana market may have links to journalists who may wish to cover your cannabis brand. Getting your name out to the right people can make or break a brand, so this resource is invaluable in the growth of a cannabusiness.

Access to a full suite of talent and resources

By working with a dedicated cannabis marketing agency, you have access to a massive wealth of skills and experience, including email marketing, market research, strategy, outreach, design, SEO, social media, content marketing and more. Instead of shopping around for different services and managing numerous contacts, you can enjoy the convenience of a one-stop shop that will take care of all your marketing needs.

Green Scene Marketing is a full-service marketing agency dedicated to the cannabis space. For more information about Green Scene Marketing and its services, visit www.greenscenemarketing.com.

We recently discussed how to avoid the most common blunders in email marketing. This week, we’ll discuss now to boost your revenues through the use of cart abandonment messages to your customers.

Why Send Cart Abandonment Messages?

Online shoppers abandon their shopping cards for a number of reasons. Maybe they get distracted by another website, maybe the site times out, or maybe they just get distracted by a video on YouTube. Either way, there are a number of steps you can take to make sure they don’t forget about those products they were thinking about purchasing.

Send a follow-up email.

When a potential customer last abandoned her basket and navigated away from your site, a follow-up email makes sure they remember the products they were looking at. It’s important to make it easy for them to jump straight back into the buying process.

Timing is particularly important here. You don’t want to send a reminder too early and risk annoying the prospect. You also don’t want to leave it too long that they have forgotten all about your products. It’s all about finding the perfect medium. Industry experts have recommended sending a follow-up email within 24 hours of their visit to your site, but a/b testing on your own campaigns will help you to identify what works best for you.

Remind shoppers about the products they’ve abandoned.

It may seem obvious, but when you send the aforementioned follow-up email, be sure to make clear the intention of the message and refer to the actual products left in the cart. Including an image, price and description of each product helps to jog their memory.

Give customers a reason to come back.

Reminder emails can sometimes get ignored by customers. If you fail to provoke a response with your follow-up message, it is possible to reengage their interest by suggesting other similar products. Another effective strategy is to provide them with a coupon that can be used with the purchase.

It’s something we’ve all fallen victim to. Regardless of your level of experience in email marketing, mistakes do happen.

After constructed a carefully crafted, persuasive message for your audience, one that you know will have a compelling effect, you hit send and wait for your good work to start paying off.

It is at that moment that you cast your eyes over your email for a final, post-sending scan, and you see a glaring error jump right out at you. A mistake you failed to see the first 100 times you proofed the article has finally become apparent… a little too late.

The inevitable panic ensues.

The only way to prevent such situations from occurring is to be aware of how things can go wrong, and to identify blunders before hitting the send button. So, here are some of the most common ways that emails can go very, very wrong.

Inaccurate Personalization

We are now in an age when email messages must be personalized to be read. Inboxes are filling up increasingly fast, meaning that recipients must filter them more rigorously than before. Prior to sending out your email, it is essential to ensure that the personalization is accurate. Check you have the recipients’ correct name, location and language ahead of time.

Irrelevant Information

As with any sales message, make sure your focus is on exactly what your audience want to read. Have you received an email before and wondered, “Does this company actually have any idea who I am?” Ensuring the relevance of your email content comes down to effective segmentation. Group your list into recipients sharing certain traits, and make sure your emails are only received by those who will actually be interested in reading them.

Ineffective Proofreading

This is the most obvious on the list, but it must be reiterated nonetheless. You would be surprised by the number of emails we receive with minor (and sometimes major) proofreading mistakes. Some of the most common examples of this include incorrect images, broken links, and both spelling and grammar mistakes. If you feel like you’re likely to miss these errors upon proofing, get a second or third pair of eyes to look over it before hitting send.

Sending Emails Too Regularly

Another mistake we still see all the time is businesses sending out too many emails. As we mentioned before, email inboxes are filling up faster than ever, and your excessive emails are only going to add to the clutter. Sending out messages too frequently can easily lead to unsubscribes, or being marked as ‘spam’, completely defeating the objective of grabbing your subscribers’ attention.

Avoiding Blunders

The best way of avoiding such devastating mistakes is to be proactive.

There are two key ways of being proactive when it comes to email marketing. The first is to compile a checklist of everything you need to verify prior to hitting send. Simply ticking off a list can help you to identify issues that you might have otherwise missed. Here’s an example of an email marketing checklist:

The second way you can be proactive is to create an action plan for implementing if and when things do go wrong. This plan outlines predetermined actions to take in a given situation, allowing your team to respond quickly and effectively. Getting these things in place will free up valuable time when panic mode sets in. In creating your plan, you should:

1. Identify those who can help to resolve blunders
2. Develop a notification plan, ensuring the relevant people are quickly notified of an error
3. Make plans for various different scenarios

Holiday promotions are now behind us, and many are now implementing their email marketing strategies for the year ahead. To be successful in this increasingly competitive space, you must identify the trends as they happen, and plan creative email campaigns to capture the attention of your audience.

Look towards the innovators for a sign of things to come. Email marketing is heading in a number of fairly predictable directions, and identifying these early helps you to stay ahead of the game.

The word cloud from a survey by Econsultancy identifies some of the trends we’re seeing. The information was pulled from Econsultancy’s marketing audience, answering “Looking ahead five years, what do you think the single biggest change to email marketing will be?”

There’s a lot of stuff to discuss there. We’ll stick to the highlights, though, and focus on how you can take action on the upcoming changes.

1. “Batch and blast” email marketing will become less effective

“Batch and blast” refers to sending an identical email to every subscriber on your list. The most intelligent email marketers ditched this technique years ago, but for many in-house marketing departments, it’s still how things are done. In the year ahead, more small-time email marketers will try their hand at segmentation. Email service providers make segmentation easier by the day, and there’s no doubt of its effectiveness.

Numerous studies have been carried out signalling that segmentation and/or personalization would be top marketing objectives for 2016. Econsultancy and Adestra’s Email Marketing Industry Census report shows that 78 percent of respondents expect all email communications to be personalized within five years.

Segmentation is great for subscribers, too. With volumes of emails received continually increasing, subscribers must be pickier about what they read. With inboxes filling up faster and faster, the culling process must step up.

2. Email inboxes will fill up faster and faster

You’ll have noticed that the volume of emails you receive will have steadily increased ever since you first got an email address. And there’s little doubt that this trend will only continue. The Radicati Group’s Email Statistics Report, 2014 – 2018 states that you’re going to receive 7% more email in 2016 than in 2015.

This presents a serious issue for subscribers, which consequently means a serious issue for us, the email marketers. Subscribers now have to do more than ever to control their inboxes, including more ruthless culling.

Here’s how to make sure you content gets read.

• Marketers must continue to be creative and original to maintain high open and click-through rates. Segmentation certainly helps, but it’s also essential to deliver quality content worthy of your subscribers’ time.
• Simply avoiding unsubscribes is inadequate. Email clients are becoming more and more sophisticated by the day. You need to ensure your subscribers engage with your email; otherwise, it could easily end up being filtered to junk.

3. Mobile will continue to grow

Already, over half of all emails are opened from a mobile device, and that proportion will only increase.

This trend has several implications for marketers:

• Use a “responsive” or “mobile-friendly” design to ensure optimal display regardless of device.
• Test your emails on numerous device prior to sending.
• Shorter emails tend to perform better
• Emails with small file sizes tend to perform better.
• Simple, minimalistic designs have better success rates.

4. Emails will have moving elements

Videos, gifs and other dynamic objects will be used more frequently in emails. When used effectively, these moving objects grab subscribers’ attention and encourage them to click through.

A good example of this is a countdown timer. The image below is an example provided by an email design company Email Monks. When the email is opened, the clock actively counts down in front of the reader.

Some marketers make frequent use of such techniques, and have shown that they can increase email click-through rates by well over 100%

One thing to remember; ensure the animated object is tied to your call to action, and consistent with the overall objective of the message.

5. Social media and email will become more interlinked

Both email and social media have their place in today’s marketing landscape, and they work together well to maximize your reach. Social media is ideal for helping to build your email list, while your emails can be enriched with live social media content.

Embedding social feeds in emails is one of the more advanced techniques used, and we expect this to become more widespread as the year progresses. The emails below show live Facebook content being embedded within an email. The content of the email updates automatically with new posts from the Facebook page.

6. A new app will claim it will kill email

Every year for the past decade, without exception, a new app has claim to be the end of email. Facebook’s messenger service is one example.

Emails simply won’t die, though. We all still use it daily, and will continue to do so. Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield described email as “the cockroach of the internet.”

It’s highly doubtful that anything new in 2016 will ‘displace’ email. It’s not going anywhere. As long as ROI remains high, it will continue to be a popular method of marketing. The chart below really puts things in perspective.

What are your thoughts about the outlook of email marketing in 2016? Do you think marketing via email will become more difficult? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.