6 e-newsletter mistakes advisors should avoid

Do you send out an e-newsletter? If so, this first half of the MarketingSherpa‘s “Dirty Dozen: Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes,” contain some poignant advice.

1. Lack of permission. Because it can be tough to get people to opt-in, some companies just avoid asking, or just assume people want to hear from them. “Companies still try to get around the permission issues in search for the quick buck. That’s a big mistake,” MarketingSherpa says.
2. Deficient segmentation. MarketingSherpa says that content relevancy for the right group is the number one challenge for the email marketer: “Without segmentation, you have no real relevancy. If [prospects] don’t immediately see something highly relevant and interesting, your email gets deleted.”
3. Lame ‘welcome’ messages. MarketingSherpa laments, “We still receive far too many lame welcome messages. What a wasted marketing opportunity.” It’s important to go a step further and really be creative, to engage right from the beginning.
4. Frequency decisions. Frequency is a tough strategic decision: “Marketers are in a constant battle on the matter of frequency.” Dividing recipients into groups where each receives less or more frequent messages is a good way to test out what the best timing strategy is.
5. Messaging. MarketingSherpa says, “All too often, email newsletters come off written as though they are coming from a large institution writing to an individual.” There needs to be personalization on both ends.
6. Lack of real interactivity. Interactivity is not just for social media; email can still be a relationship-building medium. The important thing to remember is that just “sending out blasts with links to get more stuff at your site is not building a relationship,” according to MarketingSherpa.

Next week we’ll share the second half of MarketingSherpa’s “dirty dozen.” Check out the full article for more details.