Do’s & Don’ts of Email Marketing: Preventing Email Fatigue

Email marketing is one of the most effective and efficient ways to reach your audience and convert viewers into leads. However, it’s crucial that you follow email marketing etiquette to maximize your results. Even with a long list of opted-in subscribers, it’s easy to end up with a bad message they don’t engage with or, even worse - one that gets marked as spam and impacts your deliverability.

It’s no surprise that email is a tried and true approach to marketing, driving revenue, and promoting engagement. Recent statistics show that the number of incoming and outgoing emails worldwide has grown each year exponentially. In 2020, 306.4 billion emails were sent and received per day, an increase from 281.1 billion in 2018. 

We’ve created a guide to email marketing etiquette to ensure you don’t cause email fatigue, a state of disengagement when members are blasted with nonstop messages that never get read. Email fatigue can ultimately lead to an increase in your list's unsubscribe rate and a decrease in engagement.

The Don’ts of Email Marketing

Don’t (Exclusively) Purchase Mailing Lists

One of the worst things any business can do for marketing is entirely relying on purchased mailing lists and cold outreach, instead of optimizing for organic, opted-in subscribers. Cold outreach can work and be a successful part of your digital marketing strategy, but it should not supersede organic, audience-building efforts.  

Individuals who have not opted into your mailing list will immediately recognize that you’ve purchased their information or acquired it without their consent. This can result in spikes in spam flagging, hurting your email domain’s reputation. It can also result in disgruntled recipients, depending on how aggressively you’re marketing to these cold prospects. 

In lieu of purchased lists, your company should allocate the time and resources toward creating a robust lead magnet and acquiring your audience the right way. 

Go one step further by creating segments of your mailing list to target distinct groups appropriately. Based on click-through rates, varying promotions, and different campaigns, you can ensure the right group of people is receiving the best email at the most suitable time. 

Don’t Overwhelm

Marketing emails usually tread a fine line between being efficient and valuable, vs. being excessive and annoying. Ensuring you don’t overwhelm your prospective clients with company emails is essential and can be done with the following tips: 

• Length — Get to the point. Your subject line should be between 35-55 characters long to catch and retain your reader’s attention. Likewise, the body of your marketing email should be concise with an obvious message. Avoid fluff, large chunks of text, and hard-to-follow statements.  

• Frequency — Refrain from blasting your mailing list with incessant emails, as you may end up putting yourself in the spam folder. Instead, create a follow-up schedule based on the type of email, engagement triggers, the time zone of the recipient, and other factors. 
• Timing — Ensure your emails are being received at a proper time — no one wants to hear about sales or new initiatives at 10:30 PM on a Wednesday. What may work best is to send out test emails during various times and days to see how your audience responds, being sensitive to their respective time zones.

Don't Forget to Edit

Nothing says unprofessional and rushed like a marketing email full of typos, grammatical errors, broken links, blank images, or outdated information. Instead, have multiple sets of eyes look through your draft before hitting send. Double-check details not in the body as well, including the subject line, preview text, sender’s name and email address, and signature. 

In addition to errors, double-check that your email does not include any keywords often considered spammy or misleading such as “get rich,” “once in a lifetime,” or “congratulations.” You may catch your reader's attention for a moment, but you’ll soon end up in the junk folder if they feel misled. 

• Side Tip: avoid using back-to-back exclamation points. It gives an email ‘pushy salesman’ or scam-like impression. 

Having others edit email content will catch any mistakes that someone may have looked right past. In addition, it’ll save your business the awkward “disregard the last email” follow-up that usually comes after a major mistake has been detected—an unfortunately common trend in recent years. 

The Do’s of Email Marketing

Do Personalize 

Personalizing your content as much as possible is a great way to retain engagement and make your clients feel valued. Write as if you’re speaking directly to an individual rather than your entire mailing list. Use their name or words like “you” rather than “you guys” or “everyone.” 

Go one step further by creating subsections of your mailing list to target distinct groups appropriately. Based on click-through rates, their buying cycle, varying promotions, and different campaigns, you can ensure the right group of people is receiving the most personalized content at a suitable time. 

Do Use Technology

The market is loaded with technology to help prevent email fatigue and ensure you’re maximizing your marketing potential. It’s just a matter of utilizing these resources; some are even free of cost!

These resources include: 

• Editing Software — Run your drafted content through an editing software program to ensure your email is free of spelling, grammatical errors, or spam keywords. Grammarly is a great tool to consider here.
• Reporting Tools — Utilize reporting tools to improve future targeted campaigns and overall engagement. For example, email analytics should provide you with up-to-date customer data on how your audience interacts with marketing emails. 
• Mobile Optimization — Most of the world is opening, reading, and responding to emails via mobile devices. Ensuring content is optimized for smartphones is essential to meet the demands of your entire audience. 
• Data Intelligence Platform — Apollo.io is a leading B2B engagement platform that helps manage sales teams, data, and tools to increase customer engagement. It automates the outreach process to turn prospects into clients. EXEC Members receive discounted annual plans. 

Do Determine Your Goals

Determine the overall goals of your email marketing campaign and structure them accordingly. 

• Are you looking for a response? 
• Are you anticipating engagement with a link or product? 
• Is it purely informational? 

Always ensure that your call-to-action is clear and that instructions are easily found and understood within the email. 

Conclusion

Overall, email marketing is a proven communication and sales method that can drive results when done correctly. It can distribute any amount of information to a large audience with just the click of a button. Ensure your messages are personal and straightforward and watch as your leads turn into lifetime customers.