5 reasons your email marketing isn't performing

4 billion people use email every single day. A number that’s expected to rise even further to 4.6 billion by 2025.

So, it perhaps comes as no surprise that email marketing is one of the most popular tactics used by marketers today.

In fact,  email marketing revenue is estimated to reach almost $11 billion by the end of 2023.

With this in mind, you’d assume that email marketing is a no-brainer when it comes to performance.

Not necessarily.

For some brands and businesses, despite their best efforts, their email marketing simply isn’t working for them.

If this sounds familiar, read on to learn 5 reasons why your email marketing isn’t performing.

1. Bad data
2. Lack of targeting
3. Poor design
4. Not educational
5. Ignoring analytics
6. Next steps

1.   Bad data

We don’t want to sound dramatic. But data is pretty much the be-all and end-all of email marketing.

Without the experience or capacity to manage data adequately, falling into the trap of poor quality data can be easy.

Gathering data from an unreliable source, utilising old or out-of-date data, or simply not keeping your data well-organised affects practically every element of email marketing. From getting in the inbox through to offering advanced personalisation.

Data management isn’t always a simple job, but it is worthwhile. Here are some steps to get you started:

• Collect data organically as opposed to purchasing lists
• Gain permission and ensure your data collection meets GDPR requirements
• Gather the right data instead of wasting time on information that isn’t relevant to your campaigns
• Keep your lists tidy through regular data cleansing
• Focus on quality data instead of quantity of data

2.   Lack of targeting

A few years ago, we may have been referring to personalisation as advanced email marketing.

In fact, in 2019 research showed that “better personalisation” was the top improvement for email marketers. Which is not surprising, as email segmentation is cited by 78% of marketers as their most successful tactic, with personalisation not far behind at 72%.

Fast forward to today, and targeting via segmentation or personalisation is a necessity, not a nice to have. Consumers expect brands to deliver targeted experiences, even getting frustrated when that isn’t achieved.

Data is key to targeted email campaigns, and enables a wide range of targeting options:

• Demographic - age, gender, location, job role, or industry
• Behavioural - pages or products viewed most often, or baskets, forms, and pages abandoned
• Purchase - how frequently they purchase, how much they spend, and what they buy
• Social - what are other similar customers purchasing

3.   Poor design

By email design, we aren’t just referring to an attention-grabbing header, or the use of beautiful photography (although that is also important).

Instead, email design can refer to many elements, such as subject line, call to action, brand colours, hierarchy structure, and even the email copy.

All of the above must work together harmoniously to clearly and concisely communicate the email’s message. Whilst keeping the recipient engaged long enough to make the desired action.

If email design is a mystery to you, then you can check out our blog post to get you started.

4.   Not educational

Once the design of an email has grabbed the recipient’s attention, it also has to engage.

Modern sales and marketing is no longer about brazenly pushing the product or service on offer. It has evolved into the process of helping, supporting, and educating customers in solving a problem that is specific to them.

Part of this process is understanding your target market; their wants, needs, and challenges. And targeting the right content, product, and advice to them.

The previously mentioned segmentation and personalisation can help achieve this, especially if you have multiple personas that you are targeting.

Here are some suggestions:

• Product recommendations based on behavioural and purchase activity
• How-to guides to support the customer in getting the most out of your product
• Industry benchmarking reports, which are especially useful for B2B brands
• Recommended products based on social proof and popular purchases

5.   Ignoring analytics

It’s exciting to make tweaks and changes to email marketing campaigns. But is your hard work actually making a difference?

Paying attention to your email marketing analytics is key to ensuring your changes are having a positive impact on your results. If you fail to delve into this data regularly, then you are likely to waste time, money, and resource on campaigns that simply don’t work.

Therefore, whenever you test, tweak, or send, keep a close eye on your results.

We recommend tracking the following on an ongoing basis:

• Open rates - are your emails being opened?
• Click through rates - are recipients engaging and clicking through to your site?
• Bounce rates - are your emails getting in the inbox?
• Unsubscribe rates - do you need to cleanse your data?
• Heatmaps - what elements of your email are recipients engaging with most?

Next steps

If your email marketing isn’t performing, but the above seems a little daunting, then the experts at Jarrang can help.

We work with leading UK brands from eCommerce to luxury hotels. Creating industry-leading email marketing programmes to fuel growth, drive revenues, and build lasting relationships.

If you’re looking for expert consultancy to ensure your email marketing is getting you results, then we’d love to help.