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7 reasons why your email marketing isn't performing

November 17 - 2022

Email Marketing Strategy 5 min read

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Email is one of the most proven channels available to marketers today.

It boasts a return on investment of £35 for every £1 spent. And generates around £29bn in retail sales, annually.

Despite the impressive statistics, for some brands, email marketing simply isn’t generating the results they expect. That’s because email is no longer a one-size-fits-all channel. It requires strategy, monitoring, data, and design to stand out in a competitive inbox and generate truly impressive results.

So if your KPIs are lacking, but you can’t work out why, then read on to learn 7 reasons why your email marking isn’t performing

No clear strategy

When it comes to success, it all starts with a solid email marketing strategy.

Before jumping into sending your campaigns, you need to make sure your email strategy is aligned with business objectives, consisting of the email marketing metrics, goals, and KPIs that go beyond open and click through rates.

An email marketing strategy should begin with what your business wants to achieve at a high level, and then work backwards. This should include the audience you are planning to target, the data you require, what you want to promote, and how you can measure success.

Lack of personalisation

When it comes to personalisation, let’s start with the facts.

12% of online consumers prefer to shop with brands due to their use of personalisation. And 74% of consumers get frustrated when brands send generic, one-size-fits-all communications.

It’s obvious that personalisation plays a key role in email performance. And without it, brands can easily get lost in the competitive inbox as they fail to promote the products, services, and content that recipients actually want to see.

There’s no excuse for lacking personalisation in email. You can begin by using simple segmentation to send out relevant email to groups of recipients based on their similarities, such as age or location. But if you have the data and the technology, then personalisation can take the form of recommended products, up-sell and cross-sell emails, birthday celebrations and abandoned basket reminders.

Failing to welcome

Welcome campaigns boast a range of benefits, they save time, improve brand positioning, capture additional data, and make a great first impression.

And even better, they work, generating 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns

New leads are most engaged within 48 hours of subscribing, so by failing to send a welcome campaign you are failing to communicate with recipients at this pivotal moment. This immediately sets a bad tone for your future relationship, especially as 74% of consumers expect a welcome email as soon as they subscribe.

Focusing on the hard-sell

Gone are the days of the hard-sell.

Today’s consumers are savvier and more demanding than ever. They crave relevancy, information, and relationships in their buying journey. All of which can be achieved with the right email marketing strategy.

Instead of sending out blanket emails promoting your latest product, utilise data and personalisation to provide relevant product information, content, and reviews that subtly nurture your recipients and build rapport. 

As well as product-focused emails, you can get creative by incorporating anniversary celebrations, treating recipients to a discount code, or increasing engagement with competitions.

Forgetting to test

If email isn’t generating results, it can be tempting to try something new or change your email strategy entirely, with little thought as to exactly what isn’t working.

Testing may not be the most exciting element of email marketing, however, it is one of the most important when it comes to generating results.

By testing elements of an email campaign, marketers are at less risk of making decisions in a bubble. Instead, they are armed with reliable, actionable insights on what their audience engage with, and what misses the mark.

If your email isn’t performing, there are lots of elements you can try testing. Subject lines, calls to action, imagery, and timing. To name a few.

Ignoring deliverability

Email deliverability is often perceived as the drier side of email marketing when compared to design, copy, and even data.

However, there is little point in changing elements of your emails or testing new campaigns if they aren’t even being received.

Poor email deliverability doesn’t just mean your emails aren’t getting into the inbox, which is bad enough. Deliverability issues can cause some serious problems for your ongoing email sends, and can escalate quickly.

Needing external help

We get it, it’s hard to ask for help.

But if your best efforts don’t seem to be making a difference, it may be time to speak to the experts.

By working with an external email marketing specialist, you can benefit from their specific knowledge and experience within the channel, saving you the stress and guesswork.

They can often identify issues quickly, and offer relevant suggestions for how you can turn your email marketing around.

If you think it’s time to seek external help, then we’re always happy to chat.

We work with leading UK brands throughout the retail and eCommerce industry. Creating industry-leading email marketing programmes to fuel growth, drive revenues, and build lasting relationships. If you’re looking for an expert consultancy to ensure your email marketing is getting you results, then we’d love to help.

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