Top Email Marketing Fails
By Aniel Bhaga | aniel.bhaga@ungapped.com
In the world of email marketing the mistakes and bloopers happen all the time. Emails campaigns being sent out without copy checking, missing links, merge tags not working and whole other range of great blunders. It’s frustrating to both the email marketer and customers however it is a sobering memory that we are all human and sometimes do make mistakes. These mistakes are a great way to learn what not to do, plus have a little laugh along the way.
With that said I bring you some of the top email marketing bloopers from around the planet. From large organisations such as Amazon to a whole range of companies and businesses. The most important learning from all these bloopers and fails is to always test your email campaigns and content. To actually to send a test message to a few email address so you can see what it looks like in as many mail platforms as your audience has and make sure that everything looks and works as it should.
So here they are, the top bloopers and fails in email marketing, enjoy them, have a laugh, but most of all try not to repeat them.
1. There is nothing more personal than receiving an email that says “Dear </FirstName>,”
“I got an email from the Digital Marketing Institute (yes) starting with “Dear {FirstName}”. Nothing is more touching than an email that says ‘Dear {FIRST NAME},”
Or when you don’t even understand what is happening in your email and it looks like this:
2. When segmenting your audience can go horribly wrong…
“From a person who works with a large 1M+ mailing list. 😅 And there were bloopers even with triple checking. Like adding one extra 0 in the offer or messing up segments which ended up with some people receiving an empty email (only logo and footer).”
When Amazon sent out a baby registry email to people with no babies on the way…
3. How will people click if they don’t have any links…
Ok so I have to admit this is one which I have done. Created a fantastic email with great cta’s and forgot to hyperlink everything. Sent it out to 10,000+ people and realised it an hour later (and also after emails started coming in) that the links where not working. #massivefail
Or when the links are broken…
“Just what you want to see after you click on an activation link in an email.”
4. Sometimes spell check can help, sometimes it just doesn’t…
“Just sent someone ‘War Regards’.. bet this was a first for them .. haha !“
“I sent an email starting with “Dead Simon” I meant “Dear Simon” haha he was not so impressed 😂”
|Or when things just don’t make sense no matter how you put it…
Sometimes all you need is a comma to make things make sense..
5. <insert click bait title here> is definitely the most catchy subject line for any email
“Thanks for the ‘clickbait’ email
@Topman and yes ‘we do read it’”
Some words are just meant to be removed from subject lines…
6. Email list transparency at its finest.
If you are using an email platform such as the one below that shows your list name when a customer Unsubscribes from you then it might be a good idea to pick a “nicer” name for your email list.
7. Your email doesn’t always send the way you want..
Sometimes sections of your email just want to rebel…
Or just disappear in entirely…
There are many more email marketing fails happening each month, some make it to Twitter and some don’t. The best thing is to avoid this bloopers as much as you can by having a good testing process before you send out your email campaign. If you have made any bloopers or know of any other fails which could make it to this list let us know. Until then keep on rocking it with your email marketing.
