The top email newsletter fails and how to fix them

Email newsletters keep your customers in the loop about what’s new with your business.

They offer something a little different to the typical sales email, as when done well, newsletters can come across as a more authentic way to nurture your audience.

But so often, marketers approach email newsletters wrong. Then they give up, or even cancel their email platform subscription, because they don’t see good results from their newsletters.

If you can relate, then we’re here to share the top reasons why your email newsletters aren’t performing.

Crucially, we’ll include the steps you need to take to get back on track.

You don’t understand what email newsletters are actually for

Forgive us if this first point sounds a bit basic. However, the reality is that many people aren’t taught how to actually do email marketing. Instead, they just ‘give it a go’ as a business owner, or newbie marketer.

If you’ve ever driven a manual car, you’ll know that not releasing the clutch or changing gears when you should will mean the car doesn’t drive smoothly.

Well, email marketing, including newsletters, is much the same, because you need to understand all of the nuances of email to be able to do it well.

Given email has a $42 ROI for every $1 spent, it’s well worth the effort.

So what’s the deal with email newsletters?

There are different types of emails, including the likes of welcome emails, promotional emails and milestone emails. Each type of email is designed to do different things, meaning treating them as the same doesn’t work.

Instead, the purpose of email newsletters is to:

Share updates about your company, products or services
Build and maintain relationships to establish trust and loyalty
Provide value (i.e. tips, insider knowledge or industry updates)
Drive traffic towards blogs, video and other content
Reinforce brand values

So as you can see, newsletters aren’t for the hard sell. It’s not that you can’t include promotional content, but the overall vibe should be to provide value and build an authentic relationship with your subscribers.

Are you subscribed to any email newsletters to see how they should be done? The EcoSend Weekly is a great place to start!

You haven’t set clear goals

‘I want to make money for my business’

Yes, but how will you achieve it, what part will your newsletter play, and how will you measure your success?

If you haven’t set any objectives for your newsletter, we bet you’re also neglecting your email analytics, too (i.e. EcoSend Insights).

What you need is a clear purpose for your email newsletters. At EcoSend, we use our newsletter to share company updates, as well as the latest sustainability news. Our aim is to inform and entertain in a way that’s different from a straight-up sales email or even a blog.

Email marketers, you should also be using CTAs throughout to help achieve your goals.

Poorly designed templates

There is zero shame in admitting you don’t know how to design an email template. After all, it’s difficult to understand the likes of hex codes, formatting, spacing, typography and all the rest.

If this is you, then that’s okay. But definitely get expert help to ensure your email newsletters look professional as well as on brand. If this means opting for a simple template design, then so be it. That’s because if the colours don’t work well together, or the template feels cluttered, it’s just not going to land you sales.

At EcoSend, we encourage you to opt for lightweight email templates to reduce the carbon footprint of your campaigns.

You might also want to check our Really Good Emails to see how businesses in your industry are presenting their newsletters. No, you shouldn’t just copy someone else’s design. But you should get familiar with the standard being set by your competitors.

Irregular sending habits

Given that email marketing generates $8.5 billion per year, it’s worth learning how to do it right.

Email cadence is right up there.

By cadence, we mean how often you send email newsletters.

Sending too many emails in short succession will overwhelm and annoy your audience. However, leaving too much time between your email campaigns is also a problem.

So you need to create a schedule for your newsletter (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly) and stick to it.

It’s also common for marketers to send one newsletter and then give up. In reality, quality and consistency are what will build you a loyal following.

Not considering your audience’s wants & needs

Question time: Why did users sign up for your emails?

Second question: Do you factor in these reasons when crafting your email newsletters?

You’d be surprised, but so often marketers don’t consider the motivations of their audience when sending email campaigns, including newsletters. Instead, they think about their own needs. When this happens, users won’t find your content relevant, helpful or engaging.

Even though your email newsletter is ultimately about generating leads and sales for your business, if it doesn’t appeal to the audience, they won’t become customers.

So always remember that your email newsletter is nothing without your audience. So how about trying to speak to them?

Adding users to your newsletter list without their consent

Even though buying email lists is illegal, some unscrupulous people out there still use scraper tools to do just that.

Or, some marketers don’t get the proper consent to send email newsletters, like a double opt-in campaign.

Somehow, these people think that sending an email newsletter that the recipient isn’t expecting will encourage users to want to purchase from them.

In reality, users will mark the email as spam, and their domain reputation will be in tatters before you know it.

A lack of effort to grow and nurture your audience

In a previous post, we told you about the major mistake email marketers make with their signup form.

Simply put, you need to make an email form and embed that form in a prominent location on your website. One of the best places to put a form is in your website’s footer, since this means your signup form will appear on every page.

Once your form is embedded, test it regularly to ensure it’s glitch-free.

Outside of your website form, you need to be taking opportunities to grab leads and get them signed up to your list.

By not growing your audience and also not nurturing them with quality campaigns, you won’t experience a decent ROI.

You think poor email campaign performance is down to your email platform

Unbelievably, it’s not uncommon for companies to cancel their email platform subscription because they aren’t seeing results, including from their email newsletters.

Email platforms like EcoSend, Mailchimp and Brevo are there to give you the ability to craft and send amazing email campaigns. But they don’t do the work for you in terms of writing the email, designing the template and sending your newsletter at a good time.

Similar to other channels like SEO or video marketing, it’s a simple fact that if you don’t do the right things, you won’t have any success.

As an email marketer, you really need to own this.

Are You Sending A Test Email First?

True story, before the EcoSend Weekly is sent out each week, a test version is sent to our entire team. Even our CEO’s mum is sent a version.

Why do we do this? Because typos, let alone full-scale glitches, are embarrassing. So we want to do everything we can to hopefully avoid all errors within our newsletter to maintain a consistent level of quality.

A test version is also a chance for us to rate the tone based on how everyone perceives the content from their personal standpoint. If something doesn’t feel right, we scrap it and start again.

We always recommend sending a test email so that you can experience how your newsletter will look to your subscribers.

Test emails are vital for picking up issues like:

Typos
Broken links
Incorrect promo codes
‘F_name’ appearing instead of the actual first name (D’oh!)
Forgetting to swap placeholder text like ‘INSERT TITLE HERE’
Pixelated images
Formatting errors

💡 Good to know: In your EcoSend Broadcasts, we give you an option to ‘test’ your email before you send it. This allows you to choose contacts from a drop-down list, or you can manually type in an email address to receive your test message.

Keep going with your email newsletter, and make it sustainable with EcoSend

Email newsletters remain an excellent way to engage your subscribers by giving them engaging and nurturing content.

Now you know all of the top reasons why newsletters fail, it’s now time to get your campaigns back on track. But that’s not all!

Send your email newsletters via EcoSend, and we’ll lower the carbon footprint of your campaigns.

We have plans for 500 or fewer contacts, right through to 200,000+ contacts. Choose your EcoSend plan today and we’ll give you 7 days free to welcome you aboard.

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