Adventures in Mobile Marketing

5 Common Newbie Mistakes

A couple of businesses I know have sent me their very first email marketing message, usually a newsletter, and I’ve started to notice some trends and common pitfalls.

1. Not labeling their top header graphic appropriately. I received two the other day that were called “top_banner.jpg” in the alt-text, which showed more dominantly than any other writing in their newsletter, in Yahoo & Gmail. The default for Yahoo & Gmail is to not show images from new senders, so unfortunately all of their recipients saw the same thing:

2. No introduction paragraph saying 1) where you got the email 2) who you are 3) why I’m receiving this. For first-time newsletters, a basic introduction is required, and best to put above the fold, and in the beginning of the email so it shows up in the teaser text of the email’s inbox.

3. Not using an approved-of email sender. Nothing screams amateur hour more than trying to send it from Outlook/Yahoo/Gmail (see: Letters this week).

4. Deciding to send a newsletter, instead of a lifecycle, relationship, or more personalized email. Sure, this is sophisticated, but it’s actually a lot easier to do with small lists than large ones. Send a few emails to new joiners, send a link to a give-away for long-time list members. Clean our your list, add a personal note at the top “Hi Mark- good to see you last week!” or anything. This is what the large corporations are striving for, and for little list owners, this is a huge win. People won’t unsubscribe, and they’ll actually read your newsletter.

5. Finally, not allowing for feedback or follow-up. Nobody likes a one-sided conversation. Leave your twitter name, allow RSS subscriptions, have a reply-to that is *real* (I personally hate fake reply-to’s), and if they do write you, respond politely. Put your newsletters up on your blog with a comment thread! There’s a lot of exciting new social media that can dovetail nicely with your email marketing campaigns- as a small business these can be very easy to setup and manage.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
Written on Tuesday, 23. September 2008 at 12:34 In the category Basics, blogging, campaigns, newsletters, techniques. Follow the comments via RSS here: RSS-Feed. Share on FriendFeed

«  –  »

19 Comments

  1. I’d entitled this article “5 Common Newbie Affiliate Mistakes” or replace “Affiliate” with “E-mail”… I think it’s more suitable and specific.

    What do you say?

    Great read by the way, I commited the first 3 mistakes in my first 2 years online.

    Comment: Codrut Turcanu - (Start a Blog) – 28. September 2008 @ 3:02 pm

  2. [...] Billstrom over at Adventures in Email Marketing has an interesting article on the “5 Common Newbie Mistakes”, based on the first email [...]

    Pingback: Getresponse Email Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » How to Correct the Top 5 Email Marketing Mistakes – 31. October 2008 @ 4:44 am

  3. [...] & Resources:· 5 Common Newbie Mistakes· Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider· 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online | Dodging Spiderwebs – 14. October 2009 @ 7:43 am

  4. [...] & Resources: · 5 Common Newbie Mistakes · Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider · 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online | Dodging Spiderwebs – 14. October 2009 @ 8:20 am

  5. [...] & Resources:· 5 Common Newbie Mistakes· Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider· 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online | Money Daily Blog – 14. October 2009 @ 6:17 pm

  6. [...] & Resources:· 5 Common Newbie Mistakes· Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider· 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: Review 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online Gadget Reviews – 14. October 2009 @ 10:01 pm

  7. [...] to start: Constant Contact, MailChimp, Aweber, and iContact Tips & Resources: · 5 Common Newbie Mistakes · Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider · 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7+1 Free Or Cheap Effective Ways To Promote Your Brand Online « Inc.sights – Branding, Marketing and Communications with Leigh Wong – 15. October 2009 @ 12:07 pm

  8. [...] & Resources: · 5 Common Newbie Mistakes · Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider · 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7 Free Ways to Promote Your Business Online « Caintech.co.uk – 15. October 2009 @ 3:26 pm

  9. Codrut- since my blog title is “email adventures” I don’t feel like I have to repeat it in the blog title. Thanks for the comment, though, always nice to know what people think.

    Comment: banane – 15. October 2009 @ 5:07 pm

  10. [...] & Resources:· 5 Common Newbie Mistakes· Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider· 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: andrewhalfacre.com » Blog Archive » 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online – 17. October 2009 @ 1:50 am

  11. [...] 5 common newbie mistakes(email newsletter) [...]

    Pingback: Making social networking work for your agency – 17. October 2009 @ 2:15 am

  12. Email marketing is my preferred way of selling products coming from the affiliate programs that i have signed up with. it just takes time to get a good mailing list

    Comment: Kaye – 25. October 2009 @ 8:02 am

  13. Hello, I am a new newbie and found this very interesting. I am new but have thought about the power of an opt-in news letter to gain leads but I am still just thinking about it as I really do not know were to start but now at least I know some of the things not to do if I market through e-mail. Do you have any dos or don’ts on list building?

    Comment: esamples – 18. November 2009 @ 12:01 am

  14. Personally, I find it annoying when a marketer doesn’t have a text only version of their email. If the recipient doesn’t have html setting on their email, they just get a page full of code thats impossible to read.

    Comment: Warren Miller – 14. December 2009 @ 8:53 pm

  15. [...] old-fashioned way May 3, 2010 Jesse Light Leave a comment Go to comments In her post on beginner mistakes, Anna Billstrom suggests that owners of small lists might apply advanced tactics “by [...]

    Pingback: Personalization the old-fashioned way « Jesse Light – Email Marketing Optimization – 03. May 2010 @ 8:02 am

  16. [...] & Resources: · 5 Common Newbie Mistakes · Choosing An Email Newsletter Provider · 50 Ways to Get Email Newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online | GVO-TEAM.COM – 22. November 2010 @ 2:53 pm

  17. [...] June 2012 Posted By sberbar    Dans son message le débutant erreurs , Anna Billstrom suggère que les propriétaires de petites listes pourraient appliquer des [...]

    Pingback: Personnalisation de la manière démodée - So emailing – 18. June 2012 @ 2:43 am

  18. Hey there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a
    collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community
    in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on.
    You have done a outstanding job!

    Comment: insurance quote rv – 24. April 2013 @ 6:12 am

  19. [...] 5 common newbie mistakes for an email newsletter [...]

    Pingback: 9 essential links for travel agency owners – 26. August 2013 @ 1:05 am

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Recent Posts

Pages

Recent Comments

Topics

Recent Trackbacks

Meta

Follow Me

  • Add to Google
 

WP-Design: Vlad -- Powered by WordPress -- XHTML 1.0
© 1998 All Rights Reserved banane.com