10 Biggest Email Marketing Turnoffs for New Customers

1. Broken Links or Formatting Issues

First impressions are key, and if your new customer email has a formatting error or broken link you can likely say goodbye to their business. Quadruple check your email template to be certain information like names and phone numbers pull correctly and all images and hyperlinks direct to the correct location. – Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutors

2. Too Many Messages

If you have multiple departments all sending messaging to the same list, it’s critical to make sure you aren’t inundating anyone (especially new signups) with too many messages. No one likes to be spammed, and the quickest way to encourage a customer to hit the “unsubscribe” button is by over-communicating. Instead, send fewer, more focused curated emails that add value to your customers. – Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

3. Pure Text

I’ve signed up for email newsletters from companies whose content I really admire, only to get a wall of text in their email newsletters. Even if content is king, design is needed to help the readers (especially those who are new to your message) digest all the information easily. Make sure you lead the eye with titles, sizing, adequate spacing, color (don’t overdo it), and images. – Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

4. Lack of Valuable Content

The worst thing to send new subscribers is self-promotion. Think about what articles, videos, or walk-through your audience would actually find valuable. Get them on your good side before promoting your products directly. –John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation

5. Asking Them to Buy Too Soon

In sales, there are suspects (people who may eventually want to buy from you) and prospects (people who could actually purchase from you today.) Email subscribers need to be treated like suspects. It’s the equivalent of saying hello at a networking meeting. Don’t pitch to them until you have shown them what it’s like to work with you and how your services are the best solution for them. – Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

6. Overdoing It

Your business might be your lifeblood, but for many customers it’s barely an afterthought. That’s why I try to keep emails to a bare minimum, and only send them if there’s a direct benefit to the customer. Otherwise, you’re doing more harm than good by cluttering their inbox and wasting their time. – Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

7. Irrelevance

Cross-selling and upselling are important revenue generators, but off-topic, poorly targeted, and repetitive emails make me wish I’d never done business with the company in the first place. Email marketing automation is a powerful tool, but if a company sends me irrelevant messages, it, and future emails, will go straight in my spam folder. Keep it relevant, contextual, and personal. – Vik Patel, Future Hosting

8. Unfocused Efforts

Campaigns with a lack of focus are the most egregious mistake you can make when marketing to new customers. It’s important you set goals, define the purpose of the campaign, and target your customers’ needs and wants using methods which will both keep them engaged and illicit a response. – Blair Thomas, First American Merchant

9. Lack of Personalization

When a client speaks with one of our account managers about hiring a private investigator, they have usually shared personal information about their case. It is critical during any follow up to ensure the client we truly listened to their need. Personalizing emails to their specific information furthers our brand of giving them peace of mind when they need it most. – Jennifer Mellon, Trustify

10. No Unsubscribe Link

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