For even the craftiest marketers and largest enterprises, email marketing done right is tricky.

When emailing, companies tend to make the mistake of neglecting the person who will receive the email, either asking for too much without having a history of trust with the recipient, or focusing too much on their company itself.

Outreach done wrong can have some devastating effects, primarily losing out on the ability to build trust and a relationship with your audience. Frankly, email outreach is too significant to your company’s marketing and growth to be ignored simply because you didn’t learn how to optimize them to perform at their best.

Reason #1: Your Emails Aren’t Responsive to Mobile

Now that almost everyone has a smartphone, people receiving your emails probably aren’t opening them at their desk. It’s a safe bet that a significant portion of them are reading and interacting with them on the mobile or tablet device.

It doesn’t look good (and doesn’t bode well for having your email read) if it’s not responsive to mobile devices. That’s why you should choose mobile friendly templates and test to ensure your message comes across well on even the smallest of screens.

Reason #2: Your Emails Aren’t Personal Enough

You’ve probably seen these emails before. The opening line, or your introduction to the company, is really them asking you to do what they want.

You wouldn’t ask a stranger to marry you the first time you met. You would probably ask for a date and a chance to get to know them a little better (and marriage might come up later on, assuming all goes well). So why would you ask a stranger or a prospect to buy from you in the opening line?

Instead, make sure your recipient knows who you are if you’re asking them to buy from you. If they don’t, maybe consider sending them an email that only introduces yourself, or you could send one that addresses a certain pain point and how you might be able to solve it for them.

Reason #3: Your Emails Are Too Long

Before sending, make sure your email respects the time of the person you are sending it to, primarily focusing on how you can help them and showing that you’ve done your research beforehand.

Picture this: You have a great idea for an email to send out. You or your team start to compose the first draft. And before you know it, you have five lengthy paragraphs with no end in sight. Does that sound familiar?

If the body of your email is over three paragraphs, you’ve gone too far. You’ll want to go back to your outline and focus on hitting the main points as succinctly as possible.

Reason #4: Your Emails Are All About You

Not everyone feels the same way about your brand as you do. In fact, you probably care about it more than anybody else.

So instead of composing an email and assuming that your prospect will feel just as great about your company as you do, change up your message.

Instead, ask yourself the question, “What is in this for them?” when drafting your copy. Does the prospect know your brand and have you built up trust with them? Let those answers guide your copy.

Reason #5: Your Emails Bury the Lead

Are you hiding the most important part of your message at the bottom of your email copy? This is a frequent mistake when emailing that can cause prospects to skip right over you in their inbox.

You want readers to know what it is you’re asking from them and why it should matter to them:

  • Make sure your subject line captures attention while clearly stating the message.
  • Consider using a header that quickly clues the reader in on what to expect.
  • Use bullets, lists, and boldfaced font to make your copy scannable and easy to digest.

Before you launch your next campaign, closely examine past messages sent and they performed. If you don’t like your performance, it’s not too late to start building an email marketing strategy focused on trust and engagement over off-the-bat promotion.