Mistakes creep in, it’s part of being human. Therefore at some point in your email marketing journey you might send out an email campaign that has an error in it. Whether it be a tiny typo on the fly or a huge blunder that can impact your brand, knowing what to do when these bloopers happen will help you calmly weather the storm.
We’ll look at common mistakes that occur, some real world email marketing bloopers from brands across the world and what you should do when you’ve made a mistake.
Typos are the most common errors that creep into an email campaign. Often when you look at a campaign for a long time you start getting typo blindness. Typo blindness is where your brain automatically fills in the gaps where errors are. When a reader who is unfamiliar with the copy sees the text, their brains don’t know where to automatically fill the gaps. One of the ways in which you can overcome typo blindness is to change up the formatting of your text so that you can trick your brain into seeing the text as something new.
Alternatively, you should also always have a proofreader look at your copy before you send out your campaign. If you don’t have access to a proofreader, have someone else read your campaign copy for you.
74% of marketers say targeted personalisation increases customer engagement rates (eConsultancy). If you’ve decided to include personalisation as part of your email marketing strategy, you need to make peace that your personalisation might not always go right. Personalisation errors occur due to data hygiene in your list. When you have empty form fields, or subscribers themselves have filled out their information incorrectly, personalisation fails are more likely to occur.
It happens that you sometimes add placeholder images into your campaign with the intention to replace them at a later date. Sometimes however you hit send and oops, now you have some random images in your campaign. To avoid this happening, don’t use placeholder images!
You set up all your buttons and forget to add your links or you realize after you’ve sent your email that the link you use doesn’t exist on your website anymore. Missing or broken links sneak into campaigns often. The only defense against this email marketing error is to double and triple check your links in your campaign to ensure everything works as it should.
It happens a lot...even when you send out professional emails. You craft the perfect email and then completely forget to add the attachment you meant to send. When you’re sending out a campaign or lead magnet freebie, adding your promised attachments are crucial to your campaign success.
Sometimes no matter how in the know you are, you could send out an email that will miss the mark. As you get to know your audience better, you will find out what they like and dislike and be able to navigate which topics you should steer clear of and which align with your goals.
Even the big guys get it wrong sometimes- like the ecommerce giant Amazon. Amazon once sent out their email marketing template to their entire base. The template was sent out with no content and the instructions that their marketing team uses when crafting their emails.
Amazon template sent out by mistake
Airbnb received quite a bit of flack for this email marketing campaign. Although their intentions were good, unfortunately Airbnb sent out this email around the time when Hurricane Harvey was busy destroying Houston. When the email was created there was no thought given to the current state of events, which meant under usual circumstances the email would have been well received. Unfortunately this email was badly timed.
Airbnb's untimely email
Adidas sent out an innocuous email congratulating runners for “surviving” the Boston Marathon. Unfortunately due to what happened in 2013 at the Boston Marathon the email was not well received as several people were killed or injured and therefore the email was really inappropriate. If someone at Adidas had read the email before sending it out, this mistake could have been avoided. Adidas received quite a backlash for the email, but realized their mistake and sent out an apology. Most likely this email was sent out as an automated mailer using a previously made template. It’s important to review your templates to ensure that they are still appropriate.
Adidas Boston Marathon email blooper
Shutterfly once sent out an email with baby-related imagery to their base. Unfortunately, the wrong list was used so the email didn’t reach the right audience. The email was meant to be sent to new parents congratulating them on the birth of their kids but was sent to the wrong list. Shutterfly issued an apology, explaining that a blunder had occurred and dealt with their mistake in a sensitive and professional manner.
Shutterfly's email sent to the wrong list
Recently we sent out a newsletter to our clients where all our links were directed to one article instead of a few. We realized our mistake and sent out the correct newsletter with the correct links to fix our mistake.
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