Not impressed with the performance of your email marketing efforts?

Among all marketing channels, email has the highest potential to deliver growth, revenue, and ROI. So if your emails aren’t converting, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to increase your lead pool and your sales.

In most cases, the problem with emails that don’t convert can be traced to your own email strategy — and not your audience. To turn your emails around, you’ll need to take a careful look at what you’re doing in order to take steps to resolve the issues. 

With that in mind, here are some of the most common reasons why emails fail, plus actionable advice for nipping them in the bud.

Reason #1: You’re Not Looking at the Data

Emails, like all marketing endeavors, need to be informed by data. Email marketing and automation platforms offer a ton of analytical resources and reporting that can assist you in tracking and testing how your emails are performing. And if you’re not digging into all of it, you’re likely unaware of key insights about where your strategy is falling flat.

If you’re not already, start making A/B testing and data analytics part of your regular email marketing process. This is the only way you’ll be able to see what works versus what doesn’t — both of which can inform future decisions for more productive output.

Reason #2: Your Copy is Boring

We hate to be the ones to tell you this, but there’s a chance that the reason your emails aren’t converting is because they’re just not all that interesting to your audience.

People get a ton of emails every day. So, to handle their busy inbox, they prioritize what they engage with and what they don’t, which usually means that the emails that get opened and read are more interesting in their copy techniques.

You only have a short amount of time to capture your audience, so make sure your content and your copy are ready to dazzle. Mix it up, too, including not just text blocks but images, videos, and other eye-catching graphics.

Reason #3: Your Emails Are Ugly

Another tough truth: if the design of your emails is dated, unable to load correctly, or just plain lacking in excitement, it will definitely affect whether or not people want to open and engage with your messages, let alone convert to leads.

If your emails aren’t converting, perhaps it’s time for a redesign. Give your template a makeover, using brand emails you admire as inspiration. A new look could be just what you need to grab more attention.

Reason #4: Your CTA Isn’t Clear

Conversions don’t usually happen by accident. If you do not include a clear, powerful and obvious call-to-action, you shouldn’t be surprised that your desired action isn’t taking place. 

You need to ensure there’s no confusion over what you want your leads to do when they receive your emails, both in terms of text and format. 

You should make absolutely crystal clear what action you want your readers to take, whether it’s to read a new blog post, sign up for a webinar or a course or to purchase something. Otherwise, you’re wasting any attention that you get by not turning it into action.

Reason #5: Your Offer Isn’t All That Great

Successful commercial emails all have one thing in common: they offer value to their recipients.

Not everyone gets excited about the things that you get excited about, nor are they keen to waste time on emails that lack a payoff. And if you aren’t offering your recipients something truly substantial, they won’t have much of an incentive to open your emails.

Give your readers something worth their while, such as a coupon, free asset, or first dibs at a new product. You’ll get more conversions at the outset, as well as interest that carries over into your future campaigns.

Reason #6: Your Lists Aren’t Segmented

Just say “no” to batch and blast emails. Sending out the same content to all of your contacts is a recipe for an email marketing failure since it doesn’t align with the modern consumer’s expectations around personalization.

You need to be segmenting your lists, and you need to be segmenting them correctly. For most businesses, this means dividing their contacts into lists based on where they are in the funnel, with targeted content being sent out to each group based on their unique interests, preferences, questions, and pain points. The result is that everyone gets the content they need to help them navigate to the next stage of their journey — which is a whole lot more effective than sending recipients content that doesn’t appeal to or interests them.

Commit to Better Emails

Don’t let the potential of email marketing pass you by. Audit your current strategy and outcomes to see what’s a hit and what’s amiss with your audience, and look for ways that you can improve your process for maximized results. Whether that means updating your look, your copy, or your approach, any changes you make for the better are pretty much guaranteed to pay off.