If you’re shaking your head or having anxiety from just reading the title of this blog, it means you’ve been there. You’ve pressed the send button too early. In fact, I was in this boat last week. If you are one of our Soffront clients you were witness to a recent email fail. (I’m very sorry).
Email marketers schedule emails to thousands of contacts every day, but hitting the send button to a large list can be nerve-racking. For how simple this email business is, it’s amazing how catastrophically we can complicate our lives in just a matter of seconds.
Email marketing mistakes are not a matter of “if,” but “when.” If you’re like me you’ve sent yourself multiple tests, double checked the links and crossed your fingers, but mistakes can happen to any of us.
As a marketer, nothing is worse than a full-on email fail. From typos in subject lines to broken personalization to sending an email to the wrong list (yikes!), I would guarantee you’ve sent or been at the receiving end of at least one email fail.
So, you’ve made a mistake, what do you do now? The answer depends on the type and severity of the error. You obviously want to correct serious errors, but at the same time, you don’t want to annoy people by dumping a bunch of stuff into their already-overflowing inboxes.
Read: How to Improve Your Email Marketing Strategies For Maximum Conversions
Evaluate: How bad is it???
How serious is your mistake, really? Was it a tiny typo in the body? I wouldn’t worry about taking any action.
Now if it is a big mistake like wrong details like the time, date, or location of an event, a broken link, or anything that makes it difficult to understand or, it needs to be fixed.
What to do now?
If you do need to send a second email to your list, don’t panic – instead, make it into an opportunity. If done well, a correction email will not only make sure your subscribers get the information they need, but it can generate goodwill and a few laughs.
Be prompt: As soon as you notice your error and decide it needs follow-up. In some cases, people who haven’t seen the original before the correction hits their inbox will skip right over the mistake and only read the corrected version.
In addition, the longer you wait to fix a date or a price or something similar, the more annoyed people can become about it.
Don’t Rush: You don’t want to quickly fire something off that contains other mistakes and requires a third email – at that point, it isn’t funny anymore, it’s just annoying.
Own up to the mistake: Explain why you are sending another email, beginning with the subject line.
If you are resending the same email with corrected information, use your original subject line, but add a word to the beginning to indicate that this is the email people should read. For example:
- Subject: Correction – (Original Subject Line)
- Subject: Oops! – (Original Subject Line)
- Subject: Revised (Original Subject Line)
Then make sure you point out the correction clearly within the message, and apologize. Email addresses are a valuable commodity from your subscribers. Not pointing out the mistake can make people feel that you are spamming them, and not apologizing can just be annoying.
I like to use humor: This is a great time to be funny and a little self-deprecating. You’ve just shown that you’re human by making a mistake, so showing some personality is totally fine, and is generally well-received.
Have you had an epic email fail? Share your experience in the comments. Remember we are only human, we all make mistakes. Also, if you need help with your email campaigns please reach out to us. We would be happy to help. Mistake free of course : ) Email me: spence.johnston@soffront.com