Check, Check and Triple-Check Your Email Marketing Campaigns

With more and more marketing campaign mistakes being made embarrassingly public on the web, it's time for marketers to begin addressing accuracy and errors in their email marketing campaigns more seriously.

The simple fact is most of these errors can be avoided with a few simple checks but time isn't always left to make them. In most scenarios, the scheduled deadline is approaching fast and rather than send an email late out late, marketers send it assuming that everything is OK.

Although consistent email frequency is important – it keeps subscribers happy and helps you stay at the fore of their minds – the damage an unprofessional email can have on your reputation dwarves it by comparison.

Common errors include:

• Misspellings and poor grammar in the subject line or body of the email
• Broken or misdirecting links
• Poor image rendering / formatting across internet service providers (ISP)
• Duplicate emails or emails sent to the wrong mailing list

Some of these oversights are worse than others but they all contribute to the erosion of consumer confidence and respect, especially when they are relatively simple problems to fix. Here are some tips to ensure none of your campaigns end up as examples of 'How Not to Do It':

• Plan with plenty of time ahead and allow for delays in writing the copy and formatting the HTML so you have time to read it through later on
• Use an automated spell-checker to pick up obvious misspellings and get your colleagues to check the email for contextual spelling errors (your vs you're, too vs to)
• Check all graphics display properly by putting your email through a rendering program, or set up test accounts with different ISP to see how they look in the inbox
• Make sure details in the subject line, alt-texts, pre-headers, copy and links are all the same – it can be easy to miss inconsistencies when using email templates

And if all else fails, have an 'apology email' template ready to send out immediately in the case of making a serious mistake. This will show consumers that you are paying them the attention they deserve and are willing to own up to errors – after all, you're only human. An email apology might even endear you to them.

Of course, prevention is always better than cure - so put the measures outlined above in place and chances are you'll never have to 'fess up' to making a simple mistake to your subscribers again.