Inbound Marketing Solutions: 3 Automation Mistakes To Avoid

There is nothing worse than dedicating hours of creativity – and, what you thought was proper editing – to a cleverly crafted email, only to send it to everyone on your entire contact list and THEN find something glaringly wrong with it.

A little copy or grammatical error is one thing… 

Well, to most of us anyway. Admittedly, there are plenty of sticklers for grammar out there who might just write you off for a spelling mistake or for using a split infinitive. 

However, there are some marketing email errors that can really make a fool out of you and seriously foul up your inbound marketing solutions strategy. 

1. The Copy, Paste and Move On Mistake

When you write email copy and Word and then copy and paste it into a typical email editor program, you’re going to get a lot of style formatting code in the HTML that could really make a mess out of things. Some email systems and browsers might not pay any attention to the code but others will try to make sense out of it. The result – some wonky looking text with some really unintelligible gobbledygook tossed in. 

Don’t let this happen to you! When you copy and paste from Word, always use the “Paste from Word” or “Paste and Text” command to strip out the formatting code. Also, don’t get cute in Word – just write the text there. Only start toying around with formatting once you’re working in the email editor itself. 

2. The AM or PM Mistake

Scheduling emails is an important aspect of email automation. If you want yours to be the first thing people see when they get to work on Monday morning, you need to remember that every Monday has two 9 o’clocks in it. 

Don’t let this happen to you! When you schedule your email, pay as much attention to the time of day as you do to the time itself. And, if you find yourself making this mistake more often than not, do yourself a favor and switch your email editor’s time display to military time. No AM or PM necessary. 

3. The ‘Dear First Name’/This Is Obviously A Marketing Email Mistake

Ah, code. It makes sending emails to massive marketing lists so much easier – but it comes at a price. If we’re not vigilant about adhering to the code, we’ll wind up turning something that was meant to seem personal into a communication that couldn’t be less personal. In fact, it’ll make us sound like a robot. 

Don’t let this happen to you! Single, double and triple check before you send to the world. Make sure your contacts list is populated with first names and that your code pulls them properly. Send a test email and scan it thoroughly.  

And if you still can’t avoid sending messy automated marketing emails…

Consider asking others to edit and proofread them for you too. We’d be happy to evaluate your email marketing and your overall inbound marketing solutions strategy. Contact us at 800-834-4910 to begin your free evaluation with one of our marketing specialists now.