• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Ann Donnelly Digital Marketing Consulting

  • Home
  • Tourism Development
    • Digital Marketing for the Tourism Industry
    • Tourism News and Articles
  • Digital Marketing & SEO
    • Digital Marketing Strategy Development
      • Digital Marketing Audit
      • Digital Marketing Plan
    • Digital Marketing for Professional Firms
    • Search Engine Optimization
      • SEO Strategy Development & Implementation
        • SEO Audit
      • SEO Ranking Quick Boost
    • Social Media Marketing
      • Social Media Marketing Quick Boost
  • Work With Me
    • Who I Am

Email Marketing Mistakes – 4 Things That Will Annoy Users & Kill Your Mailing List

January 11, 2013

Realistically, the majority of your mailing list is ambivalent about you and your product. They ignore your emails, maybe even thinking they will get back to read it later, but they don’t. That’s not great and you need to work on being more relevant, interesting and connected to improve your open rate; but “annoying” is the one thing that will turn that ambivalence into dislike and prompt the user to actually unsubscribe instead of ignore, or even worse to mark your message as spam or complain about you and get you banned from your email application.

4 Things You May Be Doing that Annoy Your Subscribers:

Obvious and/or Mis-Use of Personalization in your Email

“Hi Ann!” is probably okay, but “Hi   !”, “Hi First Name!” or “Hi Donnelly!” looks tacky and unprofessional.  If you aren’t sure that you have an accurate First Name field for all of your subscribers or can leave it out completely in those cases, don’t personalize here.  Even worse, down in your message you throw in something like “Well Ann, that’s why I’m sending this message to you.” It’s just creepy. Maybe for some it will make their egos soar and make them think you really care about them personally, but most email users are a bit more sophisticated than that.

Personalization can be helpful at times if done properly and is relevant and helpful.  I like a “You are subscribed with slkdjfasdfj@alksjflasdfj.com email address.” So I can better see how I subscribed.

Irrelevant Information in an Email

Sending a client or prospect irrelevant information may not just be silly and annoying, but could actually hurt your reputation and relationship pretty seriously. Aga sent me emails about their Queen’s Jubilee sale and offers of Union Jack designed linens. From my email address alone Aga wouldn’t have known that I was located in Ireland and not the UK. Some email marketing applications do pick up on location when someone subscribes or when they open a message, but there are a few reasons why this isn’t completely accurate to determine a persons ‘home’ country. I know that Aga is a very British company and I wasn’t offended by this mailing, but there are many cases where a UK company has sent emails like this (as well as posts on social media) that are publicly ridiculed — and it just comes over as being very unprofessional. When you are selling to people every little impression is important.

The most effective email marketing is completely relevant to the user, so gather information about your list that will be helpful to ensure you can segment your list and send only relevant content. You are better off with a small list that you know a lot about (and are really interested in you and your product/services) than with a massive list of people that don’t care, don’t open and are one click away from unsubscribing.

Sending the Same Message Over and Over

I just unsubscribed from the Amazon mailing list because since Christmas I’ve received the same email about International Shipping at least 10 times – really, I am not exaggerating.  Now I have a few Amazon accounts, so at first I put it down to that, but I kept getting these messages. Then I thought it was actually from someone phishing for my logins and only pretending to be Amazon, but the links all led back to the actual Amazon site. Yes, I could have just ignored the repeated messages, but I just got tired of seeing them and I’ve been trying to keep my Inbox tidy!

Take the time to maintain your list properly and make sure that there aren’t duplicate addresses or, if possible, duplicate people with different addresses. If you are sending different messages to different parts of your list, be very careful that you aren’t doubling (or tripling) up. If you resend a mailing by mistake do apologize at some point, but don’t send yet another message that may be annoying!

Failing to Give the User Suitable Mailing List Subscription Options

As noted above, when people subscribe include fields to gather information on their location, interests, etc.  If you want just a quick email only subscribe form, then include a link in your mailing asking people to provide more information ‘so we can provide the most relevant information for you.’ Most won’t do that, so try your best to get it up front or by other means.  If they do choose add relevant information, make sure the interface is easy, friendly and helpful in a way that will keep them on your list.

In the Amazon example above, I logged in to change my email preferences and there were two main options: “Do not send me marketing e-mail” or “Send me marketing e-mail from the following categories” followed by a list of  over 40 categories that were all ticked. At first I thought I would like emails about a couple of those categories, but I would have had to un-tick all the other categories.  ANNOYING!  I ticked the “Do not send…”

Always remember you only have a short period of time to influence your subscriber: whether he opens your message or not, if he unsubscribes or not; so it’s worth taking the time to plan your email marketing campaign and think through all of these items that can possibly ANNOY a subscriber. While you are at it, build in great things that will delight and build your relationship and sales!

Filed Under: Email Marketing

Footer CTA

What My Clients Say…

She will help you maximize your results and help you increase your ranking organically

Trident Holiday Homes Ireland

We found Ann to be very approachable and friendly, she even took time out of her vacation in Ireland to visit our office. Ann was available at the end of a phone to answer any queries we had. All in all, I would recommend Ann to anyone who is looking for a digital marketing consultant and coach, she will help you maximize your results and help you increase your ranking organically.

Eilís McDermott, Senior Marketing Executive
Trident Holiday Homes

It was like a light was turned on for me

The Smart Happy Project

When I joined Sarah Leather and Ann Donnelly’s course, “How to Make Money Online and Become an Entrepreneurial Goddess”, I had a seed of an idea that at some point I thought I might need a website and this course could help with that. I was right about that, but what the course showed me was so much more. It was like a light was turned on for me. Being shown the simple online tools that can assist in researching, setting up, monetising and promoting your site has been invaluable (and all without the boring tech jargon that just numbs any creativity one might have had). I have gone from seed of an idea to completed website in 5 months, and yes I am proud of that! Anyone with an entrepreneurial side and wanting to do something new needs to do this course, without a doubt.

Lisa Lillywhite
The Smart Happy Project

Without a doubt the best course I’ve ever done

glyniss trinder
“How to Make Money Online and Become an Entrepreneurial Goddess” is without doubt the best course I’ve ever done. The sessions had so much content and were made really interesting by Sarah Leather and Ann Donnelly’s well thought out presentation. I was aware how marketing on the internet was so powerful but had no idea how to draw people to my website. Now with all I’ve learnt I’m so amazed by how much my profile has lifted. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to make more money online.
Glynnis Trinder
GlynissTrinder.com

A great speaker and a knowledgeable advisor

Greg Mulcahy

While filming Ann’s talk at a Business of Social Media Conference, I was distracted by her highly creative manner of explaining social media and internet marketing for business. Her knowledge on the subject is vast, and her skills in re-producing that knowledge are plentiful. A great speaker and a knowledgeable advisor.

Greg Mulcahy
Video Producer and Owner of Vale Media Video Production Services

detailed understanding of the issues that faced a start up company

nic slocum

The website Ann created for us has been the single most important marketing tool we have used these past 14 years of operation. Better than social media and brochures combined I would say! It’s stunning position when whale watching is searched for has been a significant part of that success and, without a doubt, our position on search engines was achieved quickly and efficiently as a result of Ann’s detailed understanding of the issues that faced a start up company wanting to achieve a meaningful and valuable internet presence. Easy to work with, proficient and detailed.

Nic Slocum
Whale Watch West Cork

She gets results

flor mccarthy

Ann has been instrumental in developing our use of social media for our business and our online marketing. I have found Ann great to work with, very knowledgeable and most importantly: she gets results.

Flor McCarthy
McCarthy & Co.

someone who knows what they are talking about

Tony Cantwell, The Baby Greeting Company

Can’t recommend Ann Donnelly highly enough. There are people who talk about web solutions and it is evident they don’t have much hands on experience; but Ann has been trying, testing and expanding her work experience for many years and it is refreshing and reassuring to work with someone who knows what they are talking about.

She is a great web designer, who takes time to listen to what you want and to understand your business. She applies this knowledge then to her work and end product. She is creative and inventive and has offered plenty of suggestions to improve our website in terms of efficiency and customer service. Ann is trustworthy and reliable and I would have no hesitation is recommending her for any web project.

Tony Cantwell
The Baby Greeting Card Company

no jargon attitude

imagination attic

Ann is a very easy person to talk to; and she talks to you with a no jargon attitude which is of great help to someone who doesn’t know that much about web sites. She is a well versed person in her line of work and guides you through everything. She is a very trustworthy person and can be relied on to give you her honest opinion.

Caroline Jennings
Imagination Attic
  • Digital Marketing Articles
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Web Design & Development

      

Digital Marketing Consulting & Coaching

Copyright © 2022 Ann Donnelly - Privacy