WordPress has become a highly-successful content management system (CMS) because of its simplicity and vast library of plugins to assist users. Not skilled in Photoshop? Great, there’s a plugin for that. Does SEO give you a headache? No problem, you can add a plugin to help your posts. Is email marketing an obstacle you can’t steer past? Ehhh…not exactly. While there may not be a great plugin we’d recommend to just “do” all your email marketing for you, it’s something worth investing in; it has an extremely high ROI and is a great way to connect to your audience.
Whether your business is new to the email marketing game or you’re looking to improve your efforts, check out our list of email marketing tips to avoid on your WordPress website.
Using WordPress as Your Email Service Provider
Like we said, there are plugins out there that allow you to send an email campaign without having an email service provider. However, this is not recommended for multiple reasons.
First of all, your website hosting provider would see this as abusing their terms and service. Their mail servers are not configured to send all of your emails at once, and they also have strict limitations. Secondly, most users who do use a WordPress plugin for their emails eventually sign up for a proper email marketing service. This switch can have a negative affect on their existing subscribers list, as most email service providers will require them to opt-in again.
Save yourself the extra step and sign up for a free, reputable email service provider like MailChimp. This will ensure that you don’t lose any email addresses and your emails end up in their inbox.
Not Building Your Email List Immediately
Many small businesses don’t understand the importance of email marketing right away. They focus more on adding new content and engaging with their audience through social media. While this is not a bad thing, collecting email addresses for your email marketing efforts is something that needs to start as soon as possible.
Why is it important to start right away? About 75% of your website visitors coming from search engines won’t come back to your website. This is why it’s important to give them the option to sign up for your newsletters/email updates so you can reach out to them later, bring them back to your website, and boost your sales.
Creating Too Many or Too Few Opt-Ins
Like a lot of digital marketing tactics, email marketing isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of thing. You cannot assume that having one place on your website for users to fill out a form is enough; you must place it on multiple, strategic places on the website. Think about where your visitors spend their time on your website or consider having a pop-up, slide-in or after-post form appear on a webpage as the visitor explores your website.
However, don’t get too carried away about the number of places your form will appear. While it’s important to hit your audience at optimal times (like when they’re considering a purchase), it’s easy to overdo it. It may take some time to test and analyze if you’re being “annoying” to your visitors, but try to find the most effective placements for your form.
Ignoring Your Analytics
We cannot say enough good things about Google’s applications, especially Google Analytics. This powerful tool helps you see how visitors are interacting with your website and can guide you to make informed decisions about how to improve it.
Shockingly, many site owners are not aware of how they can utilize this data to build their email list, choose topics for their newsletter (and blogs), and even hone in on their audience. Google Analytics is very easy to install on your WordPress website and a great tool to use for more reasons than one.
Email marketing isn’t an optional practice to add into your marketing strategy. By combining this marketing communication strategy with your WordPress website, you’ll experience the easiest and most-effective way to keep yourself on your audience’s mind.
Newsletters and other types of emails actually help businesses keep a consistent flow of traffic on their website, while your website keeps a consistent flow of subscribers for your newsletters. Keep these tips to avoid in mind for your future email marketing efforts and you’ll see a steady stream of customers for your business, if executed correctly.
For more tips on email marketing, contact GreenMellen Media today!
