Many people know the potential of email marketing as tool for improving businesses. But actually, few people know how to use it correctly and in their advantage to boost sales and profitability. That is why it’s vitally important that a business owner fully understands the proper use of email marketing. He must study every aspect of it and avoid the common pitfalls so as to avoid wasting money. If taken seriously, email marketing is an invaluable tool for online businesses. To do that, the business owner must be well aware of these pitfalls, and put their feet down on steady, safe ground.

The following are the top five email marketing errors that not only newbies, but experienced email marketers tend to make:

Error 1: Poorly written subject line

People, in general, have the tendency to avoid email messages unknown to them, fearing these may be spam or contain viruses. For the most part, the spam filter will do the job. But that doesn’t make prospects any less reluctant about opening email messages. Email subscriptions are sometimes even marked as spam. To avoid this, the email marketer must comply with anti-spam filter standards.

If by far the email hasn’t been caught by the filter, there’s still the chance that the person will mark it as irrelevant, flag it as spam or not read it at all. In reference to this, having a clearly written, concise and compelling subject line is necessary. Neglecting the subject line though, is one big mistake email marketers make.

Error 2: Demanding feedback

It’s all right to ask for feedbacks – occasionally. Doing it every time an email message is sent will be seen as demanding. The reader will not want to spend any more time than necessary reading the email, much less sign up coupons, review websites or send feedback. While it’s good to consider the needs and wants and concerns of customers, it’s also important to be humble about it.

Error 3: Being generic

Email marketing has become a monotone as of late. Readers no longer want to subscribe to emails, thinking they already know what’s written in there. The email marketer has to be the one to bring about change. He mustn’t simply stick to the old conventions. To make email marketing effective, it has to have an element of creativity, humor, wit and relevance.

Error 4: Webinar – A sales pitch gone wrong

If you are going to send an email out to ask recipients to sign up for a webinar, most likely they will not be interested. The common reasons are that firstly as a sender, you are not promising any real value and the recipients always assume that the webinar is going to be a sales pitch. Real decision makers will not be fooled as they think to themselves. You have to establish value first before trying to peddle your wares.

Error 5: Poor Use of PS

If there’s one thing readers hate more than sloppy emails, it would be the incorrect use of the P.S. You see, P.S. or post scriptum in Latin (postscript in English), is used to denote an afterthought, something that the writer wants to add without changing the flow of the already written content. Most usages of PS only contains a concentration on the company, why not add in a client testimonial to spice things up?

All in all, if you can avoid these common errors, you will stand a better chance to impress your prospect and see a great conversion rate translating to more sales.