How many unread emails are in your inbox right now?

I’ve got Groupon, Linkedin, The Boston Globe, my alma mater, Ticketmaster, Rent the Runway, Zipcar, Proflowers, Bluehost, and Seamless. I could go on.

I’ll delete most without opening.
The ones I do open? I skim them. Five seconds, tops. Then I delete.
An email that actually convinces me to open, read, and click is pretty rare.

Why?
Well…I’m busy.

I’m not the only one. Your followers are just as likely to trash your email.
Open rates vary by industry, but, on average, it’s about 20 percent.

Even people who do open your emails aren’t reading every word. They’re just as likely to skim as I am.
Users spend only 15 to 20 seconds reading the emails they do open.

But email is very important. For every dollar spent, the average return on investment is about $44. And for nonprofit fundraising campaigns, each usable email can net $12.46 in revenue a year.

You need to send emails.

But how do you keep people from clicking the trash can? How do you get users excited about your emails? How do you get the results you want?

Simply:

• Have something to say.
• Say it quickly.
• Make it easy.

With that framework in mind, here are the five biggest mistakes I see time and time again, mistakes that cause my cursor to hover over delete:

Over-asking

I just laid down some enticing stats about how your email list helping to generate revenue. But pause for a one second.

Your email list is not an ATM.

Every email in that database of yours belongs to a real person, a real person who is kinda interested in your organization.

You can’t send out email after email asking people to donate or register or whatever. Before someone will take action for you, you need to build your relationship and demonstrate your value.

Take donations…
If I’m going to donate I have to go get my purse, dig through who-knows-what to find my wallet, pull out my card, type in a sixteen-digit number, type in my address…it’s a lot. I have to have some pretty strong feelings for you before I’ll donate.

Instead of just peppering your list with donation pleas, you need to give them what they want. Why did they sign up for your list in the first place? What do you have to say that is relevant to them? What do they care about? Think about what your audience wants and give it to them.

Once you’ve got that going, you can send an email asking users to take action. But keep a good proportion.
For every five emails you send, four should be content your audience cares about.

And speaking of sending…

Sending Too Much

Every audience is different.
I’ve got some clients that send an email every single day. I’ve got others that send an email once a month.

How often does your audience want to receive emails from you? How often can you send an email without them becoming annoyed?

It really can depend.
But a good place to start? Once a week.

If you’re seeing tons of unsubscribes and a low open rate, try sending fewer emails.
Interested in sending more emails? If you have the content to support it, try a pilot program sending emails twice a week. After this has been going for a while, check your stats to determine what your audience likes.

But even within a single list you might have some users that want more and some users that want list.
Which is why list segmentation is essential.

You’re going to have users who want emails once a day. Some, once a week. Others, once a month. Many email marketing platforms allow you to have an unsubscribe page where users can select their frequency. When a user is annoyed that you’re blowing up their inbox, instead of unsubscribing entirely they can just select “once a month.” Instead of losing leads, you’re letting them tell you exactly what they want.

Subject line

Should I delete an email or open it?
Often, it depends on the subject line.

In your subject line you’re explaining what you have to say and why it’s relevant to your audience. You’re explaining, immediately, the value of your email and how it’s something the user wants to read.

So first and foremost, your subject line needs to be relevant.

It also needs to be the right length.

A good subject line is short – it gets to the point. It displays well in your user’s mail clients and allows a little bit of a content preview.
I recommend keeping your subject line under 50 characters, including spaces.

Also, keep in mind that your subject lines can be big triggers for automatic spam filters. Using all-caps or special characters (including exclamation points) increases the chance you’ll be marked as spam.

Too much text

Everyone is busy. Most users are going to spend only 15 seconds or so looking at your email.

So, it’s safe to assume your users are not going to read your four paragraphs of text. (And this is especially sad since it took you quite a while to write.)

You need to get to the point right away.
And yes – your email should have just one point.
Say what you need to say, say it briefly, and provide users with links to more info.

Assume your users are skimming. Break up your text to make it easier for them to get the most important information quickly. Headings and bullets are your best friends. Find a way to make your links stand out. Use buttons, video thumbnails, or contrasting colors. If the purpose of your email is to send the user to your website, they should be able to find that link immediately.

I should note that you should be careful about relying solely on images to draw attention. Some programs, like Outlook, block images automatically.

Ignoring Mobile

What’s the number one way users are reading their email?
Their iphone.

Today, more email is read on tablets and phones than on computers.

So why are so many people ignoring mobile?

You’ve likely heard about responsive design – how a webpage resizes and realigns content to display well on any device. But fewer people are using responsive design in their emails.

Often, a design that looks great on a computer will be unreadable on a phone. Sometimes the fonts are too small, sometimes the columns are too narrow.

You likely have a responsive template – whether it’s custom or out-of-the-box, most designers are making email templates responsive. But if you’re managing your own content, it’s likely not responsive.

Which means you need to test. And test. And test. Before you send an email, make sure you can read it on mobile.