Email marketing is great, the chances are if you are reading this you work in the field of email marketing. As you know things can go wrong and when they do go wrong they can go seriously wrong.
In this article I am going to give you 5 stories I have either done myself, someone else did it at a company I have worked for or another person in the same industry I have spoken to told me about it.
What you need to take away from this article is:
- Check your email before sending it to your client/boss
- Have an email checking list
- Have the email checked over by an independent set of eyes, to make it more serious make them tick boxes, sign and counter sign
- Don’t think because you are senior and you used to be an email marketing ninja you still are, you will get skill fade.
- If something feels wrong, stop, do not send, deadlines are less important than correct emails
1. Check your email before sending it to your client/boss
How it started
An Eloqua agency used a developer to do a fix on a button that the client wanted to have the design changed on. Simple, the program manager sent it to the developer but did not send over the URL for the button presuming that the developer would naturally use the link from the previous button in the email.
2. Have an email checking list
How it started
Clients generally go to email agencies to have them build their emails because they are the experts. Or so that is what we are led to believe. The truth is you are more likely to get a graduate that has been recruited to build your emails, because it is a copy-paste job with a bit of dynamic content and some personalization.
When you have a client services director that is a manager and not an expert in email marketing that has risen from the ranks you are walking into a disaster area.
Idiocy is multiplactive. That is 2 half wits do not create a whole wit. They create a quarter wit. It is simple maths.
So a client gets assigned to a grad and they don’t have an email checklist and in fairness they don’t even know what they are looking for.
3. Have the email checked over by an independent set of eyes, to make it more serious make them tick boxes, sign and counter sign
How it started
Even with an email checking list things can go wrong. This is especially true if you are the only one to QA your own work. An email Eloqua agency I worked at managed to consistently send out an email newsletter that used a lot of dynamic content with the odd mistake here and there. Obviously this is not good enough, especially from an email Eloqua agency. The account manager who was consistently getting their QA wrong, even though it was being signed off by the client clearly was having trouble with their testing. As usual, the following month they got it wrong and once again another broken email went out. Another step was put in place for the email checklist. Another Account Manager had to QA the email and sign it. This time they would end up in the dock as well if something went wrong.4. Don’t think because you are senior and you used to be an email marketing ninja you still are, you will get skill fade.
How it started
A senior developer was having to pick up some email build for a week whilst a junior colleague was away. Back in his day he was an email ninja and knew he could do this with his eyes shut.5. If something feels wrong, stop, do not send, deadlines are less important than correct emails
How it started
A very large Energy supplier was needing an email sent to their entire customer database which was to invite them to all login to their brand new online portal so they could provide their meter results, get given offers, etc. The previous one was rubbish, didn’t work, had loads of complaints so they decided to rebuild the whole thing. The project had lasted a year, UX, integration, front-end developer, back-end developer teams, everything.
As part of an integrated campaign including radio, TV, newspaper adverts, email, they were going to announce the launch of the new online system, what could possibly go wrong?
What to do if your email goes wrong
Apology email
When something goes wrong with the marketing email you just sent, you should send an apology email. It’s your chance to make amends with your contacts and maintain a positive, long-term client relationship.
Email errors can be really quite bad, such as sending an email blast to 60K recipients with:
- No subject line
- An incorrect time-sensitive offer
- A copy of an email that hasn’t been altered or a template
- The wrong email
- An email that contains a faulty link
When this happens you risk causing damage to:
- Your personal brand
- Business
- Reputation
It’s important to address the problem, it isn’t going anywhere and the longer your leave it the worse it gets especially in the world of social.
5 Tips to Keep Your Apology Email Positive
1. Do not use negative words in your subject line
You shouldn’t send emails with subject lines that make recipients want to delete them. Words like “I’m sorry” and “Please forgive me” should be avoided. Instead, try framing the subject line of the email in a way that encourages people to open it.
- Bad subject line: Please accept our sincere apologies
- Good subject line: Retraction on our earlier email
As I said before, own your error and don’t try to conceal it. Maintain a light subject line to encourage readers to open your email, and own up to any errors in the email text.
2. Do not use extreme adjectives
Extreme words like “truly remorseful” or “terribly ashamed” might backfire. Instead, position your apologetic email in a positive way by highlighting what you did well and why recipients should be grateful to have this information.
- Bad phrase: “We are extremely humiliated that we have referred to…”
- Good phrase: “We’re reaching out to correct an error from our previous email…”
3. Do not use negative terms
Bad words frighten people away. You don’t want to come across as defensive or making excuses, since this will make your apology seem less genuine and more likely to be rejected. If possible, substitute a word with a positive connotation for the phrase with a negative connotation.
For example, “mistake” could become “error”.
| Negative example: | Positive example: |
| “The problem we have at hand is that the link we shared in our previous email is broken which caused your orders to fail. We’re unable to fix this problem before the end of the week. We’re deeply sorry.” | “The situation we have at hand is that the link we sent you in our previous email is broken which means your orders may not have made it through. Our tech team is working on fixing it so you’ll be able to place your orders by the end of the week. Thanks for understanding.” |
4. Do not blame anyone
In your apologetic email, you don’t have to point fingers at anybody. Blaming others will simply exacerbate the problem. Never mention anything that accuses someone or a group of people.
“We lost because our Eloqua agency/intern/etc was not good enough,” that is something no one wants to hear. You just look pathetic.
5. Be funny!
Use humour to keep your apology email light-hearted. Even slight sarcasm might work if it’s acceptable, as long as it’s not insulting. This can be accomplished by making a joke about the circumstance or referring to something you both know that is amusing. People will enjoy hearing from someone who understands what makes them laugh, and humour is one method to relieve any stress your email may generate.
When you should NOT send an apology email
If you make a mistake you do not always need to send out an apology email. After all, it is email. People generally do understand and to be honest, a lot of people won’t even notice. Think about your open rate, how many people actually will have seen or be affected by the error. Here are some examples of when NOT to send an apology email:
- Typos: Everyone makes spelling and grammar mistakes now and again, so sending a correction email and further clogging someone’s mailbox isn’t necessary.
- Sending the same email twice: If this happens, it’s vital not to make matters worse by sending a third email to say “sorry.” Allow the mistake to go unnoticed and make a mental point to include a simple apologies in the next planned email.
- Wrong Promo Code: Sometimes you can fix mistakes by amending a back-end platform than by admitting the error to those recipients. Update the backend system with your new promo code and make sure you don’t do it again.
- Broken Link: With Eloqua you can retroactively change your email link after email send because like all other email platforms it uses a redirect. Simply change it on the back end and no one will notice.
Your apology email
One of the first things that I do with clients on an Eloqua implementation is understand the type of emails that they send out. Once we have those we can prebuild, TEST and approve apology emails so that if something does go wrong, the procedures and the mechanism is in place to deal with the situation calmly and with speed.
In part two of the “What to do when an email goes wrong” I will share with you a number of examples that I have done with clients.