5 Email Marketing Mistakes Every Farmer Should Avoid
Email marketing is a simple tactic that has proven to give Farmers the highest return on investment (ROI). In fact, email is up to 40x more effective than Social Media in helping businesses build a loyal customer base. While this is the case, many Farmers still wonder why their emails and marketing efforts don’t work the way they want. This can be due to a handful of common email mistakes that can be avoided easily!
Here are the five (5) most common email marketing mistakes that can cause recipients to be less likely to engage with your Farm business and how you can avoid implementing them in the future.
Read: What's Your Email Strategy? Do More With Less Effort
1. No Clear Call To Actions
Your emails need to serve a purpose, and the goal is for customers to take a specific action. In this case, you will typically want customers to “Shop Now” from your Farm store, but other common actions include registering for a Farm event, following your Farm on social media, or downloading a recipe. That's why every email should have a clear call to action (CTA) button. Without one, you won’t see clicks from the email to your store.
Here are three (3) CTA best practices to encourage buyers to take the action you want them to:
Clear CTAs should be visible and stand out from the body of your email. The most common way to use CTAs is with buttons.
Don’t overwhelm your customers. Limit to using 1-3 CTAs per email. The less options you give, the more likely people will click through to where you want them to go!
Use short but actionable language. For example, Shop Now, Create an Account, or Download the Recipe.
2. Failing to Send a Welcome Email
Did you know that a welcome email generates 320% more revenue than other promotional emails? That’s why it’s so essential for your Farm business to welcome new subscribers and customers to your Farm with an email!
Before you start sending regular newsletters, send recent subscribers a welcome email. Customers can learn more about your Farm, your practices, and the products you sell. You can even offer them a welcome discount code to incentivize them to purchase! Farms that automate their Welcome email with Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration generate quicker first-time purchases.
3. Not Optimizing for Mobile
More than 77% of your email subscribers check their email on their mobile device every day. If your customers see an email that’s not optimized for a mobile screen, they’re unlikely to read it and more likely to not engage with your Farm.
Farms can avoid this by organizing their email template in a mobile-friendly way. The best way to check is by sending a test email to yourself and reviewing the contents. Email marketing automation services - like Mailchimp - will optimize emails for mobile users automatically for you.
Listen: A Chimp, Software, and Farming... Let's Talk Email Marketing
4. Long of a Subject Line
Your email subject line is a window into what the email entails. The purpose of a subject line is to drive your customers to open the email and read what you sent them. When a subject line is over 50 characters or appears over-hyped, customers find themselves deleting the email or marking it as spam.
Here’s how you can create a strong and enticing subject line:
Personalize it (use your customers’ names!)
Avoid using ALL CAPS!
Keep it simple, providing just enough information for a reader to want to learn more
Read: How to Ensure Emails Land in Customers’ Inboxes (Not Promotions or Spam)
5. Sending Emails at the Wrong Time
No one will open an email in the middle of the night. In fact, nearly 22% of all emails are opened within the first hour of sending. That’s why it’s essential to send your emails at the right time. The time you send an email should be when your subscribers are most likely to open your emails. General practices to avoid are:
Sending emails during lunch hours
Sending emails during rush hour (around 8 am or 5 pm)
Many buyers are often busy and want to avoid staring at a screen, if only for a few minutes.
The best way to learn when your customers will open your emails is to try a few and keep track of it. No two Farms are alike, and the same goes for customers. Try sending when people arrive at work (between 9 am - 11 am), when your target demographic is typically shopping, or when you’re heading to the market on Saturday!
Still unsure of when you should send an email? Email Marketing tools like Mailchimp can automatically send emails to your list at the right time to optimize your return and remove the guesswork of when to send an email. This specific tool is called Send Time Optimization and is a game-changer for Farmers that leverage the Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration.
Read: 3 Email Tactics Every Farmer Needs to Know
Email marketing can yield a high return on investment if the proper steps are taken to engage your customers. However, clicking send is not the end all, be all. Instead, you need to take a moment to implement the proper techniques to see the highest ROI.
Barn2Door provides an all-in-one solution to grow and manage your Farm business. If you’re curious to learn why successful Farms run on Barn2Door, watch this 5-minute video.