Email marketing has one of the highest ROI potentials because clients have to opt-in to receiving those emails, which means they’re already interested with what you have to say! The trick, then, is ensuring to meet their expectations! If you find your emails are falling flat and failing to elicit high rates of engagement, you could be making some common email mistakes. Don’t worry too much, though, we all make mistakes! And mistakes are fixable!
To help you correct your mistakes so you can enjoy greater engagement, and thereby, better conversion rates, we’ve put together a list of some of the most common mistakes in email marketing. If you do any of these, fix them as soon as you can, and enjoy more successful veterinary email marketing campaigns!
Not Using Clear Calls to Action
Every email you send should have a clear directive for what action you’d like your email recipients to take. It is to make an appointment for their pet’s annual check-up? Request a refill of their parasite prevent? Or be sure to book they’re pet’s boarding stay in advance for the holidays? Whatever the intention of your email, make sure you have a clear call to action (CTA) for what you’d like your user to do. And don’t be too shy about making the CTA big, bright, and bold, whether it’s a button, an in-text link, or a headline.
Do be wary about including too many CTA’s though. Every email should have just one CTA, and while you can have more than one link to that CTA throughout the email, don’t go overboard. Depending on the length of the email, you may be able to include up to three or so.
Selling Too Hard
Overselling yourself in your emails can make you look desperate, insincere, and even pushy or sales-y. These are all red flags for the discerning internet user, so it’s important to avoid this kind of language. Instead, it’s better to focus your efforts on forming a relationship with your clients, before asking them to do something for you. Be sure to have a clear and friendly welcome email for every new subscriber to get them engaged. After that, write some emails to be helpful, such as about seasonal pet safety tips, and then gently link in corresponding services like your allergy management services in spring time. Once you form a deeper relationship with your audience, you can then send some product pushes, like getting pets in the door for their vaccines (and include why that’s important, too!).
Poor Subject Lines
Boring subject lines are email engagement killers. Think about your own experience. Do you open emails with a dull subject line? Probably not.
Some keys to writing good subject lines include:
- Keep it short (about 40-60 characters)
- Add personalization with merge tags
- Be descriptive, but not wordy (i.e. Pamper Your Pooch with Our Spa Treatment)
- Don’t use too many punctuation marks (!!!! Just looks spammy)
- Use emojis wisely (emoji use depends on your audience and your email’s tone of voice)
Not Learning from Past Mistakes
If you’re not already, you should be monitoring every email you send. This can give you valuable information about what works and what doesn’t. Make sure to check your email marketing software’s analytics including click-through rates, open rates, unsubscribes, etc. and make changes to see what works better. Running A/B tests can also help you fine tune your emails by focusing on minor differences, like different subject lines, CTAs, layouts, etc.
No Client Segmentation
Segmenting your email list into more targeted audiences such as cat owners vs dog owners; new clients vs establish clients; those who are up-to-date on yearly services vs those who aren’t can help you create more targeted messaging that increases engagement and conversion. Over time, you can even pick up on your clients’ buying habits, interests, and more to craft even more customized content.
Other Helpful Tips
Beyond these common mistakes, there are a lot of other ways you can improve your veterinary email marketing campaigns, including:
- Optimize for mobile – More than half of your readers will be reading your email on their phones, so make sure it looks great on their screen.
- Don’t talk about yourself – Talk about your clients! Cater to their pains and desires surrounding their pet and talk about who your services and products can calm their woes.
- Make emails personal – If you can, use merge tags in your emails to address your email recipient by name. This little bit of personalization can do wonders for increasing engagement.
- Don’t use clichés or industry jargon – Few people are going to want to click on “Laparoscopic spays are better for your female.” Try to liven it up and use conversational language like “A safer spay option for your ‘good girl’” and then go into more detail about laparoscopic spays in the email, or a landing page.
- Avoid stock photography – Instead, use photos of your patients’ receiving the services you’re promoting (with permission from owners), or even product photos with your clinic cat sitting (adorably) next to them.
Want more tips for veterinary email marketing campaigns? You know who to call. Get InTouch today by calling (800) 493-9003!