In January I was named CEO of an email agency. Within a week, I made a mistake that cost the company. It's not a big deal, but I don't want to do it anymore.
Unlike most email mistakes, this one happened behind the scenes. But even if my mistake never makes it to your inbox, it's a learning opportunity that can help you catch potential errors long before they're out in the wild.
The important thing here is that we are all human and can make mistakes. If everyone fails, including the CEO, it's usually not the end of the world.
With email, mistakes can seem like the end of the world because so many people can see where they went wrong. Typo in subject. The product image was incorrect. Incorrect copy of CTA button. I copied it with the correct button, but the link to the landing page is incorrect.
Back when I was emailing in retail, my mistake would be seen by millions of subscribers. Once, one of my girlfriends, a member of my team, accidentally included all her unsubscribed addresses in an email.
Let's talk about “Oops!” If that had happened today, it would not only have irritated a lot of people, but in some countries it might have been blamed for spamming.
3 ways to manage and prevent email mistakes
Mistakes happen not because digital marketers are careless or incompetent, but because we are all moving fast. We are about to launch one campaign while planning the next one. But we need to stop and think.
How can you avoid making mistakes in email? How do you analyze, process, learn from your mistakes, and move on? It's easy to fall into them. We have to focus more on understanding what happened, preventing it from happening again, and moving forward from there.
These three changes will help you avoid mistakes in your email process and learn from them.
1. Slow down
Right before I failed this year, I told everyone at my company to slow down so we could focus on what we were doing. And why did I make a mistake? Because it was moving too fast. I wasn't thinking about what I was doing or why I was doing it. I just did it, but it came back and bit me again.
The problem with email marketing slowdown is that it doesn't happen naturally. We keep saying to ourselves:
- “This work is on my calendar and I must finish it.”
- “The CEO wants this in his inbox by the end of the week.”
- “We have to fully realize this promotion.”
So we rush to finish the work. And when you're in a hurry, you're more likely to make mistakes.
So your marketing promotions, social media campaigns, and mobile marketing need to find ways to get around that rush. These two relatively small changes make it less error prone.
Document the implementation process. Have you mapped and written down every step of the implementation process? All fail-safe initiatives should be detailed, including identifying redundancies to fill gaps in the absence of key personnel.
We'll cover all the details, including who's responsible and what to do before your campaign takes the next step. Distribute the plan to your entire team so everyone knows what's happening at each step. This kind of structure is one of the best ways I know to prevent mistakes.
What you don't want to do is send an “oops” email. (But we'll talk about that later.)
Identify gaps where mistakes can enter. One useful tactic here is to help the “last mile” people, the people who look at your emails, texts, and social posts before they click “send” and monitor everything from your content to your audience. It's about specifying who can flag errors.
When I worked in retail email, I would ask someone on the direct mail team to go through and test campaign emails and look for errors. Why direct mail? Because those people have an eye for detail and that's an important part of their job. With print campaigns, once the campaign is printed, it is fixed with no ability to change anything on the fly.
Look around your company and find someone who is astute enough to check your work and familiar enough with email to know what to look for, but doesn't work on the email team . They not only need to read emails like your customers, they also need to click on links, look for typos in their inbox and message copy, and flag any odd coding.
Most importantly, don't wait for mistakes to happen. Document your processes and identify last-mile steps. They fill in gaps that are prone to mistakes that can embarrass your brand and team.
Dig deeper: 8 major email marketing mistakes and how to avoid them
2. Think twice before sending an “oops!” Email
If I make a mistake, should I send a follow-up with the correct information? I've answered this question many times over the past 25 years. Every time I get an answer, my answer is a little different.
About 50% of the time, I tell companies not to send an “oops!” message. Mistakes are no big deal, so please send them via email. Yes, it's a big deal for the person who made the mistake, but it's rare that a mistake would justify sending a second email. It can even do more harm than good.
The next time you make a mistake, and there will be another one. See my comment above about humans and their fallibility. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Need to correct a misunderstanding about pricing or terms?
- Is my call center suddenly hanging up because a customer is dissatisfied or angry?
If you can answer yes to both questions, please submit your correction. But there is no need to create large-scale works from it. Send the appropriate campaign, add a note explaining what happened, and move on.
The bigger question is which subscribers should receive an apology email. Previously, we would send a revised version to everyone who opened the email. Now that email opens are contaminated, should you send emails to people who click on them? The answer depends on the dynamics of your list, the content of your message, and other factors specific to your list and customer base.
Be objective as you go through the decision-making process. Forget about mistakes and think about your brand and customers instead.
If you'd like more advice on crafting useful apology emails, my email colleague Kath Pay has some great advice and examples. “How to Write an Effective Apology Email: 7 Examples.”
Please, stop sending fake “oops!” Email. A simple hack to trick a customer into opening an email is exactly what inbox abuse is all about.
Digging deeper: How bad data can ruin good personalization
3. Share with your team
After the mess, I wanted to crawl into the box. Thankfully, I was on a plane and was able to spend three hours without talking to anyone. But I felt terrible.
When I returned to work, I shared what happened with my team. This was tough, but he wanted the team to learn two things next time.
- Don't do what I did.
- Even CEOs can fail.
It is important to recognize our humanity, which means admitting fault and taking responsibility for our mistakes. He doesn't allow his team to make mistakes. But you're letting them know it's not a death sentence.
So when you send an email with a malicious link, document what happened, how you resolved the issue, and share it with your team. You are responsible for your mistakes. Yes, it's embarrassing. That's how it should be. But once you get over your embarrassment, you can move on with the lessons you've learned.
This is how we learn, improve our processes, do our jobs better, and make fewer mistakes. Years ago, when a member of my team accidentally sent an unsubscribe email, we didn't blame anyone. We sat together and thought about how to avoid making the same mistakes again.
We all travel at 12 million miles per hour, especially during high traffic seasons. Let's look at the process that made the mistake possible and see where we can play it safe. Focus on solutions, not on who to blame.
Slow down and handle errors gracefully
Let me reiterate my key points. We all make mistakes. Don't worry if you haven't had much success yet. It will definitely happen to you. The mistakes I made were bigger than others and I received a lot of teasing and teasing. It's okay because I deserved it.
But I've also heard from my team members that they appreciate my candor and that it's okay to make mistakes. Years ago, I made a big mistake. When I got the call from my boss, I thought I was going to be reamed.
“That was a big deal, wasn't it?” he said. “You're probably blaming yourself worse than I am. Let's make sure it doesn't happen again.”
I appreciated his recognition that it's okay to make mistakes, but it's up to me to fix what happened and make sure it never happens again. We don't make mistakes on purpose, but we don't have to live in fear of making mistakes.
If we could document our email processes, know our last-mile steps, and slow down and work in a quiet space, we wouldn't be sending so many mistakes into the world.
Learn more: 3 ways to avoid email automation malfunctions
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
