If you've made any of the email autoresponder mistakes below, you know how embarrassing (and even expensive) they can be. If you haven't made them yet, you probably will - unless you're luckier than I am.
Yes, the terrible truth is, even I have at one time or another made all 3 of these email autoresponder mistakes; but if you learn from my mistakes, maybe you can avoid making them yourself. Maybe...
You see, It's so easy to make the following mistakes with your email autoresponder, that most of the email marketers I know have made them not just once, but multiple times - and THEY know better.
Here's the Top 3 Most Embarrassing Email Autoresponder Mistakes Ever Made:
Embarrassing Email Autoresponder Mistake #1:
Forgetting to personalize the {firstname} field, so all your emails go out from your email autoresponder with the salutation "Hi {firstname}" on them. Wow, how personal that sounds. And friendly. It's kind of like saying "I'll never forget whatshername." Doesn't sound too sincere, right?
You'd think, after using an email autoresponder every single day, you would learn not to send out emails with {firstname} in the salutation, wouldn't you? But, somehow, it keeps happening.
Here's how you can (try to) avoid this pervasive mistake:
First, make the first thing you always do when loading a message up in your email autoresponder be to personalize the {firstname} field. Second, send yourself a test from your email autoresponder to yourself, and open the email and read it over. Third, you could have someone else "proof" your email before they go out. But even I never do that - so why would you?
Embarrassing Email Autoresponder Mistake #2:
Sending out a link in your email autoresponder message that tells people to "click it" - but the link is dead, so when they try to click, it goes nowhere. This email autoresponder mistake is actually costly as well as embarrassing, because if the link you wanted them to click goes to a sales letter, that's one wasted mailing you just sent out.
You can avoid making this email autoresponder mistake easily by sending yourself a test email before pressing "send," opening the email, and clicking the link yourself to see that it is live and goes where it should. My copywriters do this every time they send a message through our autoresponder (and if they don't, that's the one time we will have a dead link).
Embarrassing Email Autoresponder Mistake #3:
Sending a message out to your list through your autoresponder that has a subject (or maybe no subject) but...absolutely no body. Oops! This may not sound bad - just sending a blank email with no body shouldn't hurt too much, right?
But this is actually one of the most painful and damaging email autoresponder mistakes you can make. Why? Because, if you are using your email autoresponder properly (meaning, legally) then your "blank" email will not be totally blank - it will have an "unsubscribe" link in it. And, if it has no other body, the "unsubscribe" link will be the first thing they see when they open the email...right at the top.
Experienced marketers have instantly lost thousands of subscribers out of their email autoresponder lists by making this deadly mistake.
Unfortunately, I don't have completely infallible advice for avoiding this one. I do, however, have some advice.
1. If you load up a message in your email autoresponder, but don't finish it, and then decide not to send it, do not leave it in the "Que." It may go out accidentally if it is just sitting there forever. Instead, delete any unused messages from your email autoresponder immediatly, so they don't "send themselves" later on.
2. Don't send messages out from your email autoresponder while sleep-deprived (good luck with that one), drinking your fourth beer of the evening, or on any PM cold medications.
Now, I know that second warning is unnecessary, since you would never, ever even think of sending anything out from your email autoresponder while doing any of those things...but still, I think beer and cough suppressants should come with an addition to their warning labels:
"WARNING: Do not attempt to operated heavy machinery OR use an email autoresponder while using this product."
Now THAT would be effective.
If you'd like to learn more profitable tidbits about the things you shouldn't do when operating your email autoresponder (and even some you should do) be sure to click the link in the little paragraph below.
