In this new installment of the “Email Marketer’s Code” series, we offer valuable insights from seasoned email marketing expert Dmytro Kudrenko. Dmytro draws from his extensive experience, which laid the foundation for marketing innovative products such as Stripo and Yespo, in order to share his personal “email marketer’s code” — a comprehensive guide on the best practices to uphold and common mistakes to avoid in the industry.
Expert
About Dmytro Kudrenko
Dmytro Kudrenko, the founder and CEO of Stripo, is a seasoned email marketing professional with over 15 years of hands-on experience in the industry and 25 years of entrepreneurial expertise. Thanks to his journey in email marketing, Dmytro has a deep understanding of the challenges marketers face. He now offers practical insights into overcoming those challenges, along with innovative solutions that assist email marketers.
Dmytro regularly shares his knowledge through workshops and lectures on email interactivity, gamification, and the art of creating impactful campaigns. His commitment to advancing the field has been instrumental in shaping Stripo as a leading email design platform that simplifies and enhances the email creation process.
In addition to Stripo, Dmytro co-founded Yespo, an omnichannel CDP tailored to email marketers. This powerful tool reflects not only Dmytro’s extensive practical experience but also the collective expertise of his colleagues. Stripo and Yespo are built on his dedication to making email marketing more accessible and effective for businesses and their audiences. Dmytro’s hands-on approach ensures that these products empower marketers to craft emails that are visually compelling and, above all else, strategically impactful.
Today, Dmytro invites you to rethink your email marketing strategies and discover new ways to unlock these emails’ full potential.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
In my 15 years in the email marketing industry, I have seen plenty of mistakes and made some of my own. I won’t list all of those — instead, I will name two that I see often and which I know can hinder effective email marketing.
1. Bulk-and-blast strategy
A common mistake is treating email like social media and sending the same email to your entire contact base. This approach ignores the main advantage of email as a personalized communication channel.
Why is this a problem?
The bulk-and-blast strategy can lead to low engagement metrics, such as the click-through rate (CTR), and even lead people to unsubscribe. Subscribers expect emails to be relevant to their interests. If you ignore segmentation, you miss the opportunity to build trust and engage customers.
How to avoid this mistake:
- segment the base. Divide contacts by interests, behavior, or stage in the customer journey;
- add personalization. For example, use dynamic content in emails — from the recipient’s name to personalized product recommendations;
- test different approaches. Use A/B testing to determine which types of messages work best.
2. Wrong metrics
Another common mistake is to focus on the wrong metrics, such as the open rate or your contact list size, instead of indicators that reflect real effectiveness.
Why is this a problem?
The open rate is not always reflective of a campaign’s success, especially given the privacy features in email clients, such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection. It is important to evaluate the number of people who opened the email and how they interacted with it, such as whether they clicked on a link or made a purchase. Build your email strategy based on those insights.
How to avoid this mistake:
- focus on metrics that correlate with business goals: CTR, conversions, average order check, customer retention;
- implement customer journey analysis: decide what is the role of email campaigns in the overall marketing strategy;
- review metrics regularly to make sure they correspond with your strategy.
Mistakes that cost businesses: Lessons from real cases
Taking email marketing to the extreme can seriously affect your reputation, revenue, and customer trust. Here are two examples demonstrating the dangerous extremes in email marketing campaigns and why a balanced approach to your communications is important.
Example A: When the desire to sell more ruins your reputation
A company decided to make the most of Black Friday by adding all the contacts it had accumulated over the past few years to its mailing list. These included unsubscribed users, inactive subscribers, and those who had long forgotten about the brand.
What happened:
- massive spam complaints about the campaign;
- great damage to the domain’s reputation, meaning emails were automatically sent to the spam folder;
- two months spent rebuilding that reputation, in which the company missed the Christmas and New Year holiday season, losing a lot of its potential revenue.
How to fix this situation:
- Contact a professional to help clean up your database, remove invalid contacts, and revalidate your addresses.
- Gradually rebuild your reputation by sending small audience segments quality emails that are relevant to them.
- Start using a double opt-in to collect contacts in a safe way that avoids similar problems in the future.
Tip: Check the relevance of your database before launching large email campaigns. Use specialized tools to validate your contacts and avoid adding unsubscribed or inactive addresses.
Example B: Excessive attention to database quality
Another company, in trying to maintain an “ideal contact list,” removed all subscribers who had not opened emails for two months from its list.
What happened:
- customers were removed though they were still ready to purchase, but had not opened emails due to a seasonal decline in interest or other external factors;
- the company lost many subscribers and a lot of potential revenue.
How to fix the situation:
- Instead of deleting inactive subscribers, start running re-activation campaigns.
- Analyze your inactive audience and identify those who are still interested but need a different approach to communication.
- Implement personalized trigger emails that remind recipients of the benefits of the brand.
Tip: Don’t rush to delete inactive subscribers. Instead, use win-back campaigns to regain their attention. In the process, test different approaches to segmenting your inactive audience.
Tools and approaches to successful email marketing
Focus on the basics. Before you optimize or improve your campaigns, ensure all the key aspects are set up and working. This will avoid common mistakes, which will support the sustainable development of your email marketing campaigns. Here are practical recommendations for building an effective strategy.
1. Set up lifecycle triggers
Automated emails are the foundation of a personalized approach. They ensure interaction with customers at every stage of their journey.
What to do:
- set up welcome emails for new subscribers: For example, a clothing brand may send a discount coupon in its first email to encourage a purchase;
- implement triggers for repeat sales: We noticed you are running low on coffee capsules. Here is a discount on your next order!
- launch re-activation campaigns for inactive subscribers: We miss you! Come back and get a discount on your first order.
2. Develop a regular mailing calendar
Regular correspondence is key to staying in touch with your audience.
What to do:
- create a monthly or quarterly content calendar: Include new product reviews, holiday promotions, and helpful tips;
- email at a frequency suited to the base’s activity: If the audience is active, send emails 1-2 times a week, but avoid overloading the audience.
3. Optimize contact collection channels
Effective contact collection ensures a constant flow of new subscribers.
What to do:
- add interactive subscription forms to your website and blogs;
- use pop-ups with a unique offer, for example: Get a free skincare checklist!
- offer subscription bonuses, such as discounts or access to exclusive content.
4. Check and configure everything correctly: The technical part
The technical base guarantees the delivery of your emails to a person’s inbox and not to their spam folder.
What to do:
- make sure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are configured for your domain;
- test all integrations with CRM and analytics platforms;
- use email delivery verification tools.
Email marketer’s code from Dmytro Kudrenko
Take away a few key rules I follow to avoid mistakes and create effective campaigns:
- Optimize the contact lifecycle, rather than focusing on separate emails and campaigns.
- Quality is more important than quantity. This applies to the size and members of the database, useful content, messages’ frequency, “empty” messaging, and the images and text in your email designs.
- Data is your best ally. Analyze metrics, segment your audience, and find the right message for the right person at the right time.
- Follow ethics and laws. Work only with contacts who have voluntarily subscribed to your emails. This is the basis of trust and long-term success.
Wrapping up
Let’s be honest: email marketing is not without mistakes. But instead of fearing or hiding them, it is important to see them as an opportunity for improvement. As my experience shows, key mistakes often occur when rushing, forgetting the basic principles, or making the wrong choice of strategy.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and learn from your own experience. Email marketing is chiefly about strategy, flexibility, and a willingness to adapt to change. Apply the approaches described in this article to avoid mistakes and turn each email into a tool for achieving results.
