It’s surprising how many businesses there are who recognize the importance of email marketing but get it wrong. When you communicate effectively through email, you can build a loyal audience of people who truly want to hear from you and will want to buy from you.

Here are 5 reasons why your email marketing is going wrong.

1. You’re Not Using The Right Software

The regular program you use to send and receive emails, like Apple Mail, Outlook, Gmail, etc, is not designed for email marketing. You need specialist email marketing software, known as an autoresponder. It enables you to send, obtain, manage and organize your email list of customers. There are numerous companies that provide email marketing software. Before you commit, read the terms and conditions to be sure that you can do what you want to do with it.

2. Your Subject Lines Don’t Motivate People To Open The Email

Your subject line is what people will see in their email inbox. If it doesn’t make them want to read what the email is about they will ignore or delete it. It’s very important that headlines and subject lines be specific, keyword rich, and something the audience will want to open and see.

3. You Don’t Provide Any Value

Email marketing is all about developing a relationship with the people on your list. You probably gave your subscriber a freebie when they signed up for your list. But are you now just trying to constantly sell them stuff? Remember that the more value that you provide to your subscribers, the more they will come to know, like and trust you. People will buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready to sell.

4. Your Text Is Too Generic

Email is personal. If you write your email for a large audience, your readers will tell that it’s a messages for the masses. Your autoresponder allows you to personalize an email based on the information you’ve gathered from your audience. Using your subscriber’s name at important points in your message can bring the message home in new way. Just don’t overdo the personalization as it can begin to sound a bit creepy.

5. There’s No Call To Action

You may have the best subject line, text, value or offer but if you don’t ask your reader to take action, chances are they won’t. Every email you send out should result in some sort of action. Always be clear about what you want your subscribers to do. Also, make sure links are always blue and place those links early on in the email, not below 500 words of text.