Avoid These 6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

If email seems a little old school to you, you’re right. Email turns 40 this year, and it’s being outpaced by texting, instant messaging and Facebook messaging. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed out last year, email is too much of a “cognitive load” for younger people.

Yet you probably haven’t given up your Gmail account yet, have you? That’s because, despite the stigma of being a middle-aged technology, email is still useful and universally accepted. In fact, those who make a living from email marketing say there’s never been a better time to do what they do.

“Email marketing is getting more exciting because of some of the things you’re able to do with it,” says Chip House, vice president of relationship marketing at ExactTarget, “because of the ability to bake in social sharing. You can follow me on Facebook or tweet about this.”

For small businesses, email still represents a cheap, effective way to establish or maintain a relationship with clients. But there’s the rub. While the medium is fairly neutral-to-positive, the content has the power to either attract or repel. So before you hit “send” on your next batch email newsletters, take heed of these six common email marketing mistakes.

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