Common Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

So, you’re a marketer or business owner striving to maximize the impact of your email marketing campaigns in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC). You’ve built and launched email campaigns, expecting great results. But something isn’t quite right.

• Your open rates are lower than expected. 
• Your emails aren’t driving the engagement you hoped for. 
• Your conversion rates are falling short of your goals.

So, you’ve reached the point where you know something needs to change. You need to streamline your strategy—eliminate inefficiencies, optimize your strategies, and ensure you’re not making the mistakes that could be keeping you from succeeding. The best part? Those obstacles are common to everyone, and the solutions are within reach. 

To deliver better results, you must know and rectify SFMC’s common email marketing errors. From segmentation to automation, being aware of these errors can totally revamp your campaigns and enhance performance. 

If you want to learn more about SFMC email marketing automation in lead nurturing, here is a handy ebook that will help you excel.

Before you even finish reading this article, you’ll understand what goes wrong, how to fix it, and how to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns in SFMC. That’s it – let’s start getting into the nitty-gritty of keeping mistakes at bay and developing killer email marketing campaigns.

10 Common Salesforce Marketing Cloud email marketing mistakes to avoid 

Email marketing is a robust weapon, but even experienced marketers can fall into pitfalls that prevent campaigns from being successful. With Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), knowing and clarifying these pitfalls can dramatically improve your email marketing success.

Here are 10 common mistakes you must avoid with your SFMC email marketing. 

1. You should not neglect data quality and management. 

If you gather poor data quality and send emails based on those, it may lead to misdirected emails – implying non-relevant emails to your users. It may reduce engagement and damage your brand’s reputation as well. Also, sending emails to outdated addresses can increase bounce rates and affect deliverability.

How to avoid it? 

• You can conduct frequent checks to identify and correct inaccuracies. 
• You need to make use of SFMC tools to automate the process of removing duplicate or obsolete data. 
• You need to ensure that changes in subscriber information are promptly reflected in your database.
• You can also design data extensions with appropriate primary keys to manage subscriber data accurately.

2. You should not skip the discovery phase. 

If you jump into SFMC without a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, your strategies may get misaligned. 

How to avoid it? 

You can gather detailed information about your business requirements and audience. And then you can set clear, measurable goals to guide your email marketing efforts in the right direction. 

3. You should not ignore mobile optimization. 

You know that a huge number of users access emails via smartphones. So, if you send them non-optimized emails that are not mobile-friendly, it may lead to poor user experiences. 

How to avoid it? 

You can use SFMC’s responsive templates to ensure emails render correctly on all devices. You can also regularly test emails on various devices to ensure compatibility and readability. 

4. You should not overlook compliance and deliverability. 

If you don’t follow email regulations, it may lead to legal issues, and you may lose your sender reputation score as well. You may also face reduced deliverability of your emails.

How to avoid it? 

You must ensure that all recipients have opted in to receive emails. And you should also use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate your emails and improve deliverability.

5. You should not fail to personalize content. 

If you keep sending generic, non-personalized emails, it may lead to disengaging your recipients and lower conversion rates. 

How to avoid it? 

You can use SFMC’s dynamic content blocks to tailor messages to individual preferences. You can also incorporate personalization strings to address recipients by name and reference past interactions.

6. You should not be mismanaging email sending times. 

If you send emails at random times, you cannot guarantee high open rates and engagement. Your audience might not even care, as they’d have hundreds of emails lying in their inbox untouched. 

How to avoid it? 

You need to analyze your audience’s behavior to find out when your audience is most active and schedule emails accordingly. You can also employ SFMC’s Send Time Optimization feature to determine the best times to reach your audience. 

7. You should not overcomplicate email designs. 

If you create cluttered or overly complex designs, it can confuse recipients and detract from the message. 

How to avoid it? 

You can use clean, straightforward designs that highlight key messages. You can also ensure readability by choosing legible fonts and maintaining a clear visual hierarchy. 

8. You should not neglect A/B testing. 

If you start assuming what works without testing, it can lead to missed opportunities for optimization. You cannot depend upon your intuitions alone when you can conduct A/B testing. 

How to avoid it? 

You can experiment with different subject lines, content, and designs to identify what resonates best with your audience. You can then analyze the results using SFMC’s analytics tools to assess test outcomes and refine your strategies accordingly.

9. You should not follow inadequate automation practices. 

If your automation workflows are poorly configured, it can lead to errors and inefficiencies in your campaigns.

How to avoid it? 

You can plan your email automation campaigns carefully by mapping out automation workflows to ensure they align with your marketing objectives. You can also regularly review automated processes to identify and rectify issues promptly.

10. You should not disregard analytics and reporting. 

If you don’t keep a tab on your campaign’s performance data, it will be challenging to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns.

How to avoid it? 

You can use SFMC analytics to leverage built-in analytics tools to track key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. You can also tweak your strategies in real-time using insights gained from analytics to inform and improve future campaigns.

Wrapping up 

That brings us to the conclusive end of this article, where it’s fair to say that even with advanced technology at your fingertips, common mistakes can hinder your campaigns’ success. 

But the good news is that – these mistakes are entirely avoidable. Follow the best practices we discussed in this article, and you’re good to go. 

It’s highly likely that with a robust action plan, you won’t just avoid these mistakes but also excel with your SFMC email marketing.