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Email Marketing Failures: Learning from Mistakes

This article delves into the common pitfalls of email marketing, particularly focusing on how using **Facebook** for **customer acquisition** can impact your **newsletter's** success.

The Impact of Facebook on Newsletter Success

The article analyzes the author's experience with two newsletters: one on marketing and another on anime. While the marketing newsletter boasted a 0% **spam complaint rate**, it suffered from a high **unsubscribe rate**, suggesting the audience was more inclined to avoid hitting the spam button than actively engaging with the content. In contrast, the anime newsletter, primarily acquired through **Facebook**, experienced a **spam complaint rate** nearly 5 times the average.

• This data highlights the negative impact of **Facebook** as a source for **email subscribers**. While double opt-in is in place, subscribers from **Facebook** tend to be less engaged and more likely to report emails as spam. This negatively impacts your **email's spam score** and ultimately its deliverability.
• The author emphasizes the importance of choosing **customer acquisition channels** that align with your audience's interests and engagement level. **Facebook** might not be the most effective channel for building a high-quality, engaged **email subscriber** base.

The Importance of Optimizing Link Count

Another key takeaway is the impact of the number of **links** in your **newsletter**. The article highlights that having too many **links** can dilute clicks, especially when trying to drive traffic to a specific call to action.

• Optimizing for a single call to action requires having fewer than five **links**, ideally placing the desired call to action in the first or second position.
• The author provides a visual example of the link count analysis from their **Email Newsletter Report Card** tool. They point out that even their own **newsletter**, "Startup Frontier", had a significantly higher number of links than initially anticipated. This highlights the unconscious tendency to include **links** in emails.

The Role of Timing in Email Marketing

Timing plays a crucial role in email marketing, and the article demonstrates this by analyzing the open times for the anime **newsletter**.

• The author discovered that while they were sending the **newsletter** at 7pm GMT, most subscribers were opening it at 6pm GMT, indicating a delayed engagement.
• This finding emphasizes the need to optimize send times based on audience behavior to ensure emails reach subscribers when they are most likely to engage.

The Importance of Avoiding Common Email Marketing Mistakes

The article serves as a valuable resource for understanding common **email marketing** mistakes, particularly those related to using **Facebook** for **customer acquisition**. By recognizing these pitfalls and applying the recommended strategies, marketers can improve their **open rate**, reduce their **unsubscribe rate**, and minimize their **spam complaint rate**, ultimately creating a more effective and engaging **newsletter** experience for their audience.