Do you know what your subscribers find most annoying about your brand content? An Adobe survey of consumers in the United States may offer some answers to that important strategic question.
When asked about email marketing tactics that were most annoying, users ages 18 years or older who owned at least one digital device (smartphone, tablet, or computer), 39% of respondents said they find brand content that is too wordy or poorly written very annoying. Other reported annoyances with brand content included poor design (28%), overly personalized content to the point of being creepy (25%), stale and repetitive content (22%), under personalized content that isn’t relevant (22%), and content that isn’t optimized for the device where it’s being viewed on (21%).
When it comes to frustrating content experience, 42% of the same group reported that spam email was the most aggravating. Additional frustrations include slow load times (35%), irrelevant offers (29%), having to scroll through too many pages to access content (29%), and unavailable content (27%).
What do these complaints mean for you? The biggest takeaway is that consumers are looking for content that is accurate, informative, and personally tailored without overstepping personal boundaries. It’s also important that content is easily accessible and digestible.
Most savvy email marketers can avoid annoying or frustrating their customers by putting themselves in the consumer’s shoes. Consumers clearly want personalized content and fresh offers that pertain to them, and it’s possible to do so without scaring people off. When it comes to personalization, transparency is key. Always declare the use of cookies that are tracking their data and give users the chance to opt-in or opt-out of personal communications. The more someone recalls granting permission to personally engage with them, the less it is perceived as invasive when you do so.
On the design side, avoid frustrating your customers by keeping your messages relatively short and concise. Instead of cramming too much text or visuals into an email, which often slows down load times or doesn’t render properly across all devices, only include top-line information in your message and encourage readers to click through to your website or social media pages.
Keep in mind, you can’t win them all and there will always be some customers that don’t like your way of doing things. Avoid coming off as spammy – a chief complaint among users – by using honest and clear language, only sending relevant information, and letting go of subscribers that don’t serve your brand or ever engage in your email outreach.
Remember to keep these common issues in mind when developing email marketing strategies and crafting your next email campaign. If you keep your subscribers happy with the content they want, you’ll get the positive results you deserve.
Let ResponseGenius help take your email marketing to the next level – hello@responsegenius.com
