The Most Common Mistakes Online Marketers Make and How to Fix Them- ActiveTrail’s Pros Speak Up

We set out to the different departments of ActiveTrail – development, support, marketing and sales – and asked our professional staff what, in their opinion, are the most common mistakes that online marketers make and how to avoid them. The answers will surprise you!

Common Mistakes in newsletters

Gadi Susa, Head of the Development Team

“Many of our customers send their campaigns to a specific organization; that is, all of the recipients have a mailbox from the same organization – for example, activetrail@activetrail.net. When they enter their email address (also from the same organization) in the “from” line, it creates a problem; the email provider identifies the mail as sent by an external source, therefore it sends it directly to the spam folder. When this happens, your mailings aren’t reaching your recipients’ mailboxes causing you to actually hinder your own offense.”

Your recommendation?

“I suggest entering an external email address, one from a different email provider, into the ‘from’ line.”

change email sender address

Ron Rabinowitz, Director of Marketing

“Many online marketers rely only on their personal judgment, sending out their campaigns how they see fit, with no external consultation. ActiveTrail offers many different helpful applications that all online marketers should be taking advantage of, such as AB Testing.”

Your recommendation?

“Design a campaign with two, slightly different, versions – differently worded subject lines or titles, differently colored links, addition of an icon into the subject line, or any kind of personalization. With ActiveTrail’s AB Testing you can send out each campaign to a certain percentage of recipients, and subsequently analyze which factors yielded stronger response rates. You even have the option of analyzing how the different factors influenced specific data, such as open rate, click-through-rate (CTO), etc. Take advantage of this very helpful tool!”

Erez Horev, Technical Support

“In my opinion, the biggest mistake that online marketers make is not conducting a test run when sending their campaigns. The main email providers, Gmail and Outlook, may be formatted differently causing your campaign to appear differently on their screens as it does on yours. Conducting a test run allows you to see for yourself exactly how your different recipients will view your campaign, giving you the opportunity to make any necessary changes so that it appears to your liking.”

Your recommendation?

“I suggest opening an email account in each of the different providers and conducting a test run to each one before sending your campaign to your recipients. This will allow you to cover all of the bases when identifying mistakes and unwanted incongruities in the appearance of your campaign.”

send test newletter

Ori Fintal, Developer

“Many online marketers build html-based campaigns instead of using ActiveTrail’s ‘builder.’ Of course the system recognizes and supports html campaigns, however it is important to remember that our system is responsive – when building a campaign with ActiveTrail’s system, you can rest assured that it will appear how you want it to on every screen (mobile phones, tablets, etc). With html-based campaigns, however, it is up to the marketer to conduct test runs on all of the different devices, something that tends to be overlooked, causing the campaign to look unfavorable on certain devices.”

Your recommendation?

“We didn’t develop this smart, responsive system that provides easy-to-use design tools for nothing – take advantage of it! Not only will you be able to design your campaigns on your own and save money on a designer, but you will also sleep easy knowing that your campaign will look great on every platform – just don’t forget to conduct a test run with the various email providers.”

Tal Honovich, Community & Customer Relation Manager

“Lately I’ve received a few mailings with spelling mistakes. We are only human and mistakes are inevitable, however they come off as unprofessional and should be avoided as much as possible. Taking the time to look over your campaign carefully and patiently could save you from making a silly mistake or two.”

Your recommendation?

“I recommend double checking your campaigns before hitting the send button. I suggest recruiting a co-worker to look it over as well -an extra pair of eyes always helps.  Although this may feel tedious, it is definitely worth it in the long run.”

Almog Gilad, Technical Support

“As we all know, time is money, therefore we are always looking for shortcuts. One shortcut that many of our customers take is copying and pasting content directly from Microsoft Excel or Word into their campaign. More often than not this ends badly, making the campaign look a little off in your recipients inboxes, especially those with Gmail and Outlook.”

Your recommendation?

“I suggest using the ‘copy from word’ option in ActiveTrail’s campaign editor. This simple act removes all of the Microsoft Word characteristics that aren’t supported by the various email providers, bypassing the problem and still saving time.”

How to paste from Microsoft Words

Tali Albaz, Director of Content

“Everybody loves celebrations, whether celebrating a holiday or a big (but not dangerous!) snow storm that leads to a snow day or two. These celebrations are all opportunities for a special campaign, however there are many online marketers that don’t take advantage of this. Instead, they send out their regular mailings with the same subject lines and the same design, never deviating from the norm.”

Your recommendation?

“I recommend making a calendar of special events, from holidays to the first day of summer, and incorporate them into your campaigns. For example, add a small reminder on Valentine’s Day with a heart (♥) in the subject line or a tasteful Valentine’s Day reference in the body of the newsletter. Take Brit & Co as a great example. They designed a campaign catered to the 4th of July, tastefully displaying all of their patriotic merchandise with a beach theme.”

Brit and co newletter

For more tips check out ActiveTrail’s blog