Every email marketer has a story about sending errors. So, we inquired around and found some good (or terrible) to share.
When you process emails, sending errors is a matter of time, not whether they happen or not. Ask anyone who has worked on e-mail for a while, and I promise they will tell you stories about errors in e-mail sending. Some, like a small typo, are innocent. But others, such as sending to the wrong list, are completely different stories.
Fortunately, email technology has made great strides resource with feature This eliminates the nerve to press to send. But this is not always the case, and experienced marketers have scars to prove it.
We asked around and collected some of the best email marketing horror stories, and this is what we got.
A letter has a major impact
As the author of this article (by the way, I’m Will 👋), it’s fair for me to start work with my own email error.
Now, as far as email errors are concerned, typos are not bad. But this, in particular, is very bad.
Once upon a time, I was at home Custom T-shirt Printing Company, Where I manage the weekly newsletter.How many times have I typed in “T-shirt” on any given day, you can imagine how easy it is to ignore it r Wearing a shirt leaves you with a naughty typo.
Although I would like to say that I found all these typos, I left one in an email, and when I was talking about t-sh*ts, more than 200,000 subscribers must read it.
This feels like a good time to insert Grammatically Meet all your spell checking needs.
Truncated disaster
Lizzie Newbern is our own internal email marketing manager with more than five years of email experience. However, even spending so much time in email will not protect you from errors. Lizzie’s horror story involves truncated subject lines and some very bad luck.
In previous positions, Lizzie was an email marketing manager for one of the top senior life companies in the industry. Sometimes they will hold events for the local community, where they will send email invitations to residents of the area and other interested potential customers. This event is especially for a cocktail night to start a conversation, where potential residents can visit the community and meet some residents while enjoying craft cocktails.
The subject of this email is “Celebrate Long Weekends with Cocktails and Talk.” It’s harmless, right?
The email is tested, proofread and sent on the way. But throughout the day, Lizzie noticed that this email received many replies.
She started to sweat, and she checked and saw replies such as “too inappropriate”. “Wow, that’s unprofessional.” “It looks like someone didn’t check their subject line deadline!”
Finally, she found a reply with a screenshot of the subject line displayed in the inbox. There, in all its glory, is “Celebrate the long weekend with c***…”
Fortunately, this email was sent to less than 100 subscribers, so the loss was not too serious. The moral of the story: send a test email and make sure you check the subject lines of all device types.
Dark fashion faux pas
Justin is an email marketer and Campaign Monitor with over 6 years of email experience. But the thing about email marketing is that technology is always changing. Regardless of your level of experience, there are always new things to be aware of.
Although Justin builds tests for every email he sends, he once forgot to test dark mode compatibility activities. After sending the email, he realized that in Gmail’s dark mode, some of his emails were completely unreadable.
Lessons learned: test, test, test. With tons of different applications and thousands of screen sizes, you will never be too careful.
Also, related to this: don’t miss our A guide to dark mode in email.
Send an email to three angry companies
Tiffani Davidson is responsible for life cycle marketing thimble. She is also a co-administrator Email geekSo, needless to say, her email marketing credentials have been established. With a wealth of experience, she has some good stories to tell.
Back when she was working on the email team College sports + outdoor activities, She managed to anger three big companies, all of them sent via one email.
We will not use the brand name, but Tiffani is sending an email promoting Academy Sports and Sports Company A. However, she accidentally put the names of their competitors, Sports Company B, In the subject line.
Leaving college sports, Sports Company A, with Sports Company B All are equally angry.
Oops.
Test error
Grace was an email marketer who later became a writer. Why? Well, in her words, “I can’t afford the treatment I need to manage stress.”
Once, she was working with a junior designer to create a new email template, and she asked the designer to send her a test. However, she did not expect to double check and make sure that the designer understands how to send test emails.
As a result, the designer did not receive a test of the template, but accidentally sent a corrupted email to their entire list. 800,000 people. *Insert crying emoji*
It feels like now is a good time to mention our supporting documents How to test your email. You’re welcome.
wrap up
Email marketing is not for the faint-hearted. Even the most experienced email marketer still feels sending anxiety, jittering send button, or whatever you want to call it. But, at least you know that you are not alone.
