5 Indications of an Ineffective B2B Email Newsletter

Given the success of email marketing in B2B lead generation and its consistent presence in most businesses’ marketing campaigns, it’s hard to imagine that email newsletters would fail. But it does happen, and the problem is that marketers tend to be in denial of the fact that it’s not working and that they need to do something about it.

Marketers need to identify the signs that tell whether or not an email campaign is successful. Although these indications are pretty obvious, they’re the ones that marketers need to take a look at so they can make the necessary adjustments. These indications are as follows:

1. Low subscription rate; high unsubscribe rate. If your list of subscribers got stuck at 20 and no longer growing, then you obviously have a problem. Also, if people seem to unsubscribe constantly, that’s another problem. To address this, go back to the mechanism that allows them to subscribe – is it a tick box on your landing page? Is it a full-pledged form? You may want to rethink your subscription offers, too. Check whether the frequency and/or content are making them happy.
2. Awful open rates. Your subscribers may not be quitting on you, but if they’re not opening the stuff you send them, it’s pretty much the same thing. It could be your subject line. It could be the timing. Or it could be a previous content piece they so disliked that they've decided not to read anything from you, and they’re just too kind to unsubscribe.
3. Unpromising click-though rates. The industry standard is currently at 4.3%. Is your CTR reaching that target? If no, but intermittently, then you might still be in the game. If no with consistency, then you might as well refocus your energy on something else.
4. Calls-to-action are in oblivion. CTAs measure the very purpose of lead generation. If they are being ignored (or worse, if they are becoming invisible), then you need to check what’s going on. Is it the presentation style of the CTA? Is it being too pushy? Does it make the process too complicated for prospects?
5. Spam rates are unusually high. Being marked as a spammer is the ultimate symptom – it means your would-be readers are just too unengaged and will only generate more spam complaints in the future. If your spam rates are going through the roof, it may be best to pull the plug on email marketing (for a while), rethink the strategy and redeem yourself next time.