How to Avoid the 3 Most Embarrassing Email Marketing Disasters

Guys…

Stop for a second and tell me - what’s been your biggest EVER email marketing blunder?

Take a second and think, I’ll wait.

C’mon….don’t be shy. This is a safe space.

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OK! What was what?

A typo in the headline? A broken link? 

YAWWNNNN… boring….

Cuz I just received an email with the #1 worst error I’ve ever seen in my life.

And it was sent by my son’s school

Check it out.

LMAOOOOO!

What’s that? You don’t speak Spanish?

No worries because apparently whoever wrote this email doesn’t either.

Let me zoom in and make it a little easier.

“Mas sobre el ano do su hijo/a en kindergarten”

Still don’t get it?

Ok… quick Spanish lesson:

Ano and año have two WILDLY different meanings

Año = year

Ano = anus.

They wanted to say:

“We hope you’ll come to hear about your son/daughter’s year of kindergarten.

But what they actually said was:

“We hope you’ll come to hear more about your son/daughter’s anus in Kindergarten.  

My wife was speechless and I was literally ROFLCOPTering in the kitchen.

In fact I’ve been randomly busting out in uncontrollable laughter for the last 12 hours.

My Top 3 Most Stomach Churning Email Marketing Disasters

So in honor of this glorious email error, I wanted to do something a little different.

Everyone always brags and shows off their biggest wins.

So I'm gonna get a little vulnerable with you and share my top 3 email marketing blunders.

Why?

Because honestly, I never want you to make them again and you can learn from my pain:

1. The Great Black Friday Disaster

About five years ago It's my first Black Friday working at an agency. 

The days leading up to Thanksgiving were an absolute blur. And late on Wednesday night I hit SCHEDULE on the final Black Friday campaign. 

DONE!  Fast forward to the next day, Thanksgiving I’m in the kitchen whipping up some mac and cheese for my wife and son.

Then my phone explodes.

"BEN WHY DID THE BLACK FRIDAY EMAIL GO OUT ALREADY?!"

My stomach dropped through the floor. 

I'd scheduled the Black Friday email for THURSDAY. The sale wasn’t on the website. The client was furious. I was mortified.

My new rule: Always put the send date in the email title. Always double-check the schedule before hitting save. Because you can't un-send 50,000 emails.

2. The Silent Automation Fail

I’m testing a new identity resolution software for a client to see how it compares to their old one. To run a proper test, we have to build a second version of all the automations. Almost 50 emails in total.

We spent weeks building it all from scratch. I flip the switch, and let it run for what's supposed to be a month-long comparison test.

Three weeks in, the client asks: "Hey, why aren't any emails going out from the new cart abandon?"

Turns out I'd set up the wrong trigger. Zero emails had fired for three weeks. The entire test was ruined.

My new rule: After setting up any automation, I double check it in Klaviyo with their preview tool. THENI let it run for exactly one day, and go back and verify it's actually firing. 

I made a YouTube video that shows you how to check this out.

3. The Deliverability Death Knell

This wasn't me, but I watched it happen first hand at my first email marketing job, 7 years ago.

The email marketing director decides to switch to a dedicated sending IP. A very expensive decision. 

During the critical warming process, he accidentally sends an email to more than 100,000 people who had unsubscribed.  

It instantly tanked our IP reputation and we had to start the whole process from zero.

He was fired within the week. (And that’s how I got my first email marketing job).

My new rule: With segmentation, slow down. Double-check your audience. Some mistakes you can't come back from. 

But here's the biggest takeaway from all my email screw ups.

When you mess up (and you will), own it immediately.

I've found that with clients, it's always better if you catch the mistake first. 

Go to them right away and say

"Here's what happened, here's where I went wrong, here's how it won't happen again."

They respect the honesty. And trust me, they'd rather hear it from you than discover it themselves.

Got something you’d like me to talk about? Reply to this email, I do my best to reply to them all.

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