POOR 17 E-NEWSLETTER EXAMPLES THAT WENT BAD

Find below the worst email marketing examples that went bad. Hard to read poor eNewsletters, boring emails, email formatting issues or not optimised images when sending marketing or sales emails.

Brought to you by Mau, a Senior Email Marketer at eDigital.

Trending today >The best email marketing software

POOR 17 E-NEWSLETTER EXAMPLES THAT WENT BAD

Email marketing is one of the most personal and highly effective channels to bring traffic, repeat purchases and new leads to your business. Invest in professional email marketing software, design and copywriting and/or content creators and make it a great investment for your business and your clients.

Below are some poor email marketing examples that went bad…

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GOOGLE LOCAL GUIDES PIXEL 5 – OFFER IS MISSING

With some magic, Google disappears the offer from their email copy 🙂 Local guides will have to go through all the processes in the shopping cart to realise the offer was $99 off.

google local guides offer missing copy bad email marketing example

Google Local Guides offer missing copy bad email marketing example

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NEIGHBOURLYTICS EMAIL – WILL YOU READ IT?

Subject line: It’s 2020. Our newsletter begins, and we wish it was under better circumstances.

The subject line and body text are quite bland.

poor email marketing example bad design worst neighbourlytics

poor email marketing example bad design worst neighbourlytics

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FLICKR PRO CEO PITCH EMAIL DECEMBER 2019

This email pitch by Flickr CEO Don MacAskill does not offer any value to its members. It focuses on bland “about me” reasons for people to support the photography platform. Had this been passed to a copywriter or marketer surely the message would have been a different one? A message that inspires people or at least gives them key reasons to pay for their pro version.

Really poor execution. Customers do not care what you have done and customers do not bother to know what you are not. If a platform is not getting momentum is because it has failed to offer true value. Full point.

Flickr Pro version pitch CEO email December 2019

Flickr Pro version pitch CEO email December 2019

If people are not paying for your pro version they are not seeing the value.

Mau

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GOOGLE AUSTRALIA

The email header presents Samsung, however, the copy introduces Suncorp. Upps! Someone fell slept while sending this out!

think with google - email marketing mistakes that go bad

think with google – email marketing mistakes that go bad

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TUMBLR INVITE TO VOTE FOR AWARDS EMAIL

Have you ever wondered how your email looks when a recipient forwards it to a friend? This might happen…

Invite to vote for award bad formatted email went wrong tumblr

Invite to vote for award bad formatted email went wrong Tumblr

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WILDLIFE CONSERVATION FILM FESTIVAL ENEWSLETTER

What went bad:

  • Too much text. People do not read, they scan for key information.
  • Also, image sizes are not optimised and text overlays on images are not readable.
Wildlife Conservation Film Festival Newsletter March 2019

Wildlife Conservation Film Festival Newsletter March 2019

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MEDIAMATH ENEWSLETTER

The guys behind “The Guide to Getting Attribution Right” seem they need to read first “The Guide for Getting Email Marketing Right”.

What happens if one of your most important lead-generation guides gets truncated because of a lack of email marketing testing? The result is a really bad user experience. It is quite a paradox, for a company that brings advanced knowledge to marketing attribution practitioners but does not implement basic email marketing practices. Shit like this happens – ensure it happens to you only once! Make a procedure for all your emails to be tested across different email platforms (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) and for all text and also test all links work correctly.

email marketing ineffective spam folder unable link does not work poor testing media match

email marketing ineffective spam folder unable link does not work poor testing media match

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ADMA INVITE EMAIL

Adma! Come on, you should be showing us the best practices!

  • Make it personal: add a name in both the greeting and the farewell.
  • Add the best Header image, not a random red one.
  • Avoid duplication – you have 1 or 2 seconds to grab people’s attention.
  • Change the dots for tick symbols ✔︎ or thumbs up ??
  • Time it properly. The survey took less than 5 minutes.
Australian B2B Marketing Research Report Survey email invitation ADMA green hat

Australian B2B Marketing Research Report Survey email invitation ADMA green hat

“These emails are so dull to check out as to inspire less than favourable comparisons with staple borefest classics like watching paint dry”

Mau

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LINKEDIN MARKETING SOLUTIONS BLOG – SUBSCRIPTION CONFIRMATION EMAIL

When email marketing automation forgets about personalisation!

Things Linkedin can improve!

  • Make it personal: add a name in both the greeting and the farewell. You are Linkedin you know the names of millions of professionals!
  • Modify the numbering for tick symbols ✔︎ or thumbs up
linkedin marketing solutions blog email subscription confirmation

Linkedin marketing solutions blog email subscription confirmation

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SENSIS AUSTRALIA – BORING SURVEY REMINDER EMAIL

Ouch!

Do you want me to help you

Send me at least a cool email

What a boring email from Sensis

sensis australia survey reminder email

Click on the image to enlarge – Sensis Australia survey reminder email

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MICHAEL PAGE – THIS NEWSLETTER MADE ME FALL ASLEEP!

This will be a boring job interview! Can someone please go and teach Michael Page’s marketing team about visual marketing? If they are promoting how to make a CV then they should first ensure their e-newsletter are amazing! What a boring execution.

michael page sydney australia email marketing enewsletter april 2017

Click on the image to enlarge – Michael Page Sydney Australia email marketing e-newsletter April 2017

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INSTITUTO CERVANTES  – THE WORST FONT BACKGROUND COLOUR PAIRING

I need a magnifying glass for this one. Who decided you can read with the below font colour with that background colour? Saying that the below is terrible email marketing execution is a compliment.

instituto cervantes sydney- enewsletter wrong font colour april 2017

Click on image to enlarge – Instituto Cervantes Sydney-
e-newsletter wrong font colour April 2017

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TRIPADVISOR EMAIL –  POOR COPYWRITING 

I am not the best copywriter – surely you will find many copywriting errors in this article – and I got to the point that neither my Spanish nor English are quite good, but hey…this is Tripadvisor! In a world where everyone is busy and has no time, your email marketing communications should include a tangible benefit for your customers to interact with you. In the below example, Tripadvisor‘s automated email campaign tries to promote and get users to submit reviews of destinations they have travelled to or visited recently.

What it lacks is to remind the recipient about the benefits of reviewing places.

A customer might ask: “What does it mean if I move to the “next level” or if I get a new “badge”?

This should have been a great opportunity for Tripadvisor to show and explain what the Trip Collective is and why I should be part of it. Probably it would have been nice to show/remind users how many reviews they submitted so far and at what “level” “badge” they are and what the benefits are for interacting.

Tripadvisor tripcollective review write email marketing poor execution 2016 eDigital

Click on the image to enlarge – Tripadvisor tripcollective review write email marketing poor execution 2016 eDigital

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ONE 10 TEAM – FAULTY FORMATTING ENEWSLETTER

Your emails should be less than 102kb. If not, they get truncated/clipped by email providers such as Yahoo, Google or Hotmail.

email truncated clipped one ten team yahoo eDigital

It is needed to click on the image to enlarge – email truncated clipped one ten team yahoo eDigital

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FOOD SERVICE AUSTRALIA – OVERTEXT KILLS IT!

Seriously? Who is going to read all that? I emailed back the “suit and tie” funny gentleman about his opinion but no response yet. Likely he is busy trying to get as much content for his next “stuffy” e-newsletter.

Food Service Australia enewsletter April 2017

Click on the image to enlarge – Food Service Australia newsletter April 2017

CHECK FOR MISSPELLS

AngelList enewsletter writing typo grammar mistake error

AngelList e-newsletter writing typo grammar mistake error

Even large corporations with massive content teams make grammar mistakes and misspell words.  Below is a Shopify e-newsletter and landing page using the word: e-commerce.

ecommerce misspell eommerce grammar mistake - shopify enewsletter landing page

eCommerce misspell grammar mistake – Shopify e-newsletter landing page

KOGAN EMAILS MAKING IT HARD TO UNSUBSCRIBE

In Jan 2021, online retail giant Kogan was fined over $300,000 for repeated violations of Australian spam laws after it sent over 42 million marketing emails from which consumers were unable to easily unsubscribe.

kogan email campaign fine spam

Kogan email campaign fine spam

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Conclusion

When people decide to open your email, you only have a couple of seconds to grab your reader’s attention.

This is a proven fact.

If you bombard them with many options, they will feel overwhelmed and decide to delete your email straight away.

You should be testing different content lengths. Images play in email marketing play a big role as long as they are not many and not too large in file size that will slow down the showing of your email.

The first image to appear is key and the creative should create an emotional response with the reader.

eDigital can help you conceptualise, plan, develop, run and optimise successful email marketing campaigns that generate leads and sales for your brand.

Our digital marketing services include:

  • Strategic planning for social media and other digital marketing channels.
  • Online advertising management and optimisation (Search, Display, social media ads and re-marketing).
  • Training: social media marketing training and digital marketing training.
  • SEO strategy and execution. Including content development (articles, stories, eye-catching and SEO-optimised visuals).
  • Celebrity and influencer marketing campaign strategy.
  • Brand development. Logo creation, brand personality development and design of marketing materials.
  • Consumer contests/competitions/giveaways.
  • Email marketing. Dip sequence design and deployment.
  • Conversion rate optimisation. It is also called “path to purchase” optimisation.

Contact us today and start boosting your leads and sales.

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POOR EMAIL MARKETING & NEWSLETTERS THAT WENT BAD – EXAMPLES

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