Oh no. It’s sent. It wasn’t right. *Slowly crawls into a hole and cries*
This is a subject very close to my heart, I’ve been there and it is horrible. That moment when you’ve set up an email campaign, checked, double checked, pressed send and then notice the dreaded mistake! But there are things you can do to turn it around! We’re human, we make mistakes, so take a breath, tell someone (maybe me) and sort it out rather than suffer internal combustion.
Funnily enough, I’ve seen quite a few examples from big big brands recently where an email has been sent with all types of mistakes. I’ve seen incomplete draft emails, ones where all the images are broken links and ones with nothing at all. I’m not making light of this situation, there are some serious mistakes that can happen regarding data protection, product costs and legally binding promises. We must take serious care when sending out marketing emails but when the content mistakes happen, there are two things you can do:
1. Ignore it and hope no one notices or says anything
This isn’t the best solution by far. It’s also very unlikely. But, if there was a single spelling mistake or the image wasn’t quite the right size, it may be more annoying to recipients than anything to send them another email. It’s probably best you learn from your mistake, read and re-read your copy and send yourself test emails to check everything before you hit send. Another pair or two pairs of eyes is the best solution, always ask someone else to give it a read.
2. Hold your hands up, correct your mistake, apologise and send again
This is your best bet. Today, a fashion retailer sent me an email and all the images were missing. They corrected the email, changed the subject line to “Oops! Take 2. Because it’s worth reopening” and sent it again. As I am an existing customer of theirs I did reopen the email and click through to their website. I’m not going to hold it against them, no harm done! MailChimp has even experienced this themselves – read poor Meg’s story here.
There are so many things that can go wrong, the list, the subject line, the from name and address, forgetting to link to Google Analytics, content and send time, to name just a few. Speaking from experience, my best advice is to take that extra 10 minutes and check it again and again. Even then, something might slip through so don’t forget to take a breath, tell someone and do one of the two above! Or pretend you did it on purpose…to grab everyone’s attention. Yeah, that was it.
Good luck! Don’t let the email fear get to you….