The True Cost of Typos in Email Marketing

Do you know how much your customers’ typos are costing you? According to a 2006 report, top retail websites lose an average of 6.7 million dollars each year due to mistyped email addresses. Sadly, many online shops still fail to capture common registration errors, and business owners have to contend with lengthy lists of unreachable customers.

If you want to make the most of your marketing campaigns, you’ll need to understand the far-reaching impacts of email typos. Here, we outline a few ways faulty addresses can eat away at your business and outline strategies for preventing them.

Disgruntled Customers

Everyone hates junk mail, and few visitors will sign up for newsletters they don’t want to read. That means the people who sign up for your list really want to receive your emails. Even if they’re the ones mistyping their addresses or other personal information, they’ll likely blame you if they don’t receive your emails or if you address them as “Lindsai” instead of “Lindsay.” They’ll be even more upset if they miss out on online-only products and savings.

Mistaken Identities

But what do you do when a customer accidentally enters someone else’s address? You could be sending important or sensitive information to the wrong person. Even worse, you could send email to a typo trap, which can get you blacklisted. It’s all too easy for a customer to type “[email protected]” instead of “[email protected].” You probably had to do a double-take just to catch the difference!

Long-term Delivery Woes

Even nonexistent addresses can drag down your long-term marketing efforts. Most Internet providers will take notice when your emails bounce back. One or two typos won’t hurt you too much, but a long list of duds may get you flagged. Have you ever seen emails you signed up for end in your spam box? That could happen to your messages! A low enough delivery rate could even prevent ISPs from accepting your emails at all.

Lost Profits

Even if you never have to deal with legal problems, angry non-recipients or compromised deliverability, every typo will cut away at your potential profits. Most customers require multiple messages before they’ll buy, and you’ll usually lose the sale if you fail to deliver that first newsletter or offer.

Catching Mistakes

There are a few steps you can take to encourage your customers to be extra-careful when they type. High-value offers, large fonts and confirmation pages can all help. But why leave anything to chance? With real-time validation services, you can auto-correct almost any mistake, ensuring fast and accurate email delivery.

TowerData’s API can correct account names and domains, eliminate fraudsters and clean your list of abandoned addresses – all while you dedicate more time to your products and customers. For your free trial, click here.

Photo Credit: camil tulcan