I spent a year working for an email marketing firm on The Hill and quickly learned that email marketing is just as much an art as it is a science. 

I also realized that despite the rise of other popular platforms, it is still one of the most critical strategies that simply isn’t used properly by most marketers.

So, why is email so important?

It should be part of your strategy because it’s one of the only platforms where you own your customer’s information and can engage with your audience directly.

Although social media and other marketing platforms are constantly changing, it’s important to pay close attention to email analytics to figure out why your email marketing strategy is or isn’t working.

Here are some reasons why your current strategy just isn’t making the cut.

You’re triggering spam filters.

Subject lines or preview text with language in all caps, special characters like exclamation points or asterisks, and language that seems deceptive will trigger inboxes to send your email straight to spam folders. Look at your spam folder now and notice a trend of subject lines that look like this:

**ACT NOW FOR YOUR EXCLUSIVE OFFER!**

Are you ready to cure your male-patterned baldness?

“Fwd: [Your Subject]” Finish Your Subscription

Avoid language and punctuation like this in your subject lines and preview text.

You’re not getting to the inbox.

Just because you “send” an email doesn’t necessarily mean that it gets to your users’ inbox. Emails bounce, they get into spam filters, or they could just be invalid.

Depending on your list size, you can clean the list yourself for invalid users or you could hire an agency to do so for you – and if you aren’t technologically savvy, I suggest the later.

You’re not fully engaging your audience.

If a user hasn’t opened your email for more than six months, well, maybe they’re just not that into you.

If that’s the case, then it’s time to implement a re-engagement campaign to get users to start interacting again.

Make sure your subject lines, preview text, and copy is crystal clear. Use specific call-to-actions to re-engage your lists. Short surveys, petitions, and special offers can go a long way.

Moral of the story? Don’t ignore your email list. It may just bring you more leads this year than you ever thought possible.