We have all been in the situation where we have sent off an email to a prospective client, confident in its quality… only for a quick skim-read later to find the occasional typo.
Naturally, your first instinct will be to hit the panic button and wonder if this small error will sink your marketing campaign. But a mistake doesn’t have to be such a negative issue. If you use it correctly, it could be the best thing that ever happened to you.
They say that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and for the most part, that is true. But after sending a particular email, you can follow it up later with an excuse of along the lines ‘sorry, we got forgot to include this information’, and allow for a follow-on of links acting as a calling card. You should be careful with how you time it, giving the receiver enough time to absorb the original email before sending the second.
Another ‘mistake’ to make is the use of personalisation in an email. Many email marketing agencies often make the mistake of sending out boilerplate emails to prospective clients. While this is certainly the most pragmatic approach, it showcases a generic message that will not resonate as strongly with a target audience. But if one were to include the first name of a prospective client, e.g. ‘Sorry that link didn’t work [Name,], try this one’, insinuates that you are trying to build a more personable connection.
However, there has to be a balance in ‘mistake emails’. As said before mistakes are a common practice. Make them once in twice and people will excuse it. Make it several times and people will risk seeing you as incompetent. Another possibility is that they will catch on to your ‘accidental’ strategy and cease any further contact with you. However you use your strategy, make sure you remain in control of it.
Another thing to bear in mind is that no matter how hard we try to be perfectionists, we are always going to be prone to human error. A mistake shows that you’re still human, but the careful placing of a mistake could make a lot of difference to your marketing strategy.
