6 Email Blast Mistakes to Avoid

Email blasts are essential for political candidates and GOP organizations because of fundraising.  Political candidates will always have a donate button to cover campaign expenses.  GOP organizations (county parties, political action committees, clubs) will have a “donate” or “become a member” button.  Fundraising keeps campaigns and GOP organizations active and helps them pay the bills.

It is critical for email newsletters to have all the content details correct.  Always send a test email to another person for feedback.  He or she may catch a typo or a missing link.  In this blog, I share six email blast mistakes to avoid for your campaign or your organization’s next newsletter.

1. Forgetting to update the subject line and preheader

The most efficient process creating email blasts is to clone from a previous campaign.  For example, if it is a weekly newsletter.  Cloning an email preserves the same format.  As an email marketing manager, I naturally click “edit design” and update the newsletter content first.  Then, I update the subject line and preheader. 

One organization I subscribe to sent an email blast with their March 2023 updates but the subject line was titled “February 2023 Newsletter”, which was already sent in February.  Be sure and update the date or month on the subject line.  

You do not have to add a date or month to your subject line.  Below are a few examples of subject lines with no dates.

“[Name] Weekly Update”

“Week ahead for [Name]”

“[Name] Monthly Update”

“[Name] Quarterly Update”

2. Adding the same picture twice

This mistake can happen if a photo gallery with event photos is included in your newsletter.  Be sure and have a second set of eyes to double check the photos.  

3. Sending the Same Email Twice in One Day

I have received the same newsletter update twice in one morning.  All the content in the email was the same.  I was not subscribed to the elected official on more than one email.  The email was sent to the same email account.  

The only exception to sending the same email twice in one day is if there is a correction that needs to be made.  Indicate in the subject line “CORRECTION” or “UPDATE”.  Highlight the updated details and apologize for previous error(s).

4. Typos

Again, this is why you should send a test email first to catch any accidental misspellings of names.  Another common typo is forgetting to update the new year date every January and updating the copyright year.

5. Uploading the wrong link

Double check to make sure you insert the correct link whether that is to a website, a sign up form, a video, or a donation link.

6. Forgetting to Link

You should send a test email, click all the buttons to make sure the links included in your email blast work.  

Email blasts, newsletters, email campaigns are all interchangeable.  Whichever term you use, emails reflect your campaign or your GOP organization’s brand.  Sending error-free emails will show your campaign or your GOP organization is organized.  Hyper-organized email content will increase the likelihood of donations or increased GOP club memberships.  

Find a reliable communications manager on your team to send test emails.  Sending a test email and receiving corrections will make your brand flawless.