How to Write an Apology Email: What to Do to Prepare for an Error

Email marketing can be intimidating:

• Access to big lists of contacts through your CRM

• Your emails living permanently in an inbox where you can't revise your content

• Loads of testing and lots of stakeholder voices offering [expert and non-expert] feedback

• Limitations of what is a pretty old system of communication (e.g., spam filters, limited graphic elements, no embedded video, etc.)

You've probably received a revision email or even an apology at some point, maybe for the wrong date of the sale or not including a sign-up link. And if you're an email marketer, chances are you have had to formulate some kind of follow-up email yourself. It happens — there are too many factors at play to never make a mistake, and you can't spend all day testing, rechecking, testing, and rechecking that one email that just needs to be deployed.

Try on PR

Rather than fill your marketing automation career with anxiety, adopt a public relations mindset. PR professionals often look at their work this way: mistakes will be made and people will find issues with you. No reality exists where everyone approves of you. Instead, prepare ahead of time so, with minimal stress, you can quickly address the inevitable misconceptions, complications, and errors.

Some Quick Preparation Steps

Here are some quick steps you can take as a marketer to start working on your "oops" communication strategy:

1. Consider working with your public relations manager or team to discover how you can align with their approach and strategy. They will likely have different approaches depending on the severity of the "oops," ranging from redirection to full-blown apologies.

2. Make a short list of things that can could most commonly go wrong (pro tip: this also helps with anxiety!).

3. Build a brief strategy for addressing each issue that your team can access.

4. BONUS: write a template email that can quickly be edited and sent after your "oops" moment.

My team once experienced a technical error that caused an email to deploy to a large list of contacts who were no longer considered active. It was the kind of email that might have alarmed some recipients, especially since they hadn't been in contact with our organization in a long time. After assessing the situation with the various teams impacted by this email error, we decided to deploy a follow-up email addressing our mistake.

Start with a Template

Below, I have included a generalized version that might help you see how to write an apology email, but the basic elements are: 1) acknowledgement of the error 2) apology 3) what we're doing to remedy the problem 4) a way to contact us with questions or concerns.

Hi < First Name >,

You may have noticed an email you received from us yesterday seemed out of place. You’re right — and we are sorry for this error. We had a small hiccup in our system, but we are working hard to make sure you get the right communication at the right time in the future.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we would be happy to assist you. Meanwhile, our customer service team is still here to help you find an option that works for your life when you're ready.

Thank you for understanding.

< Contact Team or Individual Name >

< Contact Information >