Avoiding surprises in email marketing

I've seen every email marketing disaster. Here are the biggest ones I see and how to avoid them: Mistake #1: Training customers to expect discounts Stop conditioning your buyers to wait for sales. When you constantly discount, you teach customers that full price is a scam. Instead: Use discounts strategically. Not every email needs a coupon code. Mistake #2: Obsessing over open rates Open rates lie to you. Especially with Apple's privacy changes making "fake opens" the norm. Focus on what matters: clicks, conversions, and revenue. Mistake #3: Generic "check your email" popups Your popup says "get 10% off, check your email." Then 60% of people never find that email. Put the discount code right on the success page. Stop making customers hunt for it. Mistake #4: Sending the same message to everyone Your VIP customer who bought 5 times gets the same "20% off" as a freebie seeker. Segment your list. Treat your best customers like the gold they are. Mistake #5: Complicated abandoned cart flows I see brands with 8-email cart abandonment sequences. Most people buy in the first 48 hours or never. Keep it simple. 3-4 emails max. Mistake #6: Ignoring your email deliverability Your emails are going to spam and you don't even know it. Check your sender reputation monthly. Monitor your metrics. Fix issues fast. The biggest disaster? Thinking email marketing is just about sending more emails. It's about sending the RIGHT emails to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time.

I've run hundreds of email account audits, and I always see the same mistakes. Here are the "5 Deadly Sins" that are killing your email performance – and how to fix them. MISTAKE #1: TOO MUCH EMAIL VOLUME When it comes to email marketing, engagement is far more important than list size. Sending too many emails can overwhelm your subscribers, leading to lower engagement rates, increased unsubscribes, and damage to your sender reputation. This turns into a “boy who cried wolf” scenario, where too much volume results in your messages getting ignored or sent to SPAM. THE FIX: Focus on quality over quantity. Prioritize sending valuable content at a steady cadence rather than hitting an arbitrary volume target. MISTAKE #2: NOT SEGMENTING YOUR AUDIENCE If you’re still sending “email blasts” in 2024, you’re gonna have a bad time. Sending the same email to your entire list without considering a subscriber’s unique needs or interests is a recipe for terrible engagements, sales, and unsubscribe rates. THE FIX: Segment your list based on demographics,interests, or behaviors. Send hyper-personalized content to maximize relevance and improve conversion rates. MISTAKE #3: WEAK OR MISLEADING SUBJECT LINES Using vague, spammy, or clickbaity subject lines is an absolute no-no. If your subject line is unclear, it’s not getting opened. If it makes a promise that your content doesn’t deliver on, your subscribers will lose trust, killing your future engagement metrics. THE FIX: Craft subject lines that are both clear and compelling. Set expectations for what’s inside and make sure the email content follows through on that claim. MISTAKE #4: IGNORING MOBILE OPTIMIZATION Current estimates suggest that around 60% of website visits take place on mobile devices. Similarly, studies have shown that around 40-60% of email opens happen on mobile. So, why do so many brands invest thousands in mobile optimization for their SITE, and almost nothing in optimizing their EMAILS? THE FIX: Use responsive email templates that adjust to any screen size, and always test how your emails look on mobile before sending. MISTAKE #5: FAILING TO ANALYZE PERFORMANCE For many brands, email marketing is an item on a to-do list that just needs checked off. If you’re not running a post-send analysis to determine what’s working and what’s not, you are absolutely leaving money on the table. THE FIX: Analyze your email marketing metrics on a monthly basis to understand what’s working and use that to drive further experimentation and optimization. I see these mistakes in every single account I audit – and it KILLS me. Get these low cost, high impact opportunities dialed in and you’ll dramatically improve your results.

I had one of those tiny but telling email moments this weekend. One of my favourite beauty brands emailed me with a lovely loyalty offer: Buy between Friday and Monday and get 200 loyalty points. Value: £10. Lovely. Relevant. Clear. Enough of a nudge to get me to purchase. So I did. I bought on Saturday morning. Then on Sunday, I received another email reminding me to buy so I didn’t miss out on the free £10. Then again on Monday. And do you know what happened? It made me second guess myself. I actually went back and checked that I had placed the order properly. That’s not the feeling you want to create after someone has done exactly what you asked them to do. At a minimum, I should have been suppressed from the remaining reminder campaigns once I purchased. Preferably, I should have received a different email entirely: You’ve qualified for your 200 loyalty points. They’ll be added to your account soon. That would have reassured me. It would have closed the loop. It would have made me feel good about buying. Instead, the campaign left me with doubt. And this is where email marketing gets interesting. Because the issue wasn’t the offer. The issue wasn’t the copy. The issue wasn’t the timing. The issue was the customer logic. Too often, we think of campaigns as individual sends. Email 1. Reminder 1. Reminder 2. Last chance. But customers don’t experience them as separate sends. They experience them as one continuous conversation with the brand. And if that conversation doesn’t recognise what they’ve already done, it can feel clumsy, confusing, or even a little careless. This is why post-purchase suppression isn’t just a technical hygiene task. It’s part of the customer experience. And confirmation messaging isn’t just transactional admin. It’s reassurance. Sometimes the most persuasive email is not the one that gets someone to buy. It’s the one that makes them feel confident after they have. Where are the gaps in your campaign logic that might be creating doubt instead of confidence?

Steps on top of soap box. Stop annoying your customers with marketing emails while they’re waiting for support! Imagine this: You’re dealing with a frustrating issue with a product or service. You reach out to customer support, hoping for a quick resolution. While you wait, your inbox pings—an email from the same company. But instead of an update on your issue, it’s a promo about their latest sale. Nothing says “we don’t care about your problem” like pushing a discount while a customer is still waiting for help. It’s frustrating, it feels impersonal, and worst of all, it’s completely avoidable. Most companies have automated marketing emails running on autopilot. Meanwhile, their customer support team is working separately, unaware that marketing is sending promo emails to frustrated customers. The result? Customers feel ignored, and your brand looks disconnected. No one wants to be sold something while they’re still waiting for help. The better move? Hit pause on marketing emails for customers with open support tickets. You don’t need to manually comb through customer lists to make this happen—automation can do the heavy lifting: ✔ Sync customer support and marketing tools so they talk to each other. ✔ Automatically suppress marketing emails for customers with open tickets. ✔ Resume communication after resolution, but in a thoughtful way—maybe a check-in email first, before jumping back into promotions. This small change can make a huge difference in how customers feel about your brand. It shows you’re paying attention and that their experience matters more than just making a sale. If your company is still blasting marketing emails to people waiting on support, it’s time to fix that. Because when a customer is already frustrated, the last thing they need is another reason to unsubscribe.

If I were starting email marketing for an ecom brand today, these are the top 5 mistakes I’d avoid at all costs: 1) Dropping coupon codes in the first welcome email only This is a rookie mistake. A discount code right in Email 1 adds friction and gives you a false sense of performance. So I’d show the code on the success page right after sign-up (when intent is highest), and then remind them in Welcome Email 1. Cleaner attribution, better UX, and you separate the freebie hunters from actual buyers. 2) Ignoring deliverability My brilliant copy means nothing if it lands in spam. So I’d treat deliverability like the holy grail because it IS. - no sketchy sending behavior - warm up domains properly - clean the list ruthlessly Cannot afford Google and Apple to not trust my brand. 3) Skipping DNS setup If SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren’t correctly configured, my emails might never even hit the inbox (or worse, get blocked entirely). Most brands leave this to chance or half-bake it. I wouldn’t. 4) Building just an email list Email is king, sure. But relying on it alone can limit my brand’s reach. So I’d collect phone numbers from day one, using: - Dual opt-in popups - Exit-intent popups for returning users - SMS-only perks Then set up a basic SMS welcome flow alongside email 5) Blasting nothing but sales emails Everyone’s doing it and that’s exactly why it doesn’t work. Sure, people want deals… but not at the cost of being spammed every week. So I’d focus on value-driven content and engagement-first emails: - Tips and use cases - Product stories - Creator/influencer content - UGC - Light-hearted quizzes - Seasonal ideas and hacks Sales emails are the reward for building trust. Not the default. We build systems like these: VEX Media

If your plan this weekend is to blast 3-4 disconnected promotions in the next few days, STOP and rethink your approach. Let me explain. Here's what most brands do: Thursday: "NATIONAL DONUT DAY SALE!" Friday: "FREE SHIPPING SALE!" Sunday: "FLASH SALE!" Monday: "20% OFF PANTS!" Your customers and prospects? They're drowning in discount fatigue. Try this instead: Create a cohesive event, not random promotions: Thursday: "Announcing our Biggest Clearance Event (Early Access Tomorrow)" Friday: "The Clearance Event is LIVE" Sunday: "Clearance Event Update: Top sellers almost gone" Monday: "Final Hours: Clearance Event Ends Tonight" But the real magic isn't just in connected messaging. It's also in strategic audience narrowing - here's an example: Send 1: 120-day engaged + all purchasers (cast wide net) Send 2: 60-day engaged + clicked previous email (tighten focus) Send 3: 30-day engaged + didn't purchase yet (target the interested) Send 4: Engaged with previous emails but haven't purchased (final push) Then segment further by: First-time buyers vs. repeat customers Price-sensitive vs. premium shoppers Category preferences And layer in SMS for high-intent signals, less batch and blast. Only text people who clicked but didn't purchase Or for time sensitive messages: Final "hours left" reminder From my experience, this approach doubled the average click-through rate and revenues. Stop treating each promotion as an isolated discount. Start creating a narrative that builds anticipation and focuses on your most engaged audiences. Leverage the power of event marketing in email and sms. Real strategy will increase your revenue. What's your go to for your email and sms marketing strategy?

The Email secret 90% of Marketers miss: And It’s Not Just About Open Rates! I once helped a client discover that 30% of their “engaged” email list was full of dead ends. This was also affecting conversions and revenue. The culprit? Bounces. But not all bounces are created equal—and ignoring the difference could tank your sender reputation. Here’s the breakdown: 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲” 𝗭𝗼𝗻𝗲): Temporary delivery failures. Causes: Full inboxes, server outages, or temporary blocklisting. Fix: Wait it out. If it happens 3 times in a short span, remove the address. 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿” 𝗭𝗼𝗻𝗲): Permanent failures. Causes: Invalid addresses (typos like “gmial.com”), abandoned accounts, or catch-all inboxes that silently swallow (catch-all status) emails, even after you verified the list. Fix: Remove these immediately. Sending to them repeatedly flags you as spam. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Clean lists = higher engagement = better ROI. ISPs track bounce rates to decide if you’re a spammer. Weekly list audits prevent deliverability disasters. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻? - Ask your email service provider how they handle bounces (do they auto-retry soft ones?). - Scrub hard bounces after the first failure. - Monitor soft bounces like a hawk—3 strikes, they’re out. - Test-drive solutions like EmailAddress.ai to pre-verify addresses and avoid guessing which emails are valid, catch-alls, or outright spam traps. As someone who’s spent 20+ years in B2B data industry, I’ve seen companies lose deals because their “perfect” email list wasn't perfect after all. Tools that separate real leads from dead ends turn your data into a revenue engine—not a liability. Seeing bounce issues as well? DM me for a chat! #EmailMarketing #B2BData #LeadGeneration #GTMStrategy

The industry average for email marketing is $36 back for every $1 spent. So why is yours barely breaking even? I've audited 100s of email accounts across seven and eight-figure e-commerce brands. Usually the channel works fine. The problem is five things that look like normal email marketing, so nobody questions them. 1 - Chasing open rates with clickbait subject lines ↳ "You won't believe this" gets the open. Then the subscriber feels cheated, and the next time your name shows up they ignore it. ↳ It takes a long time to build trust and about 3 seconds to lose it. ↳ Fix: write subject lines that are honest and SPECIFIC. The right people will open. 2 - Writing like a corporate brand ↳ The moment your email reads like a legal team wrote it, the brain checks out.  ↳ Your subscriber's inbox is full of texts from actual friends, and then your stiff announcement lands in the middle of it. ↳ Fix: write like you're talking to one of your best friends. 3 - Cramming multiple CTAs into one email ↳ More options just freeze the reader. Psychologists call it the paradox of choice, and the brain's response to a decision it didn't ask for is to do nothing. ↳ Fix: give each email one job. Two buttons max, both pointing to the same place. 4 - Blasting your entire list ↳ Your list isn't one audience. Engaged buyers, one-time buyers, VIPs, and lapsed subscribers are all sitting in the same place. ↳ Sending all of them the same email tanks conversion, and the unengaged ones drag your sender reputation down for the people who actually buy. ↳ Fix: segment into those four groups and send accordingly. 5 - Treating email like a microphone instead of a conversation ↳ When every send is "buy now," you train your list to only open when there's a sale. ↳ Mix in educational, community, and behind-the-scenes emails and they open everything, because they don't know which one is the discount. ↳ Fix: email when you have something worth saying, not only when you want money. Clean these up and email becomes the most reliable revenue line you have.

Bye-bye profits 👋 There are 5 curable email mistakes that are slowly killing your email marketing and dragging your business down. Here they are, and how can they be fixed... 1. Over-Selling in Every Email Bombarding subscribers with non-stop sales pitches can push them away fast. It's commonly mistaken that frequency is the problem, but 99% of the time it's not... ...Just the frequency of hard sales pitches. Instead, aim for a mix of value and promotion. Share useful tips, stories, or guides related to your product—whether it’s DIY tutorials, stories, or insider advice. Send emails people look forward to, build trust, and keep your brand top-of-mind. 2. Neglecting Mobile Optimization Mobile devices make up the majority of email views, so your emails must look and function well on small screens. Test each email on your phone to check readability and visuals. An email that displays poorly risks being deleted without a second thought—cutting your potential impact dramatically. 3. Ignoring Your Audience’s Preferences Not segmenting your audience is a missed opportunity to speak directly to their needs. Split your audience into groups based on engagement, interests, or purchase history. For example, send product recommendations to your VIP customers and re-engagement emails to those who haven’t clicked in a while. Tailored content resonates more and translates into better conversion rates. 4. Skipping Analytics and Testing A successful email strategy isn’t just “set it and forget it.” Regularly track your open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to understand what’s working. If a campaign isn’t performing, try adjusting your subject lines, refining your offers, or experimenting with timing. Continuous testing is the secret to unlocking consistent improvement. 5. Writing Weak Subject Lines Your subject line is your first impression, so make it count. A compelling subject line can double your open rates. Think about sparking curiosity or highlighting a clear benefit. Keep testing to see what resonates with your audience, and remember—a great email is worthless if no one opens it.

Your emails might be getting flagged as suspicious. And you may not even realize it. Ever opened an email and saw this message? "Images in this message are hidden. This message might be suspicious or spam." This happens when the sender has no reputation or a poor sender reputation—which can be a huge problem for solopreneurs who rely on email to nurture leads and book clients. If your emails trigger this warning, your audience won’t see your content, offers, or even your CTA—because Gmail is already marking them as suspicious. Here’s a couple reasons as to why this may be happening: ✅ You’re sending emails from a new domain with no history. ✅ You haven’t set up email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). ✅ Your emails are getting low engagement (opens, clicks, replies). ✅ You have a high spam complaint rate. ✅ Your domain or IP has a poor sender reputation (maybe from previous spam reports or bad list practices). ✅ Gmail’s AI detected something suspicious in your email’s content (e.g., too many links, spammy words, misleading subject lines). ✅ Your domain is on a blocklist due to past behavior or association with spammy senders. ✅ You’re using a shared email-sending service with a bad reputation (some email platforms have shared IPs that affect deliverability). The good news? You can fix this. Here are a couple steps: Step 1: Authenticate your emails (this is non-negotiable). Step 2: Warm up your domain before sending bulk emails. Step 3: Engage your audience so they open, click, and reply. If you’re running an online business, your email list is an asset—but only if people actually receive and trust your emails. Are your emails getting delivered properly?