Mistake 1: Sending to Everyone
The fastest way to tank your deliverability is to blast every email to your entire list. Segment by behavior, interest, and engagement level. A targeted email to 500 engaged subscribers outperforms a blast to 5,000 disengaged ones every single time.
Mistake 2: No Welcome Sequence
Welcome emails get 4x higher open rates and 5x higher click rates than regular campaigns. If someone joins your list and hears nothing for a week, you have already lost them. Set up a 3-5 email welcome series that delivers value immediately.
Mistake 3: Ignoring Send Time
Sending at 2 AM because that is when you finished writing the email is not a strategy. Use your platform's send-time optimization feature. If it does not have one, start with Tuesday through Thursday, 10 AM in your audience's time zone, and test from there.
Mistake 4: Too Many Calls to Action
Every email should have one primary goal. Not three links, two buttons, and a PS asking them to follow you on social media. One clear CTA. That is it. Emails with a single CTA see 371% more clicks than those with multiple.
Mistake 5: Never Cleaning Your List
If someone has not opened an email in 90 days, they are dragging your metrics down. Run a re-engagement campaign ("We miss you — still interested?") and remove anyone who does not respond. A smaller, engaged list beats a large, dead one.
Mistake 6: No Plain Text Version
Heavy HTML emails with lots of images often land in the Promotions tab or spam. Always include a plain text alternative. Some of the highest-performing emails we send for clients look like they were written by a friend — no graphics, no headers, just clear copy with a link.
Mistake 7: Not Testing Anything
If you are not A/B testing subject lines, send times, and CTA placement, you are guessing. Even small tests compound over time. A 5% improvement in open rates across 50 emails per year is thousands of additional eyeballs on your offer.
Email is not dead. Lazy email is dead. Automated, segmented, well-timed email marketing is one of the highest-ROI channels that exists — if you do it right.