Email marketing remains the most profitable channel among all marketing channels. Its average ROI is 36%. Spending $1M on campaigns, the average return from it is $36M. Impressive!
However, there are many reasons why your email marketing campaigns are not as effective. Let’s start with the basic ones.
So, what are the 11 most common mistakes that kill your emails?
Let’s check it out.
1/ Wrong Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Sometimes the biggest problems have the most trivial basis.
Your emails might not be effective for the most non-obvious reason—simply because you’re targeting the wrong group of recipients. Have you thought about that?
For example, if you’re a digital agency, targeting potential clients is quite straightforward. Essentially, any business in the B2B realm could be a prospective client, whether it’s an e-commerce site peddling baby strollers or a private preschool in Miami—the possibilities are endless.
The challenge intensifies when crafting content for a highly specialized sector. Consider, for example, managing a blog geared toward mothers.
It’s certainly a captivating niche, yet not all types of communication will resonate.
The process of constructing a persona, or ICP (ideal customer profile), starts with foundational inquiries:
For example, if you’re a digital agency, targeting potential clients is quite straightforward. Essentially, any business in the B2B realm could be a prospective client, whether it’s an e-commerce site peddling baby strollers or a private preschool in Miami—the possibilities are endless.
The challenge intensifies when crafting content for a highly specialized sector. Consider, for example, managing a blog geared toward mothers.
It’s certainly a captivating niche, yet not all types of communication will resonate.
The process of constructing a persona, or ICP (ideal customer profile), starts with foundational inquiries:
- What’s their job?
- How old are they?
- How much money do they make?
- What job title do they have at work?
- Where do they live (permanently & occasionally)?
- Who are you aiming to reach with your marketing?
- Are they married or single? Do they have kids? If so, how many?
Today’s persona construction goes beyond these basics and seeks more detailed insights.
Personalization queries can be categorized into five main groups:
1. Psychographics
2. Purchase habits
3. Media engagement
4. Ambitions and Obstacles
5. The customer’s journey to purchase
The basic questions for each of these groups could be:
—> Psychographics
- What lifestyle choices do they prefer?
- What hobbies or interests do they pursue?
- Which values and beliefs do they hold dear?
—> Purchase Habits
- What reservations might they have about making a purchase?
- What influences their purchasing decisions?
- What is their preferred method of buying products or services (online, in a physical store, etc.)?
—> Media Engagement
- Which social media channels are part of their routine?
- What kind of blogs, periodicals, or news outlets do they follow?
- What sorts of content do they engage with (videos, articles, or podcasts)?
—> Ambitions and Obstacles
- What barriers are they encountering in realizing their ambitions?
- What are their key aspirations, both in their personal lives and professionally?
- In what ways can your offering assist them in navigating these challenges or in achieving their aspirations?
—> The Customer’s Journey to Purchase
- At what points do they interact with your brand?
- What are their anticipations and experiences at different phases of their purchasing journey?
- How does their customer’s journey from recognizing a need to finalize a purchase goes?
The better you pinpoint your intended audience, the simpler it becomes to customize your product for them and make sales.
2/ Using confusing CTA
CTA, or call-to-action, is the key element that prompts your client to take further steps towards making the sales decision.
A confusing CTA results in your client (or reader) not knowing what to do next. Most often, they then leave the page without any action.
Example below:
The example on the left side is very unclear.
You, as a potential customer, are not entirely sure what to do. The letters are small, and the field to fill in is very tiny. Ultimately, the call-to-action button is also not very noticeable, especially being proportionally small compared to the rest of the text. It doesn’t stand out against its background.
On the right side, an example of the same landing page is provided, but it is significantly improved.
✅ Less content.
✅ Enlarged letters.
✅ A clear field for the customer to fill in.
✅ The message contains an imperative tone.
✅ A large and prominent call-to-action button.
✅ A clear message—the customer knows what to do next.
Furthermore, I found an example of a good and clear CTA:
This is a very striking example of a clear CTA. As a customer, you know where to click (and you’ll likely do so).
Check their website for more: Apollo.io
3/ Writing Too Long Email Titles
Writing overly long e-mails is a major mistake made by marketers and salespeople.
Why?
They don’t pay attention to details and leave the e-mail title as an afterthought at the end, instead of using it as the foundation on which to build the email body.
Keeping your messages short and to the point is always more effective.
Your potential clients and readers don’t have time for lengthy titles, particularly in outbound email marketing.
A few years back, the ideal email title length was thought to be between 8–12 words.
Times have changed.
MailChimp suggests:
>> No more than 9 words
>> No more than 60 characters
Undoubtedly, MailChimp is a front-runner in digital mail marketing, but I’d question this.
Based on my experience, the most effective titles are:
>> Word count: 1-6
>> Character count: under 50
Clear, concise email titles that are easy to read (and won’t get cut off) on both desktop and mobile.
Craft your message titles to be:
- Readable
- Understandable
- Action-oriented (CTA)
What’s next? Watch how your open rates soar!
4/ Wrong Segmentation
Alright, let’s face it: targeting the correct audience is crucial for a successful campaign.
Developing an ideal customer profile (ICP) is key in this process.
Focus on specific details like:
- Their age and gender.
- Identifying your recipient.
- Their hobbies and leisure activities.
- Their earnings and residential location.
Correctly segmenting your audience will boost the open and response rates, which is our main objective. After all, we strive for conversion, not just clicks or visits.
Looking to immediately improve your open rate? Start by selecting your audience segment by crafting an appropriate ICP.
5/ Lack of Personalization
Each of us loves personalized messages. Personalization gives us a sense of importance and care.
Personalization is particularly appreciated in sales; a prospect seeing that you’ve made the right personalization is more likely to buy from you rather than from another salesperson who hasn’t personalized their message—this is a serious and substantive fact.
While personalizing, take into account these 5 prime factors:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Position
- Name of their Company
- Company’s Annual Income
Try weaving these elements into your email subject line to come across as well-informed.
But remember, subtlety is key. It should be done with finesse and discretion.
For instance:
- Onboarding, [Job Position]
- [First Name], I’ve got a question
- How Can [Company Name] Excel This Year?
No matter the content of your message, always make your subject line personalized.
6/ Using Too Many CTAs
Using too many call-to-actions is essentially the same as not using them at all.
Hotjar states that creating more than 2 CTAs in a single email is worse than not using any at all. Why? There’s a higher chance that your potential customer will make a purchase due to interest and emotion, rather than being overwhelmed by 4 CTAs in one email.
Imagine receiving a message crammed with multiple calls to action:
> Sign up now
> Schedule a meeting here
> Click for the calendar
> Purchase right here
Now, think about an email filled with engaging content, concluding with just one (or maybe two) CTA:
>> Schedule your meeting
>> Buy through this [link]
Which approach do you think is more impactful? The answer is clear.
Overloading an email with too many CTAs can be overwhelming, discouraging further reading.
Stick to a rule in your emails: use no more than 2 CTAs.
7/ Not Conducting A/B Testing
Not conducting A/B testing means you’ll never know which email and its element generate the highest conversion.
Could it be a shorter email title or better personalization? Or perhaps it’s a different time when the email was sent?
You won’t find out until you conduct a proper A/B test.
You can test these 12 variables:
1/ CTAs
2/ Sent Time
3/ Email Body
4/ Send Times
5/ Email Length
6/ Subject Lines
7/ Segmentation
8/ Personalization
9/ Links & Navigation
10/ Images and Visuals
11/ Testimonials (adding every time or not)
12/ Subject Line Emojis (more or less emotional)
However, two elements are crucial:
1. Do A/B testing as often as your campaign or e-mail desires.
2. Test everything, but always only one element at a time. Otherwise, how will you know what caused the change?
8/ Pushing Too Much for Sales
People love to buy but hate to be sold.
You know that saying, right?
Nobody likes it when something is forced on them.
That’s why pushing too much for sales is actually counterproductive.
>> Instead of emphasizing sales, use appropriate CTAs.
>> Instead of calling the customer daily, ask what more you can do to facilitate their purchase.
So, when considering your content & email titles, maybe check if your emails are too pushy?
I understand that targets and commissions are important. I also know that, as a keen salesperson, you often don’t see the errors in your emails. You read them thinking, “Everything seems fine!”
But something might not be working.
Improve your emails by speaking more in the language of benefits than in the language of sales.
This little piece of advice might just make your conversion rate grow significantly month-by-month.
11/ Overuse of Emojis in Text and Email Subject Lines
9/ Ignoring Mobile Optimization
Newsletter? Sure! But, marketers often forget that newsletters on mobile devices are just as important as on desktops.
Think of it like crafting a car but forgetting the engine—it’s simply not going to work.
First off, remember that mobile screens show far fewer characters than desktops.
Second, your emails must be responsive and effortless to read on smaller screens.
Backlinko proved that just in 2023, 41.9% of emails were opened on mobile devices, way more than the 18.2% that were opened on desktops.
That’s a significant gap, right? In fact, it’s double—twice as many people are scrolling through emails on their phones compared to their computers.
This trend isn’t just a passing phase; people are increasingly seeking information on the go without getting bogged down in the weeds.
Wanna boost your email ROI? Make sure they’re tailor-made for mobile viewing.
10/ Overloading Emails with Images
Images are important, and everyone likes them.
In fact, we process images 60,000 times faster than text!
However, nobody likes excess.
If you put too many images or GIFs in an email, know that it won’t be effective.
In an ideal scenario, if you do add an image to an email, just add one. One good image can do the whole job.
It could be a nice image that makes your client like you more.
It could also be something more subtle:
This is my favorite follow-up image that I send (if I have to) to my clients.
It doesn’t always result in a purchase, but often I receive a reply and know where I’m standing.
11/ Overuse of Emojis in Text and Email Subject Lines
Using emojis helps you stand out from the crowd. They add humor and help you establish a closer relationship with your prospect.
But the rule is the same everywhere—enough is enough.
There’s a very fine line between what’s appropriate and what’s too much, and it’s easy to cross. I don’t recommend doing this if you want to maintain high sales.
So how do you do it right?
If you must use emojis, use a maximum of one in the email subject line.
Add no more than 2 emojis, like “😉”, in the body of the email. But do it very subtly.
If the client responds the same way, you can be sure you’ve got him.
Unless he’s being sarcastic: “So if you give me an 80% discount, I can buy? 😉”, then make sure you’re on the same page.
Here we are. And what are your most common mistakes that kill your emails?
Let us know in the comments!
And if you’ve got more private matters, I’m always here: LinkedIn & X, or just send me a request at Contact.
Thank you for reading!
Simon
Author Profile
- Simon Gorlak is a Digital Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience. He specializes in 3 areas: SEO, Lead Generation on LinkedIn, and Email Marketing. Simon's blog gathers knowledge that helps Marketers & C-level to increase profits from their online businesses. Also, his content helps to reach the most difficult customers, make others' content to be read & purchased. Besides digital marketing, Simon speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish & works as a Head of Business at an Indian Start-up.
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