Definition
Many email marketers make the same avoidable mistakes. Recognising these errors helps you protect your sender reputation, maintain subscriber trust, and improve campaign performance. The most damaging mistakes affect deliverability, while others reduce engagement and conversion.
Common Mistakes
- Buying email lists: Purchased lists contain invalid addresses, spam traps, and people who never opted in. They damage deliverability and violate anti-spam laws.
- Sending without permission: Adding subscribers without explicit consent increases spam complaints and legal risk.
- Neglecting mobile design: With most opens on mobile, emails that are not mobile-friendly lose significant engagement.
- Over-sending: Emailing too frequently causes subscriber fatigue, increased unsubscribes, and spam complaints.
- Ignoring list hygiene: Failing to remove inactive subscribers and hard bounces degrades deliverability over time.
- Using no-reply addresses: Preventing replies frustrates subscribers and can increase spam complaints.
Related Glossary Terms
A/B Testing
A/B testing in email marketing is the practice of sending two variations of an email to a small sample of your list to determine which version performs better before sending the winner to the remaining subscribers.
Abandoned Cart Email
An abandoned cart email is an automated message sent to customers who added items to their online shopping cart but left without completing the purchase. It is one of the highest-converting email types in ecommerce.
AIDA Model for Email
The AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is a classic copywriting framework used to structure email campaigns that guide subscribers from awareness to conversion.
AMP for Email
AMP for Email is a Google-developed framework that allows email messages to include interactive elements like forms, carousels, accordions, and live content. It turns static emails into dynamic, interactive experiences directly inside the inbox.
Anchoring Effect in Email Marketing
The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias where the first piece of information presented (the anchor) influences subsequent decisions, used in email to frame pricing and value perception.
Announcement Email
An announcement email is a dedicated campaign that communicates a specific update, milestone, or change to subscribers, from product launches and feature releases to company news and events.