Email marketing is still one of the most cost-effective ways to reach customers, but only when it’s handled with care. Too often, brands hit “send” without realising they’re making small errors that quietly sabotage results. Here’s five of the most frequent missteps we see, along with practical ways to steer around them…
Neglecting List Hygiene
Over time, any subscriber database accumulates outdated and inactive addresses. If you allow these contacts to linger, bounce rates rise and engagement metrics sink, both of which signal mailbox providers to filter future messages into spam.
Establishing a quarterly routine for list maintenance is essential. Remove hard bounces as soon as they appear, suppress soft bounces that persist across several sends, and run a brief re-engagement sequence before removing anyone who has been inactive. Although the list will shrink, the remaining audience will be far more responsive and will help preserve your sender reputation.
Rushing the Subject Line
The subject line is the email’s gateway. When it is vague, or even misleading, recipients can either ignore the message or lose trust in the brand. Give the subject line as much attention as the body copy.
Aim for thirty to forty-five characters so the entire phrase appears on most mobile devices, and present a clear benefit or timely reason to open. Testing two subject lines for every send is a straightforward way to learn what resonates without changing any other variable. Over time, those small wins will eventually turn into significantly higher open rates.
Designing for Desktop Only
With a majority of email opens now happening on mobile, a desktop-centric template can create small text, awkward multi-column layouts, and slow load times on phones. Adopting a single-column responsive design solves most of these problems.
Burying the Call to Action
Every marketing email should guide the reader toward a single, clearly defined next step. If the primary button sits far below the fold, blends into the background colour, or competes with multiple secondary links, many readers will exit the message before taking action.
Place the main call to action near the top of the email so it appears without scrolling, style it with a contrasting colour, and use concise language such as “Start Your Trial” or “Download the Report.” Repeating the button near the footer helps skimmers who jump straight to the end.
Skipping post-send analysis
Hitting “send” is only the midpoint of a campaign. Without a structured debrief, valuable insights disappear. Schedule a short review after every major send to examine deliverability, open rate, click-through rate, conversions, and unsubscribe count.
If any metric deviates noticeably from recent benchmarks, identify a plausible cause and document a hypothesis for the next campaign. Maintaining this simple feedback loop prevents complacency and drives continuous improvement.
So, what’s next?
Effective email marketing is the result of following disciplined processes rather than easy wins as a tactic. Keep your list clean, invest real time in subject lines, design for the smallest screens first, make the desired action unmistakable, and treat every send as a learning opportunity.
When you address these five areas consistently, your emails will reach more inboxes, engage more readers, and contribute meaningfully to revenue, all without adding unnecessary complexity to your workflow.
Want your email marketing to work harder (and smarter)?
At Jarrang, we help ambitious brands avoid these common pitfalls and get real results from every send.
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