There are some great ways to greet strangers, encouraging them to listen.
A friendly "hello" is a great opener when greeting someone new. Considering their thoughts and feelings will help you connect and meet them where they are. As for email marketing, there are many ways to communicate with your audience that will draw them closer to you. However, there are also standard practices that drive people away.
This article is all about what you should AVOID doing with your email marketing campaigns to create a successful program.
Email Marketing Things NOT to Do
1. Ignore Mobile Users
Today's email marketing efforts must be designed for a mobile-first world. According to Hubspot, nearly 46% of all email opens happen on mobile devices, and 73% of millennials prefer email communication from businesses. Failing to optimize for smaller screens means you're likely losing out on a massive portion of your target audience before they even read your message.
Responsive email templates are no longer optional—they're a baseline expectation. Your designs should automatically adjust based on screen size, and content should be concise, scannable, and visually clean on both mobile and desktop. Ignoring mobile users doesn't just impact readability; it directly lowers conversion rates and damages customer retention.
If you're working with email marketing services or using an email marketing platform, ensure they prioritize mobile responsiveness in every campaign.
2. Spamming Your Audience
Sending too many emails—or emails that feel irrelevant—can quickly lead to unsubscribes, spam reports, and a damaged sender reputation. Even worse, it can trigger spam filters that keep your emails from reaching inboxes at all. According to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, all email marketing advertising agencies must adhere to clear guidelines: never use misleading subject lines, false sender information, or deceptive content.
A better approach is to respect frequency, relevance, and consent. Build trust with your potential customers by sending value-driven emails on a reasonable schedule. Segment your lists to make sure recipients are getting content tailored to their interests.
Consistency matters—but so does restraint. By spamming your audience, you reduce your return on investment and risk being permanently filtered out of your customers' inboxes.
3. Buying Email Lists
It may seem like a fast way to scale, but buying email lists is one of the worst things you can do in direct email marketing. These third-party lists are often filled with unverified or uninterested contacts. They haven't opted into your content, and they likely won't recognize your brand when your email lands in their inbox, if it gets there at all.
Using purchased lists damages email deliverability, increases your unsubscribe rate, and can even result in your domain being blacklisted. High-quality email marketing services focus on growing organic lists through website signups, gated content, case studies, or social media opt-ins. That way, your messages reach people who actually want to hear from you. This leads to stronger engagement, better segmentation, and, ultimately, greater cost-effectiveness in your campaigns.
4. Make Your Content a Low Priority
Too often, companies get caught up in timing, automation, or segmentation and forget that email content is still the most crucial element. Whether promoting a sale, announcing a product launch, or sharing a case study, your message must be clear, relevant, and compelling. If your audience opens your email and finds it boring, off-topic, or poorly written, you'll lose their attention—and possibly their future business.
Strong email marketing companies assign separate roles for content development and strategy execution. Your writers should focus solely on creating high-value messaging, while your marketing team focuses on distribution, segmentation, and performance tracking. Neglecting the core message will cost you more than a few clicks—it will damage your brand credibility and erode the trust of your target audience.
5. Neglect Testing & Optimization
One of the most overlooked email marketing mistakes is skipping A/B testing and performance optimization. If you're testing subject lines, send times, CTAs, or design formats, failing to analyze and improve your email marketing campaigns means leaving results to chance. Every audience is different; minor tweaks can significantly boost conversion rates and customer retention.
Top-performing email marketing platforms provide detailed analytics on open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and more. Use that data to test everything from email templates to headline formats. Optimization is about aligning your content with the preferences of your potential customers to drive maximum value. Skipping this step often results in wasted sends, lower engagement, and a poor return on investment.
Partner with Email Marketing Experts
Creating and building a successful email marketing program is difficult. If you avoid the problems above, you will be well on your way to creating a lasting impression that will gain you readers and eventually customers. For tips on what things you should make sure to do in your email marketing program, click here.
Here at Progressive Data Services, we can help you build your email marketing program. Our staff has years of experience doing just the kind of work you need to run a highly functioning program. Give us a call today to chat through your needs.