As the whirlwind of “Black Friday – Small Business Saturday – Cyber Monday – Giving Tuesday” finally subsides, it’s safe to say that many of us are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of emails that flooded our inboxes. If you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time to open it — I’m sure you’ve had more than your fair share of marketing messages lately.
In fact, I received over 600 marketing emails during this period, and it got me thinking about how some brands miss the mark on what customers truly want. It’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what not to do in email marketing.
Here’s a quick list of inbox blunders that drive customers away
- Email Overload: Sending 7 emails in one day, each with increasingly urgent calls to action, only exhausts your customers. Instead of driving conversions, you’re training customers to hit “delete” without a second thought.
- Premature Promotions: Launching Black Friday emails on the Monday before Black Friday? That’s just confusing. Is it Black Monday now? (And no, it’s not to be confused with Blue Monday.) Customers expect timing to make sense, and starting too early risks diluting the impact of your message.
- Empty “Best Deal” Claims: Claiming to offer the “best deal” only for customers to discover that’s not the case damages trust. If your offer isn’t truly exceptional, it’s best to be transparent rather than trying to ride the coattails of a shopping holiday.
These missteps aren’t just annoying — they’re signals that your email strategy may be off track. If your emails lack clear value or relevance, it’s time to recalibrate.
The goal is to stand out from the noise, not contribute to it.
Here’s a perspective from life in Southern California, where traffic is a daily part of existence. During the holiday season, we go from “bad traffic” to “bad holiday traffic,” and the stress levels skyrocket. The same thing happens in inboxes. The frenzy increases, patience wears thin, and attention spans shrink.
This is why thoughtful planning and a proven email marketing strategy are essential. Just as you’d forecast profits for your business, you can forecast your marketing efforts. With a clear strategy, you can avoid knee-jerk, last-minute emails and create content that’s both valuable and timely.
Here’s the key takeaway: It’s not about you — it’s about your customer.
If you’re sending 7 emails a day, they better be so compelling that customers want to open all seven. Otherwise, you’re just giving them a chore to delete them all.
Imagine if your email content was so valuable, timely, and relevant that customers looked forward to receiving it. Imagine if, instead of cluttering their inbox, you became a trusted source of insight, deals, or guidance. That’s not just possible — it’s essential.
Here’s the simple formula to guide your content strategy:
Content builds relationships. Relationships build trust. Trust drives revenue.
When designing your marketing emails, put the customer at the center. What do they need? What would be helpful, interesting, or inspiring to them? Start there, and let that insight drive your content. The outline of your plan will materialize and ideas will naturally follow.
Validation comes when you check your data. Are customers opening your emails? Are they clicking through on the links, engaging, and taking action? If the answer is “yes,” you’re on the right track. If not, it’s time to rethink how your approach.
Ultimately, customers don’t want more email — they want better email. Be the brand that offers it.
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