• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, July 29, 2025

We’re not trying to make anyone feel bad. But email marketers are guilty of 13 serious mistakes that can harm their campaigns, according to a new study by Digital Silk. 

Before we list them, here are two critical factors from the consumer side (and we quote):

- 99% of consumers value non-promotional emails.

- 54% open emails for relevant offers. 

Now here is a checklist of email blunders. How many have you made?

1. Not segmenting your audience —You can’t send the same email to everyone. Active buyers should get different messages from cold contacts.
2. Overlooking personalization — It’s no surprise that 88% of marketers say personalization has a positive impact on sales, and that 44% call it significant.
3. Sending too frequently or not enough — Excessive marketing messages have driven 57% of consumers to switch to a competitor. And 54% have jumped when they get repeated promotions for the same product.
4. Focusing heavily on sales — Of consumers polled, 53% find product recommendations based on past purchases more helpful than generic offers.
5. Ignoring email analytics — Watch out for high opens and weak engagement. In North America, open rates average 45.3%, but 4.77% click through and 10.53% engage after they open the email.
6. Weak or misleading subject lines — 43% of consumers click through solely because of the subject line. Relevance is of paramount concern.
7. Neglecting mobile optimization — Global statistics show that 61.5% of internet traffic is now from mobile devices. So emails should be designed for mobile.
8. Lack of  clear calls to action — What do you want the consumer to do? Spell it out for them.
9. Using generic templates — Time you save by sending bland emails is not worth the effort, not when 64% o consumers are more likely to open emails from brands they know—and that only comes from familiarity.
10. Making opt-in offers too complicated — Avoid long forms, overloaded offers or vague value propositions.
11. Complicated or hidden unsubscribe processes — All you do by having hard-to-find unsubscribe links or multi-step opt-out processes is to risk ending up in the spam folder.
12. Poor email list hygiene — Your emails should based on active interest. Don’t send to people who haven’t engaged in months.
13. Lack of compliance with privacy laws — Be aware of laws like the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And comply with them.

The main takeaway? "Email remains one of the most cost-effective marketing channels, but even small missteps can lead to big performance gaps," says Gabriel Shaoolian, CEO of Digital Silk.

Want to drill down into these pathologies? Click here to access the full paper.