One piece of email marketing advice that might sound incredibly clever on the surface but often proves disastrous in practice is the idea of sending emails only when you have a direct sale or a new product launch. The reasoning behind this often revolves around not "bothering" your audience too much or only reaching out when there's a clear, immediate call to action. It sounds efficient, right? Why send an email if it's not directly going to make you money right now?
However, in reality, this approach completely undermines the fundamental purpose of email marketing: building and nurturing a relationship with your audience. If your subscribers only ever hear from you when you're asking them to open their wallets, they quickly learn to associate your emails with sales pitches, and nothing else.
What's more, this strategy severely damages engagement rates over time. Your audience starts to disengage, open rates plummet, and your emails are more likely to land in spam folders because email providers interpret this sporadic, sales-heavy sending as potentially unwanted communication. Consistent value, not just consistent sales asks, is what keeps your audience engaged and receptive when you do have something important to promote. You're aiming for a long-term conversation, not a series of one-off transactions.
Michael Lazar, CEO, Content Author
"Send at the perfect time for higher open rates" is a clever-sounding email marketing tip that frequently backfires in reality. Although timing may be important, depending solely on general send-time suggestions ignores audience context and behavior. Strong segmentation, relevant content, and consistent value — not just when you hit "send" — are what really drive performance.
Tyson Downs, Owner & Business Growth Consultant, Titan Web Agency
"Send emails at the optimal time based on industry benchmarks." This sounds smart and appears strategic. However, it's impractical advice in reality.
Here's why: There is no "optimal time" that magically works for your audience just because a HubSpot report stated Tuesday at 10 AM performs well for SaaS companies. Your subscribers aren't a monolith. They're individuals with unique schedules, inbox overload, and vastly different contexts.
We tested this across multiple brands. What actually mattered? 1. Relevance of the subject line 2. Clarity of the CTA 3. Consistency over time. Not the time on the clock.
Better approach: Test your own list. Segment by behavior. Send based on your engagement patterns, not what looks appealing in a LinkedIn carousel.
Rocky Pedden, CEO, RevenueZen
One email marketing advice that sounds smart but is actually terrible in practice is overloading emails with interactive elements, like games, quizzes, or too many clickable points.
While it might seem engaging, emails are meant to be clear communication, not interactive experiences. Too many distractions in an email can take focus away from the main message or call to action, and often hurt deliverability as email clients struggle with complex features.
The goal of email marketing should be to communicate simply and clearly, guiding the recipient toward one clear action, not to overwhelm them with options.
Gursharan Singh, Co-Founder, WebSpero Solutions
Do not hide the unsubscribe link at the bottom in tiny gray text.
Keeping people on the list until they hit the spam button is not advisable. Spam complaints weigh far more heavily against deliverability than opt-outs. Instead, offer a clear and easily accessible "unsubscribe" option. This approach protects your inbox placement for subscribers who do want to hear from you.
Karyna Veisberg, Growth Marketer, Full Scale SaaS
One piece of advice that sounds clever but falls apart in practice is, "Always use urgency, like adding, 'Last chance!' or, 'Only 3 spots left!' to your subject lines."
It might work once, maybe twice, but over time, people just stop trusting you. We saw open rates dip and unsubscribe rates rise when urgency was used too often. Now, we only use it when there's real urgency and instead focus more on curiosity or relevance.
For example, subject lines like, "A travel mistake we made last week," got better traction. People respect honesty. If every email screams emergency, none of them actually feel urgent.
Hamza Malik, Marketing Executive, Hire A Minibus With Driver
One piece of email marketing advice I've seen repeatedly damage eCommerce brands is "always include as many products as possible in your emails to maximize sales opportunities." This sounds logical on the surface — more products equal more chances to convert, right?
In reality, this approach creates what we call "choice paralysis" and typically tanks your conversion rates. When I was running my own 3PL operations before founding my company, I watched countless merchants blast out emails featuring 15-20 products, only to see dismal click-through rates and virtually no attributable revenue.
The psychology is straightforward — when faced with too many options, consumers often choose none. I've had merchants come to us after switching from cluttered multi-product emails to focused campaigns featuring 1-3 products with strong storytelling, and they've seen conversion improvements of 30-40% virtually overnight.
What works instead? Curated selections with personalized context. One apparel client we helped pair with a specialty 3PL saw their email revenue double when they shifted from "weekly blast" emails with dozens of products to targeted emails featuring just three items based on past purchase behavior.
Joe Spisak, CEO, Fulfill.com
Using a person's name in the first line of communication is outdated.
People may have found this kind of "personalization" cool or authentic a decade ago. However, today, it just doesn't work.
I'm a firm believer in personalization, but it needs to go deeper than just inserting someone's name in the copy. Using behavior-based triggers, proper tagging, and deep research to understand your audience segments is a much more effective strategy.
At the end of the day, when someone opens your email, they want to know what you're trying to sell them. If they like your message, they will engage. If they don't, they won't. But why make them wade through a bunch of warm-up copy and fluff with generic "personalization" first? It's a waste of their time and yours.
Nicola Wylie, Copywriter, Filestage
One piece of email marketing advice that sounds wise, but often falls flat in practice, is the idea of consistency. While it's hard to argue with on the surface, the concept is too vague to be truly useful, and in many cases, it leads to misguided strategies. In reality, consistency means very different things depending on your industry, audience, and intent.
I've learned that a one-size-fits-all approach to email cadence doesn't work. Simply "staying consistent" isn't a strategy; it's a habit. And depending on the audience, that habit can result in too many emails or too few.
A far more effective approach is tailoring your email frequency to the specific needs and expectations of each audience segment. Some groups — like active job seekers — may benefit from regular touchpoints and timely updates. Others, like passive candidates or niche hiring managers, may only need occasional, high-value outreach.
Instead of aiming for consistency across the board, aim for relevance. Let the communication rhythm follow the needs of your audience, not an arbitrary schedule.
Michael Moran, Owner and President, Green Lion Search
One piece of email advice that sounds smart but backfires is: "Send more emails to stay top of mind."
It's a fast track to unsubscribes if you're not adding value. We've tested frequency increases, and unless the content is truly relevant and helpful, open rates drop and spam complaints go up.
Tip: Focus on quality over quantity. Being remembered for something useful is better than being ignored for being annoying.
Olivier De Ridder, CEO, WDR Aspen
I've watched countless brands copy the "resend to non-openers 24 hours later" trick because a guru promised a 10% lift. It works once. By the third time around, Gmail and Outlook label you as a spammer, inbox placement tanks, and you lose your future inbox placement. We stopped doing this after seeing a client with 800,000 subscribers cut their open rates in half in a single month.
Treat non-opens as feedback; don't just resend the same email they already ignored. That's exactly the type of sending behavior ESPs are trying to prevent. This strategy may have worked at some point, but the industry smartened up to it quickly and long ago.
Maxwell Finn, Founder, Unicorn Innovations
One piece of email marketing advice that sounds efficient but is pretty terrible in practice is using default email templates. It is convenient, sure, but relying solely on generic, unbranded templates hinders your ability to establish a unique brand identity. Your email design needs to reflect your brand's personality and visual standards because customizing your templates is what truly reinforces your brand and creates a memorable impression.
Kevin Heimlich, Digital Marketing Consultant & Chief Executive Officer, The Ad Firm
Honestly, the biggest "smart" tip I keep hearing is to A/B test everything like subject lines, button colors, emojis, and even punctuation. It sounds data-driven, but unless you have a list in the hundreds of thousands, you'll never hit true statistical significance. You just end up paralyzed by analysis, delaying campaigns and chasing tiny lifts instead of driving real growth.
I would far rather invest my time in meaningful segmentation, clearer value propositions, or testing entirely new offers than split hairs over whether my CTA is blue or turquoise.
Alkan Balkaya, Founder & CEO, Mailsoftly