{"id":805,"date":"2025-06-04T21:10:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T21:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/?p=805"},"modified":"2025-06-09T11:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:46:45","slug":"what-youre-doing-wrong-in-your-marketing-emails-according-to-an-email-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/what-youre-doing-wrong-in-your-marketing-emails-according-to-an-email-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"What you&#8217;re doing wrong in your marketing emails [according to an email expert]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the hardest parts of our three-lesson format is deciding what NOT to include, and a lot of <em>really useful<\/em> advice is gathering dust in my Google Drive.<\/p>\n<p>This week, I\u2019ve got three lessons I just couldn\u2019t waste from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/attribution-is-garbage-says-this-email-expert.-plus-3-reasons-jays-a-loser\">the most-shared interview<\/a> <\/strong>in the history of Masters in Marketing. Email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson is back, and this time he\u2019s coming in hot with <strong>what you\u2019re (probably) doing wrong with your email marketing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And, in all honesty, I\u2019ve committed some of these sins with this very newsletter. (Oopsie!)<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"cta_button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/cs\/ci\/?pg=bcbe2652-03f9-49fe-b517-acedc47b6f27&amp;pid=53&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic=\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"hs-cta-img \" style=\"height: auto !important;width: auto !important;max-width: 100% !important;border-width: 0px;margin: 0 auto;margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px\" alt=\"Click Here to Subscribe to Masters in Marketing\" height=\"58\" width=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/53\/bcbe2652-03f9-49fe-b517-acedc47b6f27.png\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" width=\"560\" height=\"560\" alt=\"Jay Schwedelson\" style=\"height: auto;max-width: 100%;width: 560px\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/grivento.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/jay-schwedelson-mim.jpg\"><\/h2>\n<h2>Jay Schwedelson<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"font-weight: normal\"><em>Founder, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.subjectline.com\/\">SubjectLine.com<\/a>; Host, <a href=\"https:\/\/jayschwedelson.com\/podcast\/\">Try This, Not That! For Marketers Only!<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fun fact: <\/strong>Jay takes inspiration from his grandpa, who told him, &#8220;Stupider people than you have been able to do it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Claim to fame:<\/strong> Created one of the top 1% ranked websites in the world.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Lesson 1: Get the dang thing opened.<\/h2>\n<p>To kick things off, I asked Schwedelson what common email advice gives him the twitchy eye.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s always so much focus on what&#8217;s inside the email. What does the copy say? Is it compliant? Is it on brand?\u201d He playfully grumbles. \u201cBut on average, <strong>less than 50% of people are going to open your email.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fact, 50% is dreamy. The <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/sales\/average-email-open-rate-benchmark\">average marketing email open rate<\/a> across industries is closer to 42%. (Ours is a lil higher, but that\u2019s because our readers are so smart and cool and good-looking.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the first focus should really be: How do we get the email opened?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Which isn\u2019t to say you slack off on the <em>content<\/em> of your emails. If we suddenly pivoted to stories about dryer lint, our open rate would probably crash, right?<\/p>\n<p>Just make sure the elements with the biggest impact on open rate \u2014 details like your subject line, preheader, and send time \u2014 aren\u2019t just afterthoughts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>If you focus on getting the email opened with as much energy and intensity as you do on what&#8217;s in the email, it will radically change the outcome of your marketing performance.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 2: Throw out your banned words list.<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOne of the biggest myths is that what you write in your subject line is the reason you\u2019re landing in the junk folder. This is information from the year of the flood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s caught me on this one. When we ran a recent giveaway, I told the team we absolutely could not use the words \u201cprize,\u201d \u201cwinner,\u201d or \u201cyou\u2019ve won\u201d in our subject lines.<\/p>\n<p>Like me, you probably also fear the word \u201cfree\u201d and using exclamation marks. All caps? Neverrrrrr.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is not going to get you filtered. It used to, 10 years ago, but technology changed. So I want to liberate everybody. <strong>Write whatever you want to write to get the email opened.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, what <em>does <\/em>put you on the naughty or nice list?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all about engagement. <strong>The more you get people to click and interact with your emails, the greater the likelihood is that you will stay in the inbox.<\/strong> That&#8217;s what the receiving email infrastructures want to see: Hey, this recipient <em>likes <\/em>interacting with these emails.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And the irony is that the very tactics that people avoid \u2014 the word \u2018free,\u2019 an exclamation mark, an emoji \u2014 those exact tactics are gonna cause you to get <em>more <\/em>engagement and stay in the inbox.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 3: Don\u2019t worry about what \u201ceveryone else\u201d is doing.<\/h2>\n<p>I asked Schwedelson about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/schwedelson_wait-i-have-a-great-idea-lets-use-an-emoji-activity-7307382491823173632-lixG?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAMon9oBeEmnj7P3OtaRbKWBuKH-oG_vg3w\">a LinkedIn post<\/a> of his that made me chuckle. It\u2019s a screenshot of every brand using the same shamrock emoji on St. Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" width=\"506\" height=\"421\" alt=\"Screenshot of Jay Schwedelson&#039;s LinkedIn page showing an inbox full of subject lines bearing shamrocks\" style=\"height: auto;max-width: 100%;width: 506px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net\/hub\/53\/hubfs\/jay-schwedelson-shamrock.webp?width=506&amp;height=421&amp;name=jay-schwedelson-shamrock.webp\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;font-size: 12px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/schwedelson_wait-i-have-a-great-idea-lets-use-an-emoji-activity-7307382491823173632-lixG?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAMon9oBeEmnj7P3OtaRbKWBuKH-oG_vg3w\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The funny thing about marketers is that, sometimes, we&#8217;re too close to it,\u201d he smiles. \u201cSo, it\u2019s Mother&#8217;s Day, you know there&#8217;s going to be a lot of heart emojis in the subject line, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until we notice the trend. \u201cAnd then marketers will be like, well, I&#8217;m <em>not <\/em>gonna do that &#8217;cause everybody&#8217;s doing it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I asked him how to be on the right side of history. Do we follow the trend or do we reject it?<\/p>\n<p>He reminds me of something we shared in his first set of lessons: Test everything. Especially the things you don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If that shamrock emoji gives you a 20% lift in your open rate\u2026 do you care if 30 other brands used one, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So just because you, as a marketer, think everybody&#8217;s doing it doesn&#8217;t mean you shouldn&#8217;t do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What I hear is: Game on with the \ud83c\udf40\ud83c\udf40\ud83c\udf40.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Lingering Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>THIS WEEK&#8217;S QUESTION<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">What\u2019s one \u201cboring\u201d marketing channel or tactic that\u2019s working way better than expected for you right now, and why do you think that is? <\/span>\u2014 Katie Parkes, Director of social, community &amp; customer marketing, Apollo.io<\/p>\n<h3>THIS WEEK&#8217;S ANSWER<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Schwedelson says: <\/span>Weekend email sends!<\/p>\n<p>Email campaigns targeting director-level and above contacts are generating a 40% year-over-year increase in click-through rates.<\/p>\n<p>Not testing Sunday sends is leaving out a super valuable opportunity to engage with key people when they have the time to really dig into what you are sharing.<\/p>\n<h3>NEXT WEEK&#8217;S QUESTION<\/h3>\n<p>Schwedelson asks: <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">You [Ross Simmonds] always say &#8216;create once, distribute forever&#8217; &#8211; what&#8217;s one piece of content you&#8217;ve milked longer than anyone should reasonably admit? And why that one?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\"><a class=\"cta_button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/cs\/ci\/?pg=e1f0958d-1b15-418e-b4db-45ee531f71af&amp;pid=53&amp;ecid=&amp;hseid=&amp;hsic=\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"hs-cta-img \" style=\"height: auto !important;width: auto !important;max-width: 100% !important;border-width: 0px;margin: 0 auto;margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px\" alt=\"Click Here to Subscribe to Masters in Marketing\" height=\"613\" width=\"1920\" src=\"https:\/\/grivento.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/e1f0958d-1b15-418e-b4db-45ee531f71af.png\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" style=\"min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/track.hubspot.com\/__ptq.gif?a=53&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fwhat-youre-doing-wrong-in-your-marketing-emails-according-to-an-email-expert&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fmarketing&amp;bvt=rss\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the hardest parts of our three-lesson format is deciding what NOT to include, and a lot of really [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grivento.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}