Why email tricks don't work long term

Retention Isn’t Sexy - Until You’re Broke Brands chase growth. But when the faucet turns off and the market tightens, email becomes your backbone. So why do we treat it as a short-term fix rather than a long-term asset? I hear this conversation replayed to me all the time from CRM and Brand Managers: Their Manager: Targets are down. Budget’s gone. Just send more emails. CRM: We already sent one this week with a promo. Manager: Send another. Bigger discount. CRM: Unsubscribes were high last time… Manager: Send to everyone — even non-engagers. Add urgency. And so it begins. 📉 Deliverability drops. 📉 Clicks tank. 📉 Unsubscribes rise. 📉 The database - your only owned audience - starts eroding. But the revenue target stays the same. This is what happens when you treat email like a faucet you can turn on and off — instead of a system you build and respect. 💡 Want to break the cycle? Here’s how smart brands avoid the spiral: 1. Build an acquisition engine, even when times are good. Don’t just chase sales. Chase subscribers, on all channels, not just site pop-ups. If 2% of traffic buys, aim for 20% to subscribe. That’s your future revenue. 2. Agree on discounting guardrails. Not every campaign needs a percentage off, even if times are tough. Consider other conversion tools like: - loyalty perks - free gifts - tiered basket incentives - competitions - outlet-style categories 3. Treat non-converters as humans, not dead weight. Reduce frequency, but stay visible. Try to understand why they’re lapsing e.g gift buyers? Promo-only? Seasonal? 4. Use peak trading to re-acquire, not just sell. Black Friday can re-engage lapsed customers. But the follow-up can’t be more noise. Build a new journey. Reset the relationship. 5. Track long-term metrics. Not just revenue-per-send. Show your management week on week how these are growing: -LTV - Repeat purchase rate - AOV - Site visit frequency from consumers on your database 6. Invest in content, not just campaigns. Nurture a community. Give them reasons to stay subscribed. Boost engagement before you ask for a sale. Remember nobkdy going to buy daily and weekly, you need more to keep them engage. Think weekly style tips, news Roundup, podcast drops, games, polls etc Email can be your safety net — but only if you protect the list, grow it intentionally, and stop burning it out with knee-jerk sends. Want to find out our playbook for growing your subscriber base rapidly. (like how we grew out base to 17m). DM me. Build it right. Because when things get tough, it’s your email list that keeps the lights on.

The most common advice in email marketing over the years? "Send more emails." But here's the truth no one's talking about... Sending more is actually killing your long-term results. For years, ESPs and agencies have been pushing the "send more" strategy. Makes sense when you realize they get paid based on volume, right? More emails = more revenue for them. But here's what actually happens when everyone follows this advice: The ugly reality: 📉 Email clicks are collapsing: Average click rates dropped from 2.6% in 2020 to just 1.29% in 2025 📧 Deliverability crisis: Only 83% of emails reach inboxes (1 in 6 fail). High-volume senders saw a 22% DROP in deliverability from 2024 to 2025 📈 Volume explosion: We're sending 376+ billion emails daily (up from 333 billion in 2022) When ALL brands keep sending more, we create this vicious cycle:  → More noise in inboxes → Harder to cut through the clutter → ISPs get stricter with filtering → Your efficiency plummets The real answer? Send BETTER emails. Sounds simple, but do we actually know what "better" means? → What information do NEW prospects want to get? → What content would repeat buyers find genuinely useful? → How can you stand out when everyone's shouting louder? BETTER starts with better understanding your customers. The easiest way to hit a quarterly revenue target → send a deep discount promotion The best way to consistently smash quarterly targets → understand your customers. Quality over quantity isn't just a nice saying, it's a competitive advantage. What's your take? Are you seeing brands stuck in the "send more" trap?

So here's a weird thing about email marketing... I've been studying what actually works for 25 years, and almost everyone's doing it wrong. Here's why: We all learned how to write in school. You know the drill: • Proper grammar • Professional tone • Perfect punctuation • "Dear sir/madam..." And it's killing your results. Think about how YOU use email in real life: You write to friends. You share stories. You make jokes. You probably even trick your friends into clicking on totally inappropriate pictures. THAT'S how real humans use email. But the second we write "business" emails... We turn into robots: "Dear Valued Customer, I trust this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out regarding an exciting opportunity where I bore you to death as you read this very email ..." DELETE. Nobody reads that stuff. Here's what actually works: 1. Write Like You're At Happy Hour - Imagine you're telling a friend about something cool - Use normal words (not "marketing speak") - Keep it casual - Tell stories - Be real 2. Break Every Writing Rule - Start sentences with "And" or "But" - Use ... when you feel like it - Write short sentences - Add personality - Sound like a human 3. Stop Trying To Sound Important Instead of: "I'm pleased to announce our innovative solution..." Try: "Check this out..." Instead of: "As per our previous correspondence..." Try: "Like I mentioned..." Instead of: "We're offering a unique value proposition..." Try: "Here's the cool part..." 4. Use Natural Transitions Instead of: "Furthermore..." Try: "Oh, and get this..." Instead of: "In conclusion..." Try: "Bottom line..." Instead of: "Please be advised..." Try: "Quick heads up..." 5. The Most Important Rule If it sounds like "businessy" (totally a real word) ... Delete it and start over. Your prospects get hundreds of boring "professional" emails every day. They don't need another one. They need real conversations from real humans about real solutions to their problems. 😎 Want to see something cool? I did a live training recently where I showed how to take boring "professional" copy and turn it into EXCELLENT copy - in seconds. Used AI to do it too. This was all "without a net" ...so to speak. I just took people from the audience and made their stuff better. It's really simple to do (I show you exactly how in the class) and you can have it free if you want it. I put the recording up at https://oJoy.ai/221 You don't need to sign up for anything in order to see it. It's just a video on a page. P.S. Yes, I wrote this post exactly how I tell you to write emails. And you read the whole thing, didn't you? 😉

In marketing, there are two types of advice: Things that work. And things that work now. Big difference. Every few months there's some "works now" trick that becomes the talk of LinkedIn and X. And sure, some work – right now. Until everyone copies them. Until your audience sees them 42 times. Until the edge goes away and what was clever becomes annoying. Chasing tactics is exhausting. You're always running behind the next thing. By the time you implement it, it's already dying. I played that game too. Early on, I collected every tactic possible. Subject line tricks. Swipe files. "Proven templates." But with every year, one thing became clearer: Tactics came and went. The fundamentals stayed forever. So now I play a different game. I don't chase what works now. We do what works. Psychology. Human behavior. Direct-response principles. These are the fundamentals. Here's what I've learned after hundreds of A/B tests and helping clients generate over $40M in email revenue: People don't buy from brands. They buy from people they Trust. Most brands ignore this. They only send emails that look perfectly designed, polished, and safe. So safe that nobody feels anything. Which means nobody buys anything either. Because decisions are made with emotions and justified with logic. Not the other way around. That perfectly designed email with product images and a "Shop Now" button? It hits the logical part of the brain. But a personal email from someone you feel like you know? That hits the emotional part. The part that actually makes decisions. This is why we introduced what we call an Inbox Host – think radio host but in your inbox. Someone with a charismatic voice. Someone entertaining. Someone your subscribers look forward to hearing from because they tell stories and feel like a person, not Brand LLC. Subscribers don't consciously realize they're getting sold to. They buy because they Like and Trust the person talking to them. This works. Not "works now". Works. Has worked for decades. Will work forever because it's based on how humans are wired. We trust people easier than brands. We connect with personalities easier than logos. We buy from friends easier than strangers. The Inbox Host strategy leans into all of this. We develop a character for your brand. Give them a voice. A personality. Sometimes it's the founder. Sometimes it's a fictional character engineered to be liked. Either way, it's someone subscribers feel like they know. When you know someone, you Trust them. When you Trust them, you buy what they recommend. Designed emails perform fine. But Inbox Host emails print money. Because they reach the part of the brain where decisions happen. The part that cares about: "Do I like this person? Do I trust them?" If the answer is yes, the sale happens. To learn about the Inbox Host Strategy: https://lnkd.in/escJygAf

Every email you send either strengthens your relationship with your audience… or slowly erodes it. Most marketers obsess over short-term metrics while engagement quietly bleeds out. List fatigue and churn aren’t accidents. They’re the direct result of a poor email strategy. The real culprits? → Blasting irrelevant content (“Why am I getting this?”) → Sending at the wrong times → Getting frequency totally wrong... too much or too little → Treating every email like a sales pitch instead of building a relationship I once worked with a SaaS company that couldn’t figure out why their open rates and overall engagement rates were tanking. Their solution? Send more emails to “stay top of mind.” Spoiler: It only made things worse. The fundamental mistake? They were thinking about their needs, not their subscribers’ needs. How to fix it: ✅ Segment based on behavior and preferences ✅ Test send times for optimal engagement ✅ Find your Goldilocks frequency ✅ Deliver value first, sell second Your email list isn’t just a “marketing asset.” It’s a relationship with real people who gave you permission to enter their inbox. Respect that privilege. Because once trust is gone, no clever subject line or CTA will bring it back. 👉 Are you building a sustainable email strategy, or slowly killing your list?

DTC brands: You might be SABOTAGING your email revenue… (Without even realizing it.) You’re tweaking… Re-writing… Adjusting the design… (again)… Re-working the subject line for the 15th time… Because that one perfect email is going to crush, right? Except… it won’t. And all that “fine-tuning”? It’s not making you more money… it’s costing you sales. Here’s the truth: The brands CRUSHING it with email aren’t chasing perfection. They’re chasing DATA. But most brands out there? They’re stuck in an endless loop of: ✅ Overthinking every tiny detail. ✅ Delaying sends for "one last revision." ✅ Trying to make every email a masterpiece. The longer you sit on an email… the longer you’re NOT learning what works. Learning fast = scaling fast. 👉 Here’s why perfection is killing your email revenue: 1️⃣ Perfection = Paralysis You spend weeks on one email. By the time you send, the moment has passed. Meanwhile, another brand has tested (and optimized) five. 2️⃣ Emotion Over Data You’re attached to your email because you worked so hard on it. When it flops, you can’t let it go. You keep tweaking it instead of moving on and testing something new. 3️⃣ What Works Now Won’t Work Later Consumer behavior shifts. Trends change. Inbox algorithms evolve. The “perfect” email you obsess over today? Might not even work in a month. The Fix: Send More. Learn Faster. Make More. 1️⃣ Get emails out the door. ✔ 72-hour rule: If an email isn’t live in 3 days, you’re overthinking. ✔ Stop tweaking. Start testing. ✔ Data > opinions. 2️⃣ Use the 80/20 Rule. ✔ Emails should be 80% “good enough” when you send them. ✔ The last 20%? That’s what testing is for. ✔ Optimize based on real engagement. 3️⃣ Build a system, not a masterpiece. ✔ Every email = a learning opportunity. ✔ Track what actually moves the needle. ✔ Adjust fast, iterate faster. DTC brands, avoid the 'perfection mindset' for the remainder of 2025. You'll be on your way to more email revenue in no time.