7 most common mistakes
1. No welcome flow. Someone gives you their email (newsletter subscribe, first purchase) and you send them the next email only 2 weeks later with a newsletter. A welcome series of 4–6 emails in the first 14 days generates 25–30% of all email revenue.
2. No segmentation. You send the same email to a first-time buyer and a VIP customer with 10 purchases. 18% open rate and you're burning out your audience.
3. Abandoned cart without 3-step flow. One reminder after 1 hour isn't enough. Try 1h → 24h → 72h with increasing incremental offers (5% → 10%).
4. Subject line without A/B testing. Subject line is 80% of open rate. ALWAYS A/B test.
5. Newsletter once monthly. Frequency of 2× weekly gives the best ROI for e-commerce. Don't fear unsubscribes. People who unsubscribe wouldn't buy anyway.
6. No post-purchase flow. After first purchase send: thank you (day 0) → usage tip (day 3) → cross-sell (day 14) → repurchase reminder (day 45).
7. Poor deliverability. SPF, DKIM, DMARC set up incorrectly. 30% of emails end up in spam. Use mail-tester.com for audit.