Hey, it's Chase and Jimmy here.

Email performance rarely crashes overnight.

But it might be quietly underperforming because of a few bad habits that have slowly crept in over time.

List hygiene that's fallen behind. Mobile designs that don't actually work on mobile. Emails that try to do too much at once. Small things that individually seem fine – but together, they drag down deliverability, engagement, and conversions.

The good news? These are fixable. And fixing them doesn't require a complete overhaul.

Today we're breaking down the six most common email habits that silently kill performance – and what to do instead.

Also inside:
✔️ Come hang with Jimmy & Chase in Austin
✔️ If you manage more than one email program, read this
✔️ Quick clips: This week's top stories in eCom

Let’s dive in.

Come hang with Jimmy & Chase in Austin

Commerce Roundtable is two-steppin’ its way to Austin on April 20–21, and the agenda is stacked with the hottest topics in DTC. Over two days, you’ll hear from operators in 15+ keynotes and hands-on workshops designed to give you ideas you can actually take back and use.

Here’s what you can expect to dive into:

• Retention and subscription strategies that increase LTV
• Paid media learnings from teams actively scaling spend
• AI use cases improving efficiency and performance today
• Ops and finance insights for building durable, profitable brands
• Creative systems that help teams produce better ads, faster
• Agency vs. in-house frameworks and how to decide what actually works
• Personal development for leaders navigating growth and scale

If Austin’s on your radar, don’t wait. Commerce Roundtable has a history of selling out 🤫

→ Get your ticket today

Six email habits that drag down performance (and what to do instead)

Most email programs don’t fail because of one big mistake. They stall because of a handful of small, compounding issues that quietly drag performance down over time.

Deliverability slips. Engagement flattens. Conversion rates stall out. And suddenly email feels like it’s “not working like it used to.”

In almost every audit we run, the same problems show up again and again. The good news is they’re all fixable once you know where to look.

Here are six of the most common email pitfalls we see, plus how to clean them up without overhauling your entire program.

1. Letting list hygiene slide for too long

Email lists don’t stay healthy on their own. Over time, they naturally collect inactive subscribers, abandoned inboxes, and people who just aren’t paying attention anymore.

That hurts more than just open rates. It impacts deliverability, inbox placement, and how mailbox providers evaluate your sender reputation.

What to fix:

• Regularly suppress unengaged subscribers instead of emailing everyone forever

• Use engagement-based segments to prioritize active readers

• Keep duplicates and invalid addresses from piling up

How strong teams handle it:

• They sunset subscribers intentionally instead of nuking lists all at once

• They run short, purposeful re-engagement efforts before suppressing

• They track engagement windows like 30, 60, and 90 days to spot fatigue early

A smaller, healthier list almost always outperforms a bigger, disengaged one.

2. Treating personalization like a name token

Using someone’s first name isn’t personalization anymore. It’s table stakes, and on its own, it doesn’t move behavior.

What actually works is relevance. Emails perform better when they reflect what someone has done, what they care about, and where they are in their relationship with your brand.

What to fix:

• Stop sending the same message to everyone

• Move beyond “openers vs non-openers” as your only segmentation logic

Where to focus instead:

• Past purchases and categories browsed

• Engagement recency and frequency

• Lifecycle stage like first-time buyer, repeat buyer, or lapsed customer

Dynamic content, behavior-triggered sends, and thoughtful segmentation create emails that feel timely instead of generic.

3. Designing emails for desktop instead of thumbs

Mobile accounts for over half of email opens. If the experience feels cramped, slow, or hard to interact with, you lose them before the message even has a chance to land.

Mobile optimization isn’t just about making things “responsive.” It’s about removing friction at every step so reading and clicking feels effortless.

What usually causes issues:

• Dense layouts that don’t stack cleanly on small screens

• Text that’s too small or buttons that are hard to tap

• Heavy images that slow load times and kill momentum

What works better instead:

• Single-column layouts that guide the eye naturally

• Clear hierarchy so the main message stands out immediately

• Buttons sized and spaced for real human thumbs

If someone has to zoom, squint, or hunt for the next step, they’re far less likely to click. Clean mobile design quietly does a lot of conversion work behind the scenes.

4. Trying to say too much in one email

When an email tries to accomplish too much, it usually accomplishes very little.

Multiple offers, competing CTAs, long explanations, and secondary messages all create decision fatigue. Instead of choosing, readers skim and move on.

What tends to cause this:

• Treating every email like a newsletter and a promotion at the same time

• Including multiple “primary” CTAs that compete with each other

• Burying the point under too much context or copy

A more effective approach:

• Decide the single action that matters most before writing

• Lead with the value so readers immediately understand why the email exists

• Let every section support that one goal

When readers don’t have to think about what to do next, they’re far more likely to actually do it.

5. Leaving testing as an afterthought

If you’re not testing, you’re guessing. And guessing is one of the fastest ways to plateau.

The strongest email programs aren’t constantly reinventing themselves. They’re making small, intentional improvements based on what actually moves behavior.

What’s worth testing consistently:

• Subject line framing and expectations

• CTA language and placement

• Send timing based on how your audience behaves

What usually trips teams up:

• Testing too many variables at once

• Calling a winner before results are statistically meaningful

• Optimizing for opens instead of what happens after the click

Testing works best when it’s built into the creation process. Over time, those small insights compound into better performance across the board.

6. Viewing compliance as a checkbox instead of trust-building

Compliance isn’t just about avoiding penalties. It directly affects how inbox providers and subscribers perceive your brand.

When people feel trapped, misled, or overwhelmed, they don’t always unsubscribe. They mark emails as spam. That’s where real damage happens.

Common friction points:

• Unsubscribe links that are hard to find

• All-or-nothing opt-out experiences

• Vague expectations around frequency and content

What works better long term:

• Preference centers that give subscribers control

• Clear, human language around opting out

• Proper authentication and infrastructure that support deliverability

Respecting the inbox builds trust over time. And trust is one of the most underrated drivers of sustained email performance.

A better way to think about email performance

Email performance doesn’t usually fall apart all at once. It drifts.

A few ignored hygiene issues here. A little relevance lost there. Designs that slowly get harder to read. Goals that aren’t quite as clear as they used to be.

None of this requires new tools or a full rebuild to fix. It just takes slowing down enough to notice where friction has crept in and being intentional about removing it.

If results have felt stuck or inconsistent lately, this is where it’s worth looking first. Remember, small adjustments in the fundamentals tend to unlock a lot more than another big send ever will.

If you manage more than one email program, read this

If your day-to-day involves managing multiple emails, automations, or stores at once, Omnisend's February updates are for you. These changes focus on reducing second-guessing, speeding up reviews, and helping teams reuse what already works instead of rebuilding it.

• Fewer accidental edits: See where universal layouts are used before you change or delete them, so shared assets stay intentional.

• Faster automation reviews: Scroll full email previews directly inside the automation builder without jumping between tools.

• Easier multi-store scaling: Copy proven segments across stores in seconds (ideal for agencies and multi-brand teams).

• Less busywork in list growth: Duplicate AI-built forms, including teasers, to test faster without starting over.

• Clearer account management: Get upfront visibility into usage and upcoming billing, even with complex setups.

→ Explore the new updates

Quick Clips:

• AI Is Rewriting the Customer Journey: At NRF 2026, Jason Goldberg warned that AI isn’t just optimizing retail; it’s creating entirely new consumer behaviors. With tools like ChatGPT already acting as de facto shopping engines, discovery, decision-making, and even checkout are shifting off retailer-owned platforms.

• Supergoop Names Peloton Vet as CMO: Supergoop tapped former Peloton CMO Lauren Weinberg to lead marketing, product innovation, and partnerships as the brand enters its next growth phase.

• Retailers Rethink Tech Partners in the AI Era: As AI adoption accelerates, retailers are changing how they choose tech vendors; prioritizing speed, flexibility, and business impact over long RFP cycles. Leaders say the challenge isn’t access to AI tools, but knowing which ones actually move metrics like conversion, efficiency, and customer experience.

• Luxury Turns to Livestream Commerce to Win Gen Z: With luxury eCom stalling and Gen Z favoring relevance over status, livestream shopping is emerging as a new growth engine. Platforms like Covet by Christos blend storytelling, personalization, and real-time interaction, offering luxury brands a way to recreate high-touch experiences online without relying on discounts.

• ETi Gıda Acquires Trubar for $173M: Turkish snack giant ETi Gıda acquired US protein bar brand Trubar in an all-cash $173M deal, aiming to scale its clean-label snacking presence globally. Trubar will keep hold of brand autonomy while gaining access to ETi’s manufacturing and international distribution.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

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