RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.
It might only be the first sentence in this blog, but it’s time for the cold, hard truth: most brand emails are shockingly bad.
It’s backwards. It’s outdated. And worst of all, it’s built on myths like:
“Add an emoji to your subject line, it’ll boost opens.”
“More emails = more sales.”
“Just copy what every other brand is doing.”
The result? B2C email marketing is broken, and consumer inboxes are stacked full of the same repetitive rubbish. People are tired.
In fact, in research that I ran in 2024, 94% of people said they expect “too many emails” when they buy or sign up to a brand. That’s not a perception problem; that’s reality.
And the kicker is that people don’t even unsubscribe.
Instead, they delete your emails, scroll past, or let their inbox rules filter you into oblivion.
Over time, they build up inbox fatigue, or what I call inbox numbness, which can be fatal to your email marketing strategy.
That means that even if you’re doing something decent, your emails are competing with hundreds of lookalike subject lines plastering “20% OFF! FREE SHIPPING!” everywhere.
In short, consumers have become desensitised… so how can you do B2C email marketing (and do it better)?
I’ll let you in on a little secret
Consumers don’t use their inbox the way marketers think that they do. It’s nothing like Instagram or TikTok. Nobody opens Gmail for a quick dopamine fix.
People go into their inbox for specific reasons, not mindless scrolling.
That could include:
It really is just that simple. Nobody is scrolling for the sake of it or for fun, which means that if your emails aren’t working in these micro-moments of intent, they aren’t working at all.
This is also why live text matters. If your entire email is one big image, people can’t search for it later because they’ll type something like “discount code” into Gmail and you won’t be anywhere to be found. Accessibility and searchability aren’t nice-to-haves, they’re fundamental.
I break down the ins and outs of human brain behaviour in my blog Neuromarketing & Email: What the Brain Actually Does in the Inbox.
Say it with me: email is not a direct sales tool.
Yes, you’ll get conversions. But email’s true role and strength is assistance: building awareness, nurturing, reminding, guiding.
Most of the time, people aren’t buying directly from the inbox – they’re influenced, nudged, reminded, then buying later. It might not sound as exciting but it’s the reality of buyer behaviour.
Putting all of your eggs in one basket by attributing every sale to one email is doing you a massive disservice. You should look at the whole picture and measure email’s role in the wider ecosystem.
If your current approach to B2C email is broken, and this blog has put the fear into you, don’t worry – there’s a way to fix it.
Here’s where to start.
There you have it! Most B2C emails are boring, repetitive, and disconnected from reality.
Consumers don’t:
Which means that if you can deliver on what they do want, you’re ahead of the curve and have a competitive advantage.
Here’s what they do want:
If you want to win in B2C now, you’ve got to do it differently and do it better. Not louder, not more often, and not with ‘hacks’ or quick wins… just better.
And if you want to stay up to date with the world of B2C emails and what works well (and doesn’t), you can subscribe to my newsletter, RE:markable, for weekly email marketing news, updates, insights and resources.
RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.