Email is still one of the primary ways businesses communicate with customers and turn them into buyers. Many companies still end up harming their outcomes because of mistakes they make. Learning about the Email Marketing Customer Journey is the first thing you should do to resolve the issues.
This article will share what common errors marketers make and how to prevent them for better results in email marketing.
What Is the Email Marketing Customer Journey?

We should first see what is included in the email marketing customer journey before pointing out the mistakes. The experience details what a customer goes through from learning about your company to staying loyal. Some of its steps are called awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy.
Making an email marketing journey map allows you to ensure your messages reach each person at the right stage. It makes it easier to give users helpful information based on the step they are on in their customer journey.
10 Common Email Marketing Customer Journey Mistakes You Should Avoid
Mistake 1: Ignoring the Customer Journey Map

A major error at the start is not taking time for the email marketing journey map. Quite a few marketers use the same email to reach every person on their list. Customers are all in different parts of the journey.
Create a detailed flowchart covering every movement a customer would have in your sales process. Ask yourself:
- Is the subscriber one we are adding for the first time?
- Is the audience looking at any of the products?
- Did the user go through the buying process?
- Is it probable that the customers will buy the product again?
Following these stages when making your plan allows you to send more effective and targeted emails.
Mistake 2: Sending Too Many Emails
Emails that come to their inbox every day may annoy them and result in them removing themselves from your newsletter list. When your subscribers feel they get too many emails, they might quit checking your messages.
Avoid this by always respecting how much they have on their plate. Keep to a schedule where you have regular breaks. Give readers an option to decide how regularly they want to get emails from you. Send out emails to customers based on automation so they get them only at the right time.
Mistake 3: Not Personalizing Content
Most people find it simple to ignore generic emails. When you send a generic email to every person on your list, you miss the opportunity to talk to them personally.
With the use of customer name, region, past payments or how they browse, produce content tailored for each person. For example:
- Greet the user according to how they have signed in
- Base product recommendations on things customers have bought in the past
- Contact people only with ads that are interesting to them
An email marketing journey that is personalized for each customer leads to more open emails, higher engagement and more conversions.
Mistake 4: Failing to Segment Your Audience
A different big problem is not dividing your audience categories. Treating everyone alike might cause the content to miss the mark for your viewers.
On the contrary, build your audience segments by looking at:
- Age or where a plant is growing
- People’s choices or what they like to buy
- Fourth step in using email marketing
- Users’ interactions with emails (such as opening and clicking)
With this, you can share information that is important to people in each audience. Segmenting your list helps your emails do better.
Mistake 5: Poor Onboarding Experience
When a person gets on your mailing list, the customer journey starts right then. A poorly organized welcome series might make new members lose motivation.
Construct a well-structured onboarding path in your email marketing customer journey workflow. In this frames:
- Give a friendly welcome to everyone who starts following your channel
- Make it clear what benefits they are entitled to
- Stress why customers care about your brand
- Link to sections that can offer guidance and offers to improve customer experience
Set up your first contact with a customer so they feel they can trust you and don’t want to leave.
Mistake 6: Not Tracking and Testing
What you don’t measure you cannot improve. Lots of marketers do not take into account how successful their email campaigns are before sending them.
Pay attention to different measures, for example:
- Open rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Unsubscribe rate
In addition, try changes in subject lines, the look of your emails and when they are sent. These tests make your email marketing better and more effective as you use them.
Mistake 7: Ignoring Mobile Optimization
About 50% of all emails are opened on phones or tablets. Missing out on email engagement could happen if your communications are tough to see on mobile devices.
In order to address this:
- Make the website adjust for different screen sizes
- Make your text quick and simple for visitors to get through
- Ensure buttons are big and simple to click
- Do not include images that take a lot of time to open
When you make emails mobile-compatible, users will have a better experience and your results will rise.
Mistake 8: Not Aligning Emails with Business Goals
Be sure every email you send is made to accomplish one specific goal—lead generation, higher sales or making your brand better known.
Marketers in many cases write emails without considering their larger purpose. To stay away from this, start by asking yourself:
- What is the main reason for sending this email?
- What result do I hope the reader gets from reading?
- Is the email something the customer is ready for given their present stage?
Relate your emails to the actions you want to achieve and the route you’re taking in your email marketing plan.
Mistake 9: Overlooking Automation Opportunities
It takes longer to send emails manually which also increases the risk of mistakes. Emails sent through a workflow without using automation aren’t always sent at the best times.
Get your team to automate the following processes as much as possible:
- Welcome emails
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Post-purchase follow-ups
- Re-engagement campaigns
Advanced systems help give the right information to customers at exactly the ideal time.
Mistake 10: Not Respecting Privacy Laws
Failure to follow privacy rules like GDPR or CAN-SPAM can hurt your company’s image and result in legal problems.
To keep following the laws:
- Always collect permission to send emails.
- Put a clearly marked unsubscribe link in your messages.
- Always give an accurate description of the subject in the email title.
- Do not allow your subscriber list to be exposed.
A right email marketing customer journey prevents your business from taking unnecessary chances.
See our guide on How to Write a Follow Up Email for greater detail on what to include in your follow-up email.
Final Thoughts
Driving leads to become loyal customers relies a lot on the email marketing customer journey. To make your marketing with email more successful, involve and go with your plans, you should avoid the above errors.
Find out what the email marketing customer journey involves, create an effective email marketing customer journey map and set up an automated process for it. Your subscribers will feel special which helps your business get great results.
Be sure to keep in mind: in email marketing, it’s quality that counts—not quantity.
FAQs
What is the customer journey in email marketing?
It covers the steps a person goes through from subscribing to becoming a regular customer by means of targeting emails.
What are the 5 stages of the customer journey?
The stages are Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention and Advocacy.
What are the 7 steps to map the customer journey?
Set your business goals, make detailed customer profiles, label touch- or contact-points, map out the stages of the customer journey, gather data, spot where you could do better and adjust the journey to improve.
What are the 5 steps of email marketing?
Make a list, group your contacts, make useful content, set up automatic marketing and look at the results.ss. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!