6 Reasons Your Marketing Emails Aren't Converting | Entrepreneur

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I’ve generated over $18,000,000 for clients and my own offers. A big chunk of that amount was just by crafting simple, easy-to-read emails.

This confirms that email is not only not dead — it’s thriving more than ever. In fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, marketers get $36 back on average. That’s a staggering 3,600% ROI.

Sadly, most business owners and entrepreneurs either don’t send any emails at all or send very bad emails. This is due to six reasons, which I’ll cover in this article. Let’s dive in.

1. Your subject line sucks

The most crucial element of an email is the subject line. Why? Because if it doesn’t stop the reader and get them to open your email, you won’t make any sales.

Sadly, most marketers overlook this. They place zero importance on the subject line. That’s why their open rates and conversion are so low.

Ideally, a subject line tickles the fancy of the reader just enough so they’d click on the email and read it. You don’t want to reveal everything in the subject line, but you don’t want to make it too mysterious, either.

Here are a few subject lines I used that had crazy open rates:

Why you should (almost) NEVER charge by the hour
She was 15, and I took advantage of her
“In one year, I’ll be dead.”
Let me pay you $600

What do all these subject lines have in common? They’re loaded with curiosity. So, the reader has no choice but to click and discover what the fuss is all about.

As a general rule, the shorter the subject line, the better — ideally 3-5 words. Make sure to craft a preview text that complements the subject line, and you’ll boost your open rates and sales even further.

2. Your email doesn’t focus on one idea

Instead, it focuses on too many things. This confuses the reader. And a confused reader will never buy. In fact, they’ll probably unsubscribe from your email list.

The easiest way to fix this issue is to craft your emails with only ONE idea in mind. For example, if you’re promoting your newly released course, focus only on that. Don’t ask people to join your new Facebook group, follow you on social media or sign up for your podcast.

3. Your call to actions (CTAs) are weak or confusing

After the subject line and body copy, the next most important thing in an email is its call to action.

Just like the subject line, most marketers don’t give their CTAs enough attention. That’s why their audience doesn’t click on their links.

How can you fix this?

Make your CTAs the same as the subject line. For example, if your subject line is “Land top-tier clients in 10 days,” your CTA can also be the same. Or make your CTA something similar, like, “Secure top-tier clients in the next 10 days.”

You can have differently worded CTAs throughout the email, but they have to ask them to do the same thing. This means that if you’re promoting a coaching course, all your CTAs should invite the reader to click a link to take them to the course — not join a group or follow you on Instagram.

4. Your email copy doesn’t flow

When you focus on more than one idea and have different CTAs in your email, this can create a lot of confusion.

In marketing jargon, this means your copy doesn’t flow well. Copy that doesn’t flow well confuses the reader. And as you already know, a confused reader will never buy.

Thankfully, there’s an easy fix to make your email copy flow better. All you need to do is read your copy out loud. When you read it out loud, you can notice fancy words, weird phrases and clunky transitions from one thought to another.

And here’s an advanced copywriting tip — when writing your first, and even second, draft, don’t pay attention to grammar and punctuation. Focus all your efforts on making sure your copy and ideas flow.

5. Your emails are not landing in your prospects’ inboxes

Instead, they’re going into their spam or promotion folders. This is especially true for ecommerce companies. They often use image-heavy emails. In 2025, Gmail, Yahoo and other email providers make it harder for image-heavy emails to land in the inbox.

So, if you send an email with more than one image inside — this includes any sort of graphics, even logos — there’s a high chance it won’t end up in your audience’s inbox.

Fortunately, the solution is easy. Remove all images in an email, and they will likely hit their inbox.

NOTE: Email deliverability is more complicated than just removing or decreasing the number of images in an email. But this is a good first step.

Now, even if your image-heavy emails do land in your readers’ inboxes, solely relying on pictures and not on your copy won’t increase sales. So, make sure to spend enough time on the message.

6. Your copy uses long, fancy or complicated sentences

The general rule of copywriting, and email copywriting in particular, is to use short and snappy sentences.

Here’s an example:

“People tend to overcomplicate their copy with long-winded sentences, chock-full of fancy words and weird phrases, which is a big no-no when writing email copy.”

That’s a long-winded sentence. It can be broken down into several short and snappy ones:

“People tend to overcomplicate their copy. They use long-winded sentences. Fancy words. And weird phrases. That’s a big no-no when writing email copy.”

Of course, a longer sentence (15-20 words) is fine once in a while. But the shorter your sentences, the clearer your message will be. And the clearer your message, the higher your conversions.

Now that you know the six reasons why your marketing emails aren’t converting and how to fix each of them, you’re ready to sit down and write persuasive sales copy.

Just remember to be as clear and simple as possible, and you’ll see your conversions going up.

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