Welcome to Marketing By One, the weekly newsletter for time-starved, budget-conscious solo entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers.

This week, I answer a question that I hear a lot: Will too many emails lead to too many unsubscribes? And I issue a delightful challenge for this week.

— Ann Gynn

Just like last year, my inbox exploded this past week with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday promotions. In my business, though, I’m cautious about sending too many emails — unsubscribes feel like a personal rejection, and I don’t want to annoy people. What do you think?

I get it. For years, every time I sent an email — for my business or a client — I worried I was bothering someone enough that they’d hit unsubscribe. After all, a subscriber entrusted you with their email address. In return, they expect something of value: helpful or entertaining content, product offerings, discounts, or something similar. 

But here's what shifted my thinking:  If someone is so bothered by hearing from your business that they immediately unsubscribe, they probably weren’t all that interested in what you sell. Losing them isn’t a failure; it’s clarity.

That realization changed how I feel every time I hit “send.” Now I think, ‘If I’m going to show up in someone’s inbox, it needs to be worth their time.’”

That starts with understanding what they signed up for and how to stay consistent with their expectations, and it continues with a few do’s and don’ts inspired by just a tiny sliver of what landed in my inbox during BFCM and GT this year:

Lands’ End changed its sender name to “Lands’ End Cyber Monday.” The brand is so well-known that it works for them. But most of us aren’t managing a household name. While audiences expect subject lines to change, they don’t expect the sender to. A consistent sender name builds familiarity and trust.

Take a lesson from World Market. Use one or two emojis in your subject lines and see if they improve open rates. If they help, great. If not, stop using them. They should add clarity or personality, not clutter.

Or learn from Bookshop.org and zag when everybody else zigs. Use a subject line that emphasizes the substance, like “The Best Books of the Year,” rather than the promotion.

Redbubble and The League of Women Voters pressured subscribers with time using phrases like “flash sale” and “match ends soon.” Urgency can motivate action, but don’t overuse it. If everything is a last-minute plea, your subscribers will go numb to the technique.

Adidas didn’t email me once between January and September this year. Papier didn’t show up at all in 2025 until Thanksgiving week. Unless you sell a commodity that people buy only occasionally, cultivate an ongoing relationship with your subscribers.

Ongoing subscribers are likely to become repeat buyers and repeat buyers are the crux of a growing business.

This year, Klaviyo reports that during this year’s BFCM, same-site sales rose 11% year over year, with repeat buyers driving much of the lift. Revenue from repeat customers grew 13.5% — outpacing revenue from new buyers. They responded not to blanket discounts but to loyalty tactics like early access, exclusive drops, VIP perks, and personalized offers.

“This BFCM proved that when brands treat consumers like people, not transactions, they respond,” said Andrew Bialecki, co-founder and CEO of Klaviyo.

In your personal life, you likely don’t have a way to measure how great your relationships are. In email marketing, you do: open and click-through rates. 

In 2025, the average email open rate across industries is 42.35%, according to HubSpot.

So, what’s a good email open rate? HubSpot breaks it down:

Helpful Resource: HubSpot’s Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry covers retail, B2B services, nonprofit, SaaS, and hospitality and travel.

The next time you hit that “send” button, remember the real risk in email marketing isn’t sending too many messages — it’s showing up so rarely that your audience forgets why they signed up in the first place. 

The results from the crowded inboxes of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday make it clear: People will always ignore emails that don’t speak to them, but they’ll welcome the ones that consistently offer value. So show up with relevant emails that have a clear purpose, and the subscribers who matter to your business will stick around.

This week: Send an extra “delight email” that adds something unexpected

Face your fear and send one extra email to your usual rotation this week — not promotional, not behind-the-scenes, just something unexpectedly delightful for your subscribers.

Think small and simple:

The purpose is to pleasantly interrupt their week with value they didn’t see coming. A well-timed surprise strengthens familiarity, deepens trust, and reminds your subscribers that opening your emails is always worth it.

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